The wealth gap expanded greatly during the Industrial Revolution from approx. 1850-1900. It was also the period of the greatest increase in wealth of average Americans in history.
Some people aka the usual suspects really believe that people's wealth should grow at equal rates. That never happens.
Today we have super, super rich people, but the standard of living of the average American is better than 90% of the very well off of just sixty years ago.
But the usual suspects can't stand it that capitalism has raised more than half the world's population out of dire poverty in the last fifty years. For them the glass is always half empty.
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