Capitalism has nothing to do with it.

What most people fail to understand is that inequality is a constant. There will always be inequality of some kind.

Historically, all major civilizations have reset inequality in either one of two ways.

1) forced wealth redistribution (war)

2) voluntary wealth redistribution (taxation, public education, free healthcare, food, etc).

I recommend reading Will & Ariel Durant, Thomas Sowell & Jared Diamond though there are other authors who have wrote on the subjects of inequality.

- https://www.amazon.com/Lessons-History-Will-Durant/dp/143914...

- https://www.amazon.com/Wealth-Poverty-Politics-Thomas-Sowell...

- https://www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/about/jared.html

Will Durant puts this very succinctly in "Lessons of History" [1]:

"History reports that the men who can manage men manage the men who can manage only things, and the men who can manage money manage all."

In my experience, a management role has typically come with 10-20% more compensation versus a comparable individual contributor role, but 100% more responsibility and accountability. I wouldn't worry too much about parity between the two tracks, focus on what you truly enjoy doing. Besides, the money guys can fire us all ;-)

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Lessons-History-Will-Durant/dp/143914...

if people are interested in lessons of history

i would suggest the book “lessons of History” by will and ariel durant. two historians who—after a lifetime of studying history—wrote a book trying to synthesize any lessons from their studies.

small portions of the narration are a bit dated as it was written during the middle of the cold war, but almost all of it is valid today as you might expect.

https://www.amazon.com/Lessons-History-Will-Durant/dp/143914...