I’m not saying humans won’t tolerate inequality. But they won’t tolerate arbitrary inequality, and when you allow unequal outcomes to compound over generations, then however just those initial inequalities might have been, the arbitrary inequalities that eventually result will undermine the legitimacy of any institutions seen as promoting or ratifying those inequalities.

This is why social democracy of the kind found in western and Northern Europe is necessary. Without the relative egalitarianism of social democratic institutions and policies, society will be torn apart. This is all the more true when socioeconomic inequality tracks inequality along other dimensions like race or religion.