The Arithmetic of Power: How Democracy and Capitalism Breed Inequality by Mathematical Necessity
The Arithmetic of Power: How Democracy and Capitalism Breed Inequality by Mathematical Necessity We live inside a profound paradox: democracy promises political equality—one person, one vote—while capitalism delivers economic inequality that compounds across generations. Thomas Piketty's landmark 2013 work revealed that this tension isn't accidental but structural, encoded in a simple inequality: r > g. When the return on capital outpaces economic growth, wealth concentrates not through moral failure but mathematical inevitability. The mid-twentieth century's "Great Leveling" was not capitalism's natural state but a historical aberration born of world wars and depression. Today, as growth slows globally, we drift toward what Piketty calls "patrimonial capitalism"—a society where inheritance matters more than effort, where the escalator of compound returns lifts the already-wealthy while laborers run in place. This article explores why inequa...