Capitalist ideology vs. anti capitalist capitalists

This video from Scotland about Robert Owen is called New Lanark.

Ideologists defending the capitalist system, including its inequalities, often depict the privileges of the rich as just rewards for hard work and/or creativity.

Well, I never heard about someone working very hard for long hours digging ditches or at an assembly line for some boss becoming a millionaire.

I also very rarely heard about a small farmer becoming a millionaire; unless he lived in a country with very much inflation; or if it turns out that millions of years ago, microscopic animals used to live under exactly that farmland, forming oil deposits. So much for the “hard work” argument.

As for the “creativity” argument: most of the rich got rich by marrying money (like John McCain; see also here); or inheriting it; or because of good luck at a casino like stock exchange; or because of cleverness in handling paper about money. None of which I would call real creativity.

Surprisingly, looking at biographies of people who, apart from being capitalists, were also inventors or otherwise innovators, many of them turn out to be critics of the capitalist system. A few examples: textile factory owner and pioneer of socialism Robert Owen; Leo Baekeland, inventor of plastic and “anti materialist millionaire“; anti militarist anti capitalist merchant of death Alfred Nobel.

Capitalism and war: here.

Capitalist competition holds back progress: here.