Capital returns exceeding economic growth rates drive extreme income divergence

Evidence

In Capital in the Twenty-First Century, the French economist Thomas Piketty integrated years of income data to derive a general law of accumulation: the rate of return on capital tends to exceed the rate of economic growth. This tendency, summarized as r > g, is a dynamic that produces ever-more-extreme income divergence and with it a range of antidemocratic social consequences long predicted as harbingers of an eventual crisis of capitalism. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 135

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Piketty’s r > g thesis as an established baseline against which Zuboff will contrast the new, prediction-based accumulation of surveillance capitalism. — connects to: Global wealth concentration has reached extreme, quantified levels over the past decade — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 27; GDP growth masks extreme wealth concentration and environmental destruction. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 93; Wealth concentration has accelerated dramatically across major economies — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 27 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Wealth concentration has accelerated dramatically across major economies #expands (0.81) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 27
• Asset distribution drives wealth inequality and social stratification. #expands (0.74) — Paul Langley, Assets and Assetization in…, 8