I'm pondering at what point the stratification of wealth becomes intolerably grotesque.
One person has two homes - he + family live in his house in the town on workdays, and spend weekends and holidays in the country house. This is an example of the thin end of the wedge.
One person has 500 homes. He + family live in three, at different times of the year, he rents out 470, and 29 sit vacant. Thousands of miles from where he lives, in different countries, on different continents. They've been vacant for 15 years and he's never even visited them. This is more the thick end of the wedge. How offended would you be if someone squatted in one of these houses?
You can apply this across the economy.
Thin end of the wedge: Someone opens a small cobblers and works 50 hours a week, doing some 'front line' work and all of the managing. He employs two people, whom he took on as apprentices and trained up. He pays them less than their labour is worth and keeps all the profit.
Thick end of the wedge: Someone hires financial experts to buy and sell shares for him. The companies are in different continents. He knows nothing about the companies or the work they do. He knows nothing about dealing shares. 100,000 people have part of their pay for every hour they work sent to this person. He does no work, has never done any work, would be incapable of the work, and is paid millions a year. They do the most and hardest work and get paid a poverty wage.
