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A New Aristocracy?

In a recent CEPR paper, Thomas Piketty and Gabriel Zucman trace the evolution of wealth-to-income ratios for several countries. Click here for VOX coverage of their article. They find that wealth-to-income ratios have increased since 1945 and that they are back to levels last seen two hundred years ago. What are the implications of this? Piketty and Zucman suggest that this really matters for the future of wealth inequality and of inherited wealth in particular. In other words, unless there is internationally-coordinated progressive capital and inheritance taxation, wealth inequality is here to stay and the top 1% will consist of the offspring of the current top 1%. In other words, a new aristocracy is on the way! 

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