The rich get richer and the poor get poorer

Common card · No. 484288

"The rich get richer and the poor get poorer" is an aphorism attributed to Percy Bysshe Shelley. In A Defence of Poetry (1821, not published until 1840), Shelley remarked that the promoters of utility had exemplified the saying, "To him that hath, more shall be given; and from him that hath not, the little that he hath shall be taken away. The rich have become richer, and the poor have become poorer; and the vessel of the State is driven between the Scylla and Charybdis of anarchy and despotism." It describes a positive feedback loop (a corresponding negative feedback loop would be e.g. progressive tax). "To him that hath" etc. is a reference to Matthew 25:29 (the parable of the talents, see also Matthew effect). The aphorism is commonly invoked, with variations in wording, as a summary of the effect of free market capitalism on excessive inequality.

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