The participants identified a negative feedback loop, whereby the government’s failure to tax wealth effectively means it lacks sufficient revenue to uphold the social contract by which strong public services, an effective social safety net and a healthy economy provide people with decent living standards.

Trust in politics then declines further, politicians avoid honest discussions of the underlying problems and what to do about them, and the system’s legitimacy is increasingly questioned as the social contract collapses.

That’s a nice story, but there’s been plenty of even less egalitarian societies. Pretty much all of the ones in written history, actually.

More likely, in the short term a new, more coercive “social contract” will be rotated in (if the trend continues). Heck, we’re already seeing it a bit in the US. Now showing fealty to the president is more important than public relations for a lot of companies and billionaires.