STREET DOGS
MICHEL PIREU: Inequality is worse than we thought
NO PERSON, I think, ever saw a herd of buffalo, of which a few were fat and the majority lean. No person ever saw a flock of birds, of which two or three were swimming in grease and the others all skin and bone. — Henry GeorgeOne of our biggest challenges is the increasing disparity in wealth and income, with all its pernicious effects on societal health. Thomas Piketty’s data-backed tour de force, Capital in the 21st Century, gave us two alarming pieces of news about this trend: inequality is worse than we thought, and it will worsen because of structural reasons inherent in our form of capitalism, unless we do something.Piketty shows that an internal feature of capitalism increases inequality: As long as the rate of return on capital (r) is greater than the rate of economic growth (g), wealth will tend to concentrate in a minority, and that the inequality r g always holds in the long term. He is not some lone-wolf academic with an eccentric theory of inequality. Scores of respecte...
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