Why inequality is not as bad as we thought

TL;DR

Despite alarming narratives, inequality largely stopped rising after 2010 and its expected harms to growth, crime, mobility, and democracy show only weak statistical evidence.

Key Points

• 1.Inequality largely stopped rising after 2010. Data from anti-inequality researcher Gabriel Zuckman shows income and wealth controlled by the top 1% and top 10% plateaued, with only the top 0.1% (e.g. Elon Musk) continuing to pull ahead.
• 2.Inequality's link to economic growth is weak. Countries that became more unequal (UK, US) grew at roughly the same pace as more equal countries like Austria and Belgium over the same 40-year period.
• 3.Crime and misery data don't track with inequality. The US, which became the most unequal, paradoxically saw the largest reduction in murders; deaths of despair and life expectancy show only very weak statistical correlations with inequality across countries.
• 4.Social mobility has remained surprisingly stable. Research by left-wing economists Raj Chetty and Emmanuel Saez finds intergenerational mobility in the US stayed remarkably constant even as income inequality rose sharply since the 1980s.
• 5.Evidence that the rich are rigging democracy is weak. The effective tax rate on the top 1% stayed stable, union decline was a global trend even in equal countries, and California — the most unequal US state — passed paid leave, $15 minimum wage, and Medicaid expansion opposed by wealthy interests.
• 6.Taxing billionaires alone cannot solve structural economic problems. Taxing Elon Musk at 100% would fund the US military for only one year; taxing all UK billionaires would cover the UK deficit for only about 1.5 years; housing crises, cost-of-living pressures, and demographic aging are separate drivers.
• 7.Inequality is still real and worse than 40 years ago, but it's one piece of a larger puzzle. Multiple forces — slow post-frontier growth, housing shortages, energy shocks, aging populations — explain hardship better than inequality alone, shifting the author's top concerns toward global conflict and demographic crisis.