Notes from GV4D4 week 3

• fall of inequality in France in 20th century due to the fall of the rentier
  (top incomes from capital fell dramatically)
• the top centile has gone from rentiers to managers (from capital to labour)
• in other words, rentiers fell behind managers ... which didn't necessarily
   make things better for the people at the bottom
• income from capital usually due to financial assets in upper decile
   (stocks, shares, etc)
• though ofc this all comes from tax data---obvious risk of underreporting
• May 1968 France: cultural, political upheaval that changed everything
• soon, minimum wage increased by 20%
• 1970s: min wage indexed to mean wage and was boosted almost every year after
• 1980s: inequality rises again, due to top salaries of exec salaries
• US: more egalitarian at start of 20th but now obviously worse (but in a way
  that is structurally different from the 1900s)
• the financial crisis will not stop the structural increase of
   inequality---slower gains in capital income will not reverse the trend
• obvious link between rising inequality in the US and financial instability
   (households turned to credit to finance their lives)
• between 1977-2007, the top 10% took 75% of the growth; the top 1% took 60%
   of the increase in national income (are these the same thing??)