#4 means that the "rising tide lifts all boats" platitude is a lie. Or it means that the yachts are dumping their ballast into nearby dinghies. I don't think

#4 means that the "rising tide lifts all boats" platitude is a lie. Or it means that the yachts are dumping their ballast into nearby dinghies. I don't think the ratio can grow arbitrarily large, but I do think it can stretch the limits of reason for far longer that anyone thinks is possible before snapping. The amount of the ratio below unity is the extent to which the ownership class captures gains from economic growth. The amount above unity is the extent to which the ownership class takes wealth from those with less wealth. That can theoretically rise as high as is necessary to make one person owner of the entire planet in one year. After that, the ratio drops back to unity, but by then no one cares to measure anything anymore. If stocks rise 1.2 times growth, that means in aggregate, corporations captured 0.2 more value than was newly created that year, which means it had to be taken from existing wealth held by someone else. Some of that value might come from stockholders, and thus it would be recycled back to them, but the rest of it comes from non-stockholders, who lose it permanently.