When we grow indignant over vast class differences and the related disparities in life chances, we should see them in context. Yes, the rich live longer on average, enjoy better health, and are more satisfied with their lives; they have more beautiful wives, and so on. The difference is statistically significant, but it is not a difference of cosmic proportions. The combination of biology and modern society creates a natural barrier against excessively large class divisions. Even if we are wildly unequal in wealth and income, other differences are surprisingly small.
Each of us may have different preferences, but in the end we all want the same thing. We want to live a long and happy life, however we happen to seek that happiness. And if we could choose, we would prefer a shorter and happy life to a long one filled with suffering.
Do money and wealth give the rich an advantage in this? Unequivocally yes, but it is not an infinitely large advantage. They have better medical care, they can avoid living in unhealthy environments, and on average they live longer. But it is not a life twice as long. They too are vulnerable, just as we are, and subject to chance. As you can see from my own example, an essentially insignificant and penniless scholar can live longer than the owner of the country’s largest investment group. I have already outlived him by a year, and I have a decent chance of outliving him by decades. Perhaps technologies will one day arrive that extend the lives of the rich by entire centuries, but for now no such technologies exist.
And then there is the more important matter still: happiness in life. Statistics say that wealthier people are more satisfied with their lives, which does give them a certain edge. But the joy of being in the presence of a loved one is felt the same by rich and poor alike. Nor is the bliss of a good meal multiplied simply because it was prepared for you by the best chef on the planet. Our brains have a certain ceiling on how good we can feel, and all of us are capable of reaching it.
In short, the super-rich have an advantage, but only a limited one.
But that is true of modern society. If we were to return to premodern times, when the poor masses endured famines, brutal violence, torture, and lives of constant fear and anxiety, and when daily existence was so exhausting that it left effectively no room for emotional life, then in such an environment the biological limits on inequality would not assert themselves.