Undeserved excess papers over a host of political/economic defects. Especially when that excess comes from the plunder of foreign interests it makes the internal political divisions easier to buy off.
It is in the nature of progress that we invest surpluses for the sake of building up the capital stock of the society. Sometimes that surplus is used to fortify the grip the ruling elites have over the general population; sometimes that surplus is used to manage the contradictions within the social and political system itself. When the source of the surplus is outside the enfranchised universe of the public, which is to say, when the surplus is implicitly undeserved, it makes it easier to use the surplus for purposes the recipients know are illegitimate but which they accept anyway because it solves the short-term stresses of internal political disagreements.
Undeserved surplus undermines the character and integrity of those who receive the largess.
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