This is an interesting question for the socio-economic fields. At which point income inequality becomes detrimental to the security apparatus? At which ratio does a society security apparatus can't operate due to a too wide disparity between their lawful issued from taxes income and the income from a corrupt private sectors?
I think it depends not on the perception that the public relation firms will try to do to legitimize the income of the corrupt private sectors, otherwise are the security apparatchis really intelligent, but on the real legitimacy of those incomes.
When the revenues of the private sector become only of origin of state largess, state crony-capitalism, state backed regulatory capture or simply outright, bailouts, thefts and scams, there is necessarily a break-point.
In the sense that the security apparatus face a choice, protects those "harvesters" while ignoring their deeds, or simply join them in the plundering of the population.
My guess is that there is a ratio at which the crumbling of the society start to appears, and I believe there is a point of no return, where honesty or justice become simply unattainable, as the entire state become just a rotting unleash leech.
Furthermore it would be interesting to see how various countries compare and which stage of degeneracy they are... and china specifically, in an historical perspective too.
Ultimately, I think, it goes back to the "wealth cycle", just > leniency > concentration > top > just (at least in a resume version :)).
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