Civilization always had a way of wiping the slate clean. People died, fortunes disappeared, empires collapsed. That is not a bug in the system; it's the main feature.
Inequality in the 21st-century United States raises a strange question: why is it that the Western country with the biggest wealth inequality is doing remarkably well?
The answer may be more interesting than ever. Historically, more elite civilizations often progressed faster than egalitarian ones, from hunter-gatherers to the Trypillia and the Indus Valley, to modern Europe. It seems that the more unequal a society is, the faster its technology progresses.
In an egalitarian society, memory is distributed almost evenly. The past is preserved collectively. Decisions require consensus, and consensus is inevitably anchored in what has always been done. The weight of collective memory makes it exceedingly difficult to abandon old ways. In highly unequal societies, the slate is constantly and forcibly wiped clean for the majority. Elites retain too much power and discard traditions; the masses revolt, and memory is wiped clean for a new generation to innovate.
That doesn't happen as often within more egalitarian societies. The status quo is preserved for generations, and not much usually changes unless forced from the outside.
When we look at why elite civilizations outpaced egalitarian ones, we are actually looking at the mechanics of biological memory. Empires progressed faster not because they conquered, but because things got destroyed. Libraries burned, whole cities were leveled, old records were destroyed, and bureaucracies were wiped out. By marginalizing the majority, unequal societies sever the continuous thread of history that otherwise anchors a culture to its past. The cost of creative destruction is always borne by those at the bottom, whose histories and contributions are quietly omitted from the future.
That is slowly changing, though. In the 20th century, the average organization kept essential records for a decade or two, mostly financial. Little operational or interpersonal data were collected. The operating system of the company used to be stored inside the brains of its owners. But in the 21st-century organization, we are now able to cheaply capture data, much more than basic journal entries and stakeholder profiles. It's possible now to index every single word anyone said, past and present, and build on top of that a whole org-brain. That is not trivial; it's a major shift in information technology bigger than democracy itself.
This creates a strange new situation: ultra-fast progress and unmistakable stagnation at the same time. The private sector might be able to escape that by accelerating the creation of new startups to destroy old corporations. But the public sector doesn't have the same luxury; no new countries are getting established, and civil unrest is easier than ever to control.