The Widening Chasm

An independent, critical account of the American economy would soon raise questions about the structural causes of inequality.

That some sectors of the economy will be doing better than others is natural. If you're a landlord or mobile-apps coding genius in San Francisco, the economy is excellent. Those working in the vast North American oil-patch are experiencing a boom economy. Realtors in resurgent markets such as Miami are having their best year since the top of the bubble in 2007.

This can be viewed through any number of lens, one of which is the inherent inequality of capitalism: capital and labor flow to what is most profitable at this point in time, and capital and labor left stranded in low-yield, declining sectors suffer poor returns and lower wages.

This inequality can be seen as the systemic cost of a dynamic economy in which capital and labor are free to move to better opportunities.

It can even be argued that the more dynamic and fast-changing the system, the greater the inequality, as those who move fast enough to take advantage of new opportunities reap most of the gain (The Pareto Distribution of 80/20 is often visible in these sorts of distributions).

Economic systems that can be gamed by bribery or purchased political influence are also inherently unequal, as those with power are more equal than those without power. This is the classic feudal society or crony-capitalist kleptocracy.

Those benefitting within the crony-capitalist kleptocracy will of course claim that the society is a meritocracy and their advantages are the result of their own hard work and brilliance (and perhaps luck if they are honest enough to admit to being lucky).

As a result, it is difficult to tease apart the capitalist functions of the U.S. economy from the cartel-state, crony-capitalist kleptocracy that I call neofeudalism.

What we do know is that the top 1/10th of 1% is reaping most of the income gains.

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