Thomas Piketty
Historical data reveals that modern capitalism structurally concentrates wealth when capital returns outpace economic growth, resurrecting an era of inherited fortunes that threatens democratic societies.
The core inequality of r > g expresses a historical tendency where capital returns exceed output growth, allowing past wealth to accumulate faster than labor income under specific economic conditions.
Slower economic and population growth rates in the twenty-first century reinforce patrimonial capitalism, a structure where inherited wealth dominates the economy and minimizes the relative value of earned wages.
The mid-twentieth century decline in inequality was a unique historical anomaly caused by the destructive shocks of two world wars, the Great Depression, and subsequent redistributive policies rather than a natural progress of capitalism.