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The 46th World Economic Forum at the Swiss ski resort of Davos has wrapped up, with representatives of some 100 countries including the leaders of 40 states gathering to discuss pressing international issues--post-sanctions Iran, oil prices and prohibitive global inequality.

Some participants seemed more interested in stock prices and the effects of sanctions on their investments however, not the coming of a Fourth Industrial Revolution (the tech revolution).

There was some progress at least on changing the conversation around global wealth--as well as a much needed recognition that extreme innovation in industry technology will not have an equalizing effect on workers and owners without sufficient regulation.

The influence of the free market, if left unchecked, will concentrate wealth into the hands of a very small elite class, as happened in every previous revolution in industry and technology.

Swiss Bank UBS fortunately provided some platform for this discussion, releasing a report at Davos characterizing the prospective changes as such:

“The global economy is on the cusp of profound changes that are comparable in magnitude to the advent of the first industrial revolution, the development of assembly line production, or the invention of the micro-chip. Technological advances are permitting ever greater levels of automation,” the executive summary reads. Automation is no doubt a problem for workers and a boon to stock holders.

The report claims an impending polarization of the labor force “as low­skill jobs continue to be automated, and this trend increasingly spreads to middle­skill jobs. This implies higher potential levels of inequality in the short­run, and a need for labor market flexibility to harness Fourth Industrial Revolution benefits in the long­run.”

Klaus Schwab, the manager of Davos, presented a book on the Fourth Industrial Revolution to delegates at the forum. In it, he details an looming, large scale disconnect between those who monopolize industries and the workers who make them run.

“The changes are so profound that, from the perspective of human history, there has never been a time of greater promise or potential peril. My concern, however, is that decision makers are too often caught in traditional, linear (and non-disruptive) thinking or too absorbed by immediate concerns to think strategically about the forces of disruption and innovation shaping our future.”

It seems Schwab is almost speaking directly to Blackstone CEO and billionaire Steve Schwarzmann, who according to the International Business Times, made the following troublesome remarks about the U.S. political climate at Davos:

“I find the whole thing astonishing and what’s remarkable is the amount of anger whether it’s on the Republican side or the Democratic side,” the Wall Street billionaire said. “Bernie Sanders, to me, is almost more stunning than some of what’s going on in the Republican side. How is that happening, why is that happening?”

Schwarzmann’s extremely tone deaf comments are certainly a good indication of the disconnect.

As a Global Wealth Report 2015 from Allianz found, “The U.S. — with $63.5 trillion in total private wealth — holds the largest amount of any country in the world. But that wealth is unevenly distributed, and nowhere is that more evident than in the U.S., which also has the largest wealth inequality gap of 55 countries studied.”

Populism, Wall Street reform, redistribution of wealth and “revolution” rhetoric may escape the billionaire class, but American society as a whole is looking for an out.