The Skeptical Optimist has it mostly right, but where he’s right, it’s not precisely in the way you might think.
…not everyone at the top earned their way to that position. For example, a few are the well-positioned rentiers leveraging their strategic position at a bottleneck in the financial system. As economist Tyler Cowen points out, “The high incomes in finance should give us all pause.” Why? Because much of it was not earned; it was instead obtained by gaming the system, by staying a step ahead of the statutes, by keeping profits privatized and risks socialized, and by monetizing moral hazards.
…A proper class war would require Democrats and Republicans to admit that the distinguishing characteristic of the enemy is not the level of income or wealth; rather, it is whether that income or wealth was earned.
You will definitely want to read the whole thing.