I'm purely comparing Australia and the US. As a personal preference if we were given a choice to achieve an average material standard of living equivalent to th

I'm purely comparing Australia and the US. As a personal preference if we were given a choice to achieve an average material standard of living equivalent to the US, but the price was its measurably less egalitarian wealth and power distribution I wouldn't take it, even though I'd likely personally financially benefit from it. And yes it's an ideological position, but I don't see why that's a bad thing. If there were persuasive evidence that less equal economies/societies were better functioning and provided more fulfilling life experiences for the population as a whole I'd abandon it. As it is, statistically the US seems to be somewhat of an outlier in having both a very high GDP per capita and a relatively high GINI coefficient, so there's little reason to suspect Australia would benefit at all from higher inequality.