Berkshire Hathaway Vice Chair Charlie Munger played down concerns that affluent Americans became wealthier as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, arguing at a Wednesday shareholder meeting the economy “needs poverty to get out of poverty.”

“I think that to some extent, the complaint about the rich getting richer as a result of the covid panic — I think that’s a misplaced concern,” Munger said. “Nobody was trying to make the rich richer. We were trying to save the whole economy under terrible conditions, and I think by and large, we made the most practical decisions that were available to us. We made the rich richer not as a deliberate choice, but because it was an accidental byproduct of trying to save the whole civilization.

“There wasn’t some malevolence of the rich that caused it,” he added. “It was an accident. And the next time around, the poor will get richer faster than the rich. That thing’s circular. Who gets rich faster by class is going to vary over time, and I don’t think anybody should be too concerned by it.”

Forbes estimated in December that billionaires, of whom there were more than 2,200 around the world last year, accumulated more than $1.9 in worth during the Covid-19 pandemic, even as small-business owners were forced to shutter their operations and low-wage workers were forced into unemployment as a result of economic shutdowns.

Munger, a 97-year-old World War II veteran, billionaire and partner to Berkshire Hathaway founder Warren Buffett, was responding to a shareholder’s question on the matter.

“It’s a very irritating system, because the poverty that causes so much misery is also causing the growth that makes everybody get out of poverty,” Munger said. “To some extent it’s a self-correcting system, and that makes the whole thing very awkward. It’s a shame the economics textbooks don’t emphasize how much a growing economy needs poverty in order to get out of poverty, and if you try to reduce the poverty too much, it’s counter-productive.”

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