The west is like this today (apart from the countries that built themselves up on colonial empires of theft) in part also to a lot of violent and sometimes deadly revolts against the ruling class.
US, UK, France, Italy, Germany, etc. all saw bloody strikes and protests, in order to get fair living conditions. Noting was ever given out of pure generosity, without a fight.
That's...barely a thing at all.
> US, UK, France, Italy, etc.
If those are your examples, you really don't need the “apart from...”
The wealth inequality was absolutely insane. It's not like thanks to colonialism, everyone living in the UK victorian era could afford to prop their feet up, live off free stuff taken from the colonies, and never have to work a day in their lives. Quite the contrary, they were working long hours living in poor conditions.
The working class only saw lifestyle improvements when they fought back for them.
During the industrial revolution life expectancy in UK was among the lowest in the world for the poorest industrial workers. Inequality was incredibly high.
Painting people in a country as being all benefiting (or being harmed) from an external factor is very misleading
> Historically, that's when a revolution or regime-change happens. This is something the richest of the rich have either forgotten or mistakenly think they'll be insulated from.
Revolutions aren't always successful. If the rich control the state by corrupting democratic institutions and remove from the peasantry the tools to pursue "politics with other means," they might actually get away with a transition to something like feudalism.
There have been many periods of high inequality and stagnation in history broken up by war. Since war is not a preferable catalyst in this day and age, we have to opt for organized labor.
Excuse me, but where have you been in the past 3 months?
Like the line from Titanic when the extravagantly wealthy Calvert is trying to buy himself onto a lifeboat – "Your money can't save you any more than it can save me."