I don't see anything paradoxical about it either.

What people miss when discussing inequality in America is that we still have high economic mobility: i.e. the same person will be in different tiers of the income distribution throughout their life.

One of the major ways to have economic growth is for people to be able to accumulate lots of wealth, based on their own entrepreneurial success. That might look like inequality to some, but it isn't damaging to a society as long as everyone has that opportunity to rise.