Greg Mankiw, professor of economics at Harvard, has written a paper which seeks to defend the top one percent of income earners (click here). He starts his paper by showing how an entrepreneur (e.g., Steve Jobs) can become super wealthy whilst benefiting society. However, many of the one percent have become wealthy through rent seeking (think financiers and overpaid CEOs) and at other people's expense rather than through creating products or services which benefit society as a whole.
