Publications

- August 1, 2015: Vol. 2, Number 8

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The Plight of the Rich: A study by the Cato Institute indicates that the richest families in America do not get endlessly richer

by Mike Consol

The rich get richer.

That is an American maxim. It is true of many societies around the world. I have long said that Americans like that we have a system skewed toward the rich because we all think we are going to hit the jackpot one day — and we want those tax-code goodies and upward wealth distribution mechanisms in place for us to benefit from when our lottery numbers hit the mega-millions.

It’s a silly notion, but one we Americans cannot shake.

So when we do hit that lotto jackpot, our wealth should grow exponentially over time. We consider it our birthright as U.S. citizens. It was even validated by French economist and author Thomas Piketty. In his huge bestseller,Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Piketty wrote about the multiplication and the durability of wealth. In a nutshell, Piketty reasons that the growth of invested capital exceeds macroeconomic growth. Based on that, and other historical references, he postulates that wealt

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