So in a modern economy, accumulated wealth as an "earmark" on current and future productivity. People don't buy food and store it for retirement. They buy shares in Intel and get dividends from the labor of future workers to pay for their retirement. The current state of affairs seems to be one where too much has gotten earmarked. Those booming corporate profits that come from layoffs rather than above-the-line growth are going partly to CEOs, sure, but they're going mostly to retirement, pension, etc, funds. Retirees/near-retirees earmarking future productivity.

I think inflation is inevitable as the younger generation decides to reallocate this distribution of the fruits of its own labor.