- “The world is marked by a very high level of income inequality and an extreme level of wealth inequality,” the authors of the 2022 World Inequality Report wrote.
- The data completely rebukes the “trickle-down” economic theory first brought into the nation’s lexicon during Reagan’s tax slashes; a proposal that cutting taxes on the rich would trickle down to those below.
- The last two decades of wealth data show that “inequality is a political choice, not an inevitability,” reinforcing the idea that wealth inequality is a feature of capitalism, not a bug.
Juliana Kaplan and Andy Kiersz from Insider write:
“Inequality has remained persistently high for decades, and a new report shows just how stark the divide is between the richest and poorest people on the planet.
The 2022 World Inequality Report, a huge undertaking coordinated by economic and inequality experts Lucas Chancel, Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, and Gabriel Zucman, was the product of four years of research and produced an unprecedented data set on just how wealth is distributed.
“The world is marked by a very high level of income inequality and an extreme level of wealth inequality,” the authors wrote.
The data serves as a complete rebuke of the trickle-down economic theory, which posits that cutting taxes on the rich will “trickle down” to those below, with the cuts eventually benefiting everyone. In America, trickle-down was exemplified by President Ronald Reagan’s tax slashes. It’s a theory that persists today, even though most research has shown that 50 years of tax cuts benefits the wealthy and worsens inequality.
The researchers are some of the leading minds on inequality in the entire field of economics. Chancel is the co-director of the World Inequality Lab, while Saez and Zucman have literally written a book on the rich dodging taxes and helped create wealth tax proposals for senators like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders…”
See full story here.
Categories: Business, Economy, Government, Labor, Politics
Economic Left 
Leave a Reply