[sz4kerto]

This would all be true if we could easily identify who's creating wealth. Hint: it does not completely equal with individuals who receive the money in the end. Over the couple of thousand years societies realized this, that's why the societies try to smoothen things out a little. It is nice to think that we, technologists in our 20s, 30s have figured it all out because we read Atlas Shrugged once, but reality is slightly more complex. :) (Disclaimer: I consider myself a libertarian, but I am already too old to think that a few simple rules could save the world.)

[Tycho]

But it seems totally uncontroversial and obvious to me that some people will generate vastly more wealth than others. Like think back to your class in high school. Some people were intelligent and industrious and went on to have creative jobs. Some people did just enough to get passing grades and went on to have repetitive, non-creative jobs. Extrapolate this differential in productivity over their entire working lives, what would you expect to happen? You cannot easily identify who created any given piece of wealth, but you can conduct thought experiments like the above that tell you something about the wealth generating process. Of course, the nice thing is, all of society gets the benefit of improved technology and scientific knowledge, regardless of how much they contributed in that direction.