Except that the rich know who to bribe with campaign contributions.
Look at Ronald Reagan. As an actor, he was not a giant star. Plenty of folks got a higher salary. Reagan lucked into a job as spokesman for General Electric, at the time one of the biggest companies in the world. Reagan hung out with the big shots and introduced them to his Hollywood buddies; in return he got stock tips and investment opportunities that made him rich.
You're middle class if you're still working for your money. You're rich when your money works for you.
A $5 million a year actor/athlete still has to work; they are also paying for their trainers, agents, dietitians, clothes etc. They are upper middle class.
A trust fund baby with an income of $1 million a year is the rich one. imho.
imho, it was Nixon who started America on this course. Nixon knew that the Vietnam War was unwinnable; he even ran in 1968 as a 'peace candidate.' He also knew that massive bombing would mean that the US steel mills would be working 24/7 and that would be great for the Unions and owners. All he had to do was pay for it with paper money, because he didn't want to raise taxes.
It makes shipping easier. Packing a bunch of different sized bottles into a single carton is a mess.
When I was a kid, the worst playground insult was calling someone a 'J@p,' because only a yellow bastard would pull a sneak attack like Pearl Harbor.
Tojo must be smiling in Hell.
In a neighborhood, everyone knows your name. If Joe the Plumber and Fred the Butcher make a bet, everyone has heard it, and the loser has to pay up, or be scorned.
In a bar, the bartender or server holds the bets and pays off the winner, and expects a cut of the pie as a sevice fee/tip.
90 year old woman goes to the local brothel. She tells the madam that she wants to try something new, so she wants to try being a hooker for a night. Madam makes some phone calls, finds some customers who 'd be into it, and tells the woman to come back the next night.
The next day the lady arrives, and soon the first john shows up. They walk upstairs, spend an hour, and come back. The second customer is waiting, and so he and she go upstairs. After she comes back down, the third guy arrives, so it's back upstairs.
At the end of the night the madam asks if she wants to come back?
"Oh, no dear. the sex was fine but those damn stairs will kill me."
https://tnmuseum.org/junior-curators/posts/underwater-ghost-towns-of-tennessee
Apparently, back in the day the government decided that some places weren't worth saving, and the benefits of building dams and flooding the towns outweighed other considerations.
The movie 'Deliverance' has a plot about something like this happening.
https://bookshop.org/beta-search?keywords=asteroid+mining
Here's a link to some books on the subject. You're right, most people figure it would be putting our heavy industries in space and bring down what ever products are needed.
Circa 3025 AD. Tourists arrive in low Earth orbit and spend a day on an ISS replica. Next they take a replica space shuttle to the ground, where they transfer to a DC-3 prop plane. That lands them at a train station, where they board a steam powered train. That carries them to a station where they get on a stage coach. The last ride is a canoe down the Colorado river.
With climate change and coastal flooding, it's coming, just not in the form you're thinking of.
[obligatory George Carlin reference]
https://youtu.be/6MVABINRzN4