&gt; [the Economist] can&#x27;t outright say that the rich are hurting the economy by hurting the poor,...<p>I don&#x27;t think that&#x27;s what the Economist wanted to say in the first place. Rather, it&#x27;s more a conflict between the capitalist&#x2F;industrialist rich vs the landowner&#x2F;aristocratic rich. The poor just find themselves ducking in the middle of cross fire.<p>According to this world view the landowning rich do not produce any Value Added, they just arbitrage the [arguably artificial] scarcity of real state to bleed the capitalist rich both directly (office space) and indirectly (since employees must demand higher salaries for the same work done just to be able to put a roof over their heads).