Comparisons to Sweden are false. Sweden has corporation taxes of only 22 percent. It's a far better environment for big business than U.S. was until Trump's cuts. The Swedish economy is set up to keep ordinary people down with high taxation, and suppressing small business with regulation so that big business can dominate the market. This is what socialism truly is. It's a way for fascist corporate interests to strangle all competition, consolidating power for themselves. (In the U.S., the establishment is still in the strangulation phase and not ready to cut corporation taxes yet.)
Greece collapsed because government spending was too high, not because taxes were too low. All economies with high government spending are unsustainable because it’s just not human to work hard for things of little or no personal benefit. Raising taxes high enough to balance the budget would crash everything.
Automation is a massive threat anyway whatever economic system we have. The left will not save us from it. The left want as much unemployment as possible because poor desperate people vote left. Leftism feeds on human suffering.
Hedge funds do contribute to society. Any society has to direct investment towards good ideas that will succeed and give people what they desire and away from bad ideas that will fail and give people no return. You can either let the market decide what deserves investment or you can let socialist bureaucrats decide. All the evidence from history is that the market, while imperfect, is infinitely better than out of touch bureaucrats. (Some of what the market does is just gambling on abstract things. It doesn't produce anything, but it doesn't consume anything either. It's just money changing hands. The winner's money sooner or later goes into something real.)
The gap between the rich and the poor is a GOOD thing. In fact, it's essential for any prosperous economy. The desire for equality is weak, envious thinking. Inequality is required to motivate people to produce.