Your observation about the universality of the 1% is absolutely correct. But it's not "the rich", inherently. It's because the rules of any system are a filter which selects against the bell-curve distribution of human competency to select the top 1%...as defined by the system's rules.

Our hypercapitalism selects for the gift of accumulating piles of money. We identify our 1% by the elephantiasis of their wallets.

The top 1% in the Soviet system were bureaucrats. They enjoyed huge material comforts, but they weren't rich as we understand rich. Rather, they were the 1% most skilled at managing a command-and-control economy and were rewarded commensurately with a nonmonetary slice of the pie.

The Pope and his Cardinals in the Vatican are religion's 1%, and they live in medieval splendor.

Pick your system...Colombian narcosyndicalism, Somalian anarchy, Russian kleptocracy...somehow each eventually ends up dominated by the 1% selected by the system's rules and most competent at working that system.

Same as it ever was, Rob.