I now think of these economic shocks as opportunities for profit taking, like a game of musical chairs. Sell off before the rubes notice, then buy it all back up at bargain prices.

Previously, Kevin Phillips' book Wealth & Democracy in America is a more academic, pedantic telling of the same story.

https://www.amazon.com/Wealth-Democracy-Fortunes-Government-...

This is actually correct.

Wealth and Democracy: How Great Fortunes and Government Created America's Aristocracy by Kevin Phillips

https://www.amazon.com/Wealth-Democracy-Fortunes-Government-...

Similarly, the USA previously decided three times to explicitly create its middle class. The New Deal, the Homestead Act, etc. Policy choices which were hard fought and narrowly won.

"Isn't it possible that the reason their middle-class is so large is due in some part on political decisions they've made?"

The USA previously decided three times to explicitly create its middle class. The New Deal, the Homestead Act, etc. Policy choices which were hard fought and narrowly won.

Wealth and Democracy: How Great Fortunes and Government Created America's Aristocracy by Kevin Phillips

https://www.amazon.com/Wealth-Democracy-Fortunes-Government-...

Without active redistribution, accelerating inequity is inevitable.

That the rich get richer is just math. Not a value statement.

Plan accordingly.