Sure, if you set the averaging horizon to much longer than 40 years the problems of the last 40 years wash out, but that doesn't mean they are small. People ca

Sure, if you set the averaging horizon to much longer than 40 years the problems of the last 40 years wash out, but that doesn't mean they are small. People can tell when they have things worse off than their parents. The social contract will erode in ways that people don't expect. In particular, the tidy arrangement where your retirement is in investments, so if you hurt the capital gains of the wealthy you hurt yourself, falls apart if most people are too poor for retirement savings. Suddenly, in a democracy, our retirement accounts (and the poorly hidden accounts of the actual wealthy) become up for grabs. That situation is developing quickly enough that we may well see the breaking point in our lifetime.