An essay on Joseph Stiglitz’s 2015 paper The origins of inequality, and policies to contain it, which argues that today’s inequality comes from politics more than from capitalism itself. It first asks what we mean by inequality, with Giovanni Sartori’s kinds of equality. Then it follows Stiglitz’s objections to Piketty’s r > g, from diminishing returns and stagnant wages to the savings rate he adds to the formula, and his alternative: an economy of rents and exploitation, pushed by land prices and globalization.

It closes on what he proposes: education open to more people, heavier taxes on inherited wealth, rents and land, and public investment that raises productivity and wages.