Inequality in the 21st Century

Abstract

The world stands in the shadow of two great characters on the stage of history. Our steadily concentrating distribution of income, and our extraordinary information communication technology. In this little essay we shall make use of a new theoretical view of economic systems as network structures formed by individuals acting on the basis of their psychology and social position to investigate the interaction of these phenomena. We shall find that information communication technology will tend to produce a winner-take-all environment in the market economy and a concentrated distribution of income which is “hollowed out”. But we shall also find confounding factors which restrain this tendency and with which policymakers may operate to mitigate the concentration of the distribution of income.