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Actually, it does make sense. While the ability of the super-rich to affect society is enhanced by their wealth, their ability, and need to do so, are reduced by their small numbers. They do not form the kind of large, broadly homogeneous social group that drives long-term changes in society. The sheer scale of their exceptional wealth also lets them make special, individual arrangements that preclude the need to act en-masse.

The 1% on the other hand, are rich enough to enjoy outsized political influence, but poor enough to retain some economic anxiety, and be genuinely affected by changes to taxation, inheritance, redistribution, etc. And they are numerous enough to form a corporate whole that acts to protect its own interests.

The 1% are the middle managers of the world's socioeconomic hierarchy. They don't possess great power individually, but their collective power to shape the culture is vast, and has a tendency towards toxic outcomes as they attempt to safeguard what wealth they have managed to accumulate.



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