[tpxl]

> this in particular is an emergent phenomena that only happens with large-scale civilizations

Is it? If you have N participants in a market and a bunch of investment opportunities that are on average net negative, the person with the most money will take the most opportunities resulting in their relative worth increasing the most. The endgame for this is one person with all the money. Works for N=2 and N≃infinity.

It doesn't happen in (some? most?) small communities because of specific things that aren't present in big communities.