I can't speak to the part about wealth coming from the toiling of poor people, but I can say that I find the immense advantages derived from capital over labor to be unfair.
Basically, I can sit at my desk, and in one action, move some numbers from a cash account into an equity security. In doing so, in one day, I can increase my wealth by an amount that it would take a full-time minimum-wage worker a little over 2 weeks to earn. It's one data point, but it definitely challenges the notion of what's fair.
To extend this further, with technology, the inequities of capital over labor will only increase with time because of how technology scales and amplifies an individual laborer's output. The people who will be left behind will be people working in industries that cannot or will not scale.
Is the solution then to make sure that everyone is capable of joining the information/automation economy through education? Do we decide that a universal basic income is the best approach to take? I honestly don't know.
Basically, I can sit at my desk, and in one action, move some numbers from a cash account into an equity security. In doing so, in one day, I can increase my wealth by an amount that it would take a full-time minimum-wage worker a little over 2 weeks to earn. It's one data point, but it definitely challenges the notion of what's fair.
To extend this further, with technology, the inequities of capital over labor will only increase with time because of how technology scales and amplifies an individual laborer's output. The people who will be left behind will be people working in industries that cannot or will not scale.
Is the solution then to make sure that everyone is capable of joining the information/automation economy through education? Do we decide that a universal basic income is the best approach to take? I honestly don't know.