The empathy gap is just one way in which the distribution and flow of capital organizes social relations.<p>My position is that it isn&#x27;t even the wealth gap that is the issue. The wealth gap is itself just one way in which the distribution and flow of capital organizes social relations. I think it is short-sighted to focus on particular rich people and their exorbitant wealth even though it is a grotesque experience: gawking at the rich has a visceral appeal like watching a horror movie or reading a Kafka novel.<p>Nobody talks about the &#x27;wealth gap&#x27; between governments and people. Nobody talks about the &#x27;wealth gap&#x27; between banks and people. They talk about the relationships i mentioned, they just don&#x27;t frame it as a &#x27;wealth gap&#x27;. Nobody talks about the &#x27;wealth gap&#x27; when the police harass homeless people. Ultimately though, the relation between government and people and financial institutions and people and police&#x2F;army and people is as much a consequence of the dynamics of capital as rich people being inconsiderate assholes.<p>And of course it&#x27;s a self-referential non-linear system. Governments and financial institutions and individual capitalists and armies shape the rules and command the forces that make capital a thing. Even so, governments, banks, capitalists, and armies may each in turn fall as the wheel of fortune turns, but Government, Bank, Capitalist, Army in the abstract are part and parcel of capitalism.