There is much written about wealth inequality in America. I thought I knew what the numbers were. Here are some stunning facts that illustrate the reality most of us don’t have insight into. Give me words and I might hear you, show me a picture and I understand.
Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded— here and there, now and then— are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty. This is known as bad luck.
Heinlein, Robert A., The Notebooks of Lazarus Long