The mere existence of the level prior to the Great Depression did not trigger the Great Depression. Again, you're trying to use macro-aggregation to reverse engineer a point that does not exist.No, you're drawing together elements from opposite ends of a paragraph so you can scold. ;-)
The historical fact is that inequality extremes have occurred prior to depressions and recessions as well as the occasional revolution. ;-) I agree that to insist on causation would be like asserting that a loud beep from a cardiac monitor is the cause of a heart attack, but if the beep has a predictable association with heart attack then you ignore it at your peril.
FWIW it's different this time because much of the increase seems not to be on the basis of existing wealth but because of enormous work income.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
