Some get a lot poorer, while some of the poor get a lot richer. Share your thoughts in an online discussion with other Interactive Journal readers. Moreover, it's clear that the effect of wealth has changed. Throughout the ages, the incredibly affluent have been both envied and reviled, on occasion with good reason because their riches were built with devastating effects on the poor. But while the wealthy sometimes still take advantage of the weak, the benefits of wealth in recent centuries increasingly have spread beyond the wealthy.
Some people imagine an ideal society is one in which there is no hierarchy of wealth.
But a very good argument can be made that hierarchies of wealth are not in themselves bad. If the rich have always been with us, the fundamental nature of wealth accumulation, and wealth distribution, has changed over the centuries, helping to transform the world economically. The richest people were rulers who either controlled and exploited natural resources on their own soil or conquered their neighbors to get what they wanted. Many of the powerful found ransom was especially lucrative. When France's King Louis IX was captured in Egypt in 1250 during the Crusades, the Mamluk dynasty enriched itself by exacting 240 tons of silver for his release.