Power laws

Quoting Anderson, Philip W. “More is different: broken symmetry and the nature of the hierarchical structure of science.” Science 177.4047 (1972): 393-396.:

In closing, I offer two examples from economics of what I hope to have said. Marx said that quantitative differences become qualitative ones, but a dialogue in Paris in the 1920’s sums it up even more clearly: FITZGERALD: The rich are different from us. HEMINGWAY: Yes, they have more money.

The end result of an exponential growth process is probably something completely different ontologically. It is not trivial for me to discern if such processes should be banned entirely in the name of equality or they should be allowed in a controlled way in the name of progress. Maybe the correct question is “growth, but toward what ends?”.