(H)ow exactly did this improvement come about? Did the world somehow become more fair? The answer is clearly “no”. The major difference between now and then is that our economy is more efficient – we can produce more with less. In the twentieth century, total world economic output exceeded that of all the previous centuries combined. At the same time, the overall level of social inequality increased. Our economic system is just as unfair as it always has been. The amount of wealth that actually gets redistributed from rich to poor in our society has been, and remains, puny. We rely on efficiency – not brotherly love – to do the work of making our economic system even halfway tolerable for those at the bottom of the heap.

Joseph Heath (2001). The Efficient Society. Why Canada Is As Close To Utopia As It Gets, p 6-7