Comment by OkayPhysicist

It's not just Capitalism, it's a symptom of all hierarchies. Hierarchies are a social contract, existing only so long as enough people are willing to participate. That will manifests differently at different layers of the hierarchy, with the downtrodden base class for instance mostly participating out of a resigned faith in the hierarchy's inevitability, but for those in the middle, the trust that their ongoing participation will be rewarded with both a share of the spoils of the hierarchy (extracted from the bottom classes) and the opportunity to advance up the hierarchy is CRUCIAL in maintaining the structure.

The fatal flaw in all this is that the hierarchies provide perverse incentives at every level to hoard the benefits of participation to oneself. It's a tragedy of the commons situation, where any given individuals misbehavior in supporting the system is unlikely to break it, but if everyone does it absolutely will be shattered.