You say modern societies, but historically this used to be vastly, vastly worse. Serfdom used to be a thing (still is in some parts), slavery too, to give only

You say modern societies, but historically this used to be vastly, vastly worse. Serfdom used to be a thing (still is in some parts), slavery too, to give only the most obvious examples. These were staunchly defended by special interests who put a large fraction of their country's resources into maintaining the state of affairs.