The underlying issue with inequality isn't that some people are rich (although many progressives fall into the trap of making it about this), it's about how to alleviate the unfortunate fact that some people will always be poor because they aren't capable of generating much wealth.
It doesn't take a 'socialist wealth envier' to realize there are serious problems with large imbalances in wealth. This turns into the classic liberal (as in libertarian) vs modern liberal debate. A classic liberal will claim inequality is a natural consequence of an open market and therefore doesn't need to be fixed. This is an increasingly fringe opinion that even most economists disagree with. A classic liberal believes in redistribution of wealth, which unfortunately doesn't fix the underlying issue.
The sad fact is, there may be no clean solution. But that doesn't mean people shouldn't discuss it. Inequality is getting worse, and it looks like it will continue to get worse. This is a problem.
It doesn't take a 'socialist wealth envier' to realize there are serious problems with large imbalances in wealth. This turns into the classic liberal (as in libertarian) vs modern liberal debate. A classic liberal will claim inequality is a natural consequence of an open market and therefore doesn't need to be fixed. This is an increasingly fringe opinion that even most economists disagree with. A classic liberal believes in redistribution of wealth, which unfortunately doesn't fix the underlying issue.
The sad fact is, there may be no clean solution. But that doesn't mean people shouldn't discuss it. Inequality is getting worse, and it looks like it will continue to get worse. This is a problem.