6 Comments
User's avatar
Sara's avatar

Maybe the vibes being off is the result of “elite overproduction”, and then people believing they could or should be in a higher bracket than they actually are

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elite_overproduction

Paul Work's avatar

Also I wonder how the data on the .01% compares -- it feels like the place where inequality has really spiked recently is in the divergence between the rich and the super-rich, frankly - not so much the 1% who still earn wages.

Tibor Rutar's avatar

Yes, that series shows an increase.

Nyctereutes's avatar

Does the wealth inequality include money laundered through London properties owned by companies in the Turks and Caicos, for example? It could be that wealthy people have got better at hiding their wealth and income from the tax man.

Tibor Rutar's avatar

Of course, this is the issue with which Zucman, Piketty, and others wrestle the most when assembling the data I used here. They do a lot of corrections and modelling to try to capture hidden wealth as much as possible.

Nyctereutes's avatar

Wealth inequality has increased in almost all the most prominent and populous countries, for example USA, China, India, UK, France, Indonesia, Brazil. What are the most prominent examples where it has decreased? Perhaps a lot of the decrease was driven by it being easier for rich people to move from poor countries to rich countries. Places like Monaco, Switzerland and Central London are taking one for the team as far as inequality in other countries goes.