A decade ago, the French economist Thomas Piketty published “Capital In The 21st Century,” a blockbuster screed against the rich getting richer. In that weighty tome, he encapsulated the dynamic of steadily increasing inequality with the formula r > g: the compounded rate of return on capital is greater than the rate of economic growth. In short, the inequality gap inexorably grows over time between those who own capital assets that appreciate in value, especially financial assets, and those who work and live paycheck to paycheck.
In short, the inequality gap inexorably grows over time between those who own capital assets that appreciate in value, especially financial assets, and those who work and live paycheck to paycheck. In a recent University of Chicago Journal of Political Economy study, Moritz Kuhn, Moritz Schularick and Ulrike I. Steins traced the growth of wealth inequality in America from 1949 to 2016.
Steins traced the growth of wealth inequality in America from 1949 to 2016.