The best revolutions end in topplings—of statues, regimes, and Weinsteins. Others prove to be more smoke than flame. While heady days of Occupy Wall Street are long over, the national conversation they ignited about economic inequality still smolders. Since protesters decamped from Zuccotti Park, Thomas Piketty has become a household name, a populist has claimed the presidency, and universal basic income has gone from fantastical subreddit to serious policy proposal.
Among developed countries, the United States has the most dramatic—which is to say, the worst—income inequality of any democracy in the world. Today, the top 1 percent of American earners take home 24 percent of the income. The nation's wealth gap is even more startling, with One Percenters controlling more wealth than the bottom 90 percent.
But just how deep do the roots of inequality go? Is economic disparity of a hallmark of modernity—or a persistent feature of human civilization? A recent study, led by Washington State University archaeologist Timothy Kohler and published in Nature, offers some new insights on inequality across human history, in both the New and Old Worlds.
[For more on this story by KEVIN CHARLES FLEMING, go to https://psmag.com/economics/across-the-great-divide]
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