The Gap Between the Haves and Have-Nots Will Always Grow

Inequality Is the Shadow of Progress

The wealth gap between the rich and poor has been a defining feature of human civilization, and despite various efforts to reduce inequality, it continues to widen. This is not a temporary or reversible trend—it is an inevitable outcome of fundamental aspects of human nature and economic reality. The gap between the wealthy and the poor is not just a product of flawed policies or bad actors—it is an intrinsic feature of progress itself.

Three core forces drive this:

1. Global wealth will always increase as a function of human ambition and ingenuity, naturally expanding the range of economic outcomes. The “haves” will always have more to have.

2. A portion of the population will always have nothing, not due to systemic barriers or oppression or bad policy but because human nature ensures that some will drive themselves to ruin. The “have nots” will always have not.

3. Redistribution can never fully neutralise these forces, as human nature is such that we require incentive to produce or create more while simultaneously seek any opportunity to free ride.

The Inevitable Growth of Wealth Inevitably Expands the Gap

Throughout history, global wealth has grown and grown ever more rapidly. Whether through agriculture, industry, or technology, natural human ambition has driven progress building on progress, increasing the total wealth available. And as wealth expands, so does the range of possible outcomes. This is not because the wealthy are necessarily taking from others, but because wealth itself is an ever-growing mountain. A growing mountain’s peak lifts higher and so too does economic growth stretch the distance between the richest and poorest.

Have-Nots Will Always Exist

At the other end of the spectrum, there will always be those who struggle, not just because of external circumstances that could possibly be mitigated but because of internal ones that cannot. Human nature ensures that some individuals will make decisions that work against their economic wellbeing. Some will be too reckless, others too feckless. Some will reject all risk and so reap no reward. Even if the average standard of living rises, the gap between those at the bottom and those at the top will grow. The base of the mountain remains fixed.

Redistribution Can Slow the Gap but Never Erase It

Redistribution efforts—whether through taxation, welfare, or other social programs—can mitigate the worst extremes of poverty, but they cannot eliminate inequality or even reverse its inherent growth. This is because human nature places limits on how much wealth can be forcibly shifted without damaging the very system that creates it.

People need incentives to work. If the most productive individuals see their rewards excessively diminished, they will work less, invest less, and create less wealth overall. And free riding is inevitable. If resources are distributed too freely, a portion of the population will take advantage, contributing little while benefiting from the work of others. Even the most collective-minded of humans will seek to free-ride on the backs of those they see as outside their collective and there are always many more on the outside than the inside. We’re an animal designed for life in packs, not an amorphous collective of the entire species.

Furthermore, the structure of power itself reinforces inequality. Even in societies that attempt radical redistribution, new hierarchies emerge, ensuring that some always rise higher than others. Any form of government powerful enough to reverse inherent inequality is too powerful to be in human hands – whether inevitably fallible or inevitably malevolent as the anti-human nature of such governments gives birth to anti-human leaders.

In the 20th century, the Soviet Union attempted radical wealth redistribution through a centralized, state-controlled economy. Despite these efforts, a new class of elites emerged, comprised of party officials and bureaucrats who wielded significant power and privilege. The intended egalitarian society gave way to a system where access to resources and opportunities was determined by one's position within the party hierarchy, illustrating how even with the goal of eliminating economic disparity, structures of power can perpetuate inequality.

See also China, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Romania, Hungary, and Yugoslavia, among others, in case you were thinking that might be a one-off. Each of these nations, despite pursuing policies of wealth redistribution and aiming for classless societies, saw the emergence of new power hierarchies and reconfigured systems of inequality.

While redistribution can soften the harshest edges of inequality, it can never fully close the gap. The forces that create wealth disparities are stronger than those that attempt to neutralize them. The forces that create wealth disparities are rooted in our deep, unchanging human nature.

Inequality Is the Shadow of Progress

The growing wealth gap is not an anomaly—it is an unavoidable outcome of economic expansion and human behaviour. As the mountain of wealth grows, its peak will always rise higher, and its base must remain firm against the main.

Efforts to reduce suffering and improve opportunities are valuable, but the idea that we can permanently equalize wealth is an illusion. Inequality is not a flaw in the system—it is the price of progress itself.