Distância

«Global inequality of opportunity is not generally considered a problem at all, much less a problem in need of a solution. Within nation-states, many people regard the intergenerational transmission of family-acquired wealth as rather objectionable; but among nations, the intergenerational transmission of collectively acquired wealth is not considered an object of concern. This is interesting because individuals' links to their family are closer than their links to an entire community, and one might thing that the transmission of family wealth across generations could be viewed as less objectionable than the transmission of societal wealth across generations of unrelated individuals. The reason that it is not seems to lie in one crucial difference, namely that in the first case, where the intergenerational transmission of wealth tase place within the same community, individuals can easily compare their positions with each other, and they resent injustice; in the other case, inequality is international, and individuals cannot easily compare themselves or perhaps they do not care to do so (or, at least, the rich do not). Distance, as Aristotle noted, often makes people indifferent to the lot of others, perhaps because they do not see them as peers with whom they compare their income or wealth.» 

Capitalism, Alone, Branko Milanovic