Because it’s not worth engaging with this person I just copy paste my answer to the other place where they posted this.
Thanks for linking a source but this is a misleading interpretation, please don’t try to argue with data if you don’t know how to interpret it.
You need to look at e.g. the top 10%, middle 40% and bottom 50% to get a proper idea. And then look at it country by country because the scales don’t match. Yes, the USA are extremely inequal, I think back to like 1913 level in 2013 or something like that iirc, so if you put them on a plot with e.g. France, France will look great.
I actually did. I have nits to pick with the map, but the conclusion that Russia has a lot and Europe has (relatively) little is well known. And again, what does the US have to do with it?
Reading the thread back again, you’re probably right that inequality in Europe has grown somewhat, if that was your main point.
Edit: And your source is excellent, by the way. Very interesting. Picketty delivers.
The US is so inequal that anything else on that plot is impossible to interpret. That’s why the US is relevant to mention here. Although this does not apply exclusively to the US.
OP then mentions that inequality has not risen in the last 20 years in Europe which is wrong, but not visible in the plot,
because it selectively focuses on only one metric
because next to the US even an uptrend looks marginal
And I mean it’s not even wrong in a sense that there is different ways to see it, it’s just wrong in a way that OP is actually spreading false information.
Regarding Piketty yeah I hope some people actually read that, glad you did!
Yeah, you may have misunderstood my point. So once again for you: It’s not perfect in Europe, inequality rises here, but inequality in China is now higher than it is in Europe.
Because it’s not worth engaging with this person I just copy paste my answer to the other place where they posted this.
Thanks for linking a source but this is a misleading interpretation, please don’t try to argue with data if you don’t know how to interpret it.
You need to look at e.g. the top 10%, middle 40% and bottom 50% to get a proper idea. And then look at it country by country because the scales don’t match. Yes, the USA are extremely inequal, I think back to like 1913 level in 2013 or something like that iirc, so if you put them on a plot with e.g. France, France will look great.
But if you look at France alone you get a different picture and inequality is rising again since the 80s. Here’s an article by a French economist with research focus on inequality which cites the same data: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/inequalities/2025/09/24/global-inequality-in-historical-perspective-part-1/
OP didn’t even mention the US, though. I’m not sure what you’re arguing against.
You obviously did not look at the data they used as source
I actually did. I have nits to pick with the map, but the conclusion that Russia has a lot and Europe has (relatively) little is well known. And again, what does the US have to do with it?
Reading the thread back again, you’re probably right that inequality in Europe has grown somewhat, if that was your main point.
Edit: And your source is excellent, by the way. Very interesting. Picketty delivers.
The US is so inequal that anything else on that plot is impossible to interpret. That’s why the US is relevant to mention here. Although this does not apply exclusively to the US.
OP then mentions that inequality has not risen in the last 20 years in Europe which is wrong, but not visible in the plot,
And I mean it’s not even wrong in a sense that there is different ways to see it, it’s just wrong in a way that OP is actually spreading false information.
Regarding Piketty yeah I hope some people actually read that, glad you did!
Yeah, you may have misunderstood my point. So once again for you: It’s not perfect in Europe, inequality rises here, but inequality in China is now higher than it is in Europe.
Nah, he did not missunderstand you, its literally what you wrote word for word in your first message. Your only clarifying it now.