The Engine of Inequality: Privilege

This is what we’re up against: a status quo that has institutionalized soaring inequality and rising poverty as the only possible output of defending the privileged few at the expense of the many.
We all know wealth/income inequality is soaring. I’ve published many entries on this topic (please see the three charts below as a refresher), and it’s clear there are multiple sources of rising inequality: globalization and technology, which concentrate gains in relatively few hands, and inflation, which reduces the purchasing power of stagnating real wages.
But the dominant source of inequality is privilege–specifically, privilege that is institutionalized by the status quo.
This engine of inequality–institutionalized privilege–is the topic of my new book, Inequality and the Collapse of Privilege($3.95 Kindle ebook, $8.95 print edition).
The word “privilege” is tossed around rather loosely. What does it mean in economic and social terms? I differentiate between privilege, which is unearned, and advantaged, which is earned.
To reverse rising inequality, we must dismantle the institutionalized power of privilege and create universally accessible pathways to the advantages of building capital. A key part of my analysis is causally linking rising inequality, poverty and privilege.
Here is an excerpt of the book:

This post was published at Charles Hugh Smith on NOVEMBER 27, 2016.