[tomp]

Is the degree of inequality really the issue though? Personally, I like that there are people like Jeff Bezos who can personally fund a space company.

The real problems, for me, are the power imbalances (lobbying, corruption, tax evation by rich people), and rent seeking (e.g. owning real estate or entrenched businesses).

[groby_b]

Power imbalance is directly created by the insanely rich. Bezos bought an entire newspaper. Sheldon Adelson buys his politicians more directly, but same difference.

And rent seeking is what enables the imbalance. Without rent-seeking, it'd be much harder for the gap to widen (because rent seeking captures wealth creation for the benefit of the rent seeker)

And of course, the two feed into each other - power imbalance allows for lobbying, creating opportunities to obtain rent. Which, in turn, widens the power imbalance.

Maybe you could theoretically fix those two without addressing inequality. I don't know. I suspect it wouldn't work - if you truly fixed power imbalances and rent seeking, I'd wager you'd address wealth disparity too.

I'd see all of them as tangled in the big hairy cluster that is laissez-faire capitalism.