If your endpoint for inequality is “X% of people have Y% of wealth” and you also want to talk about income, then the income you talk about had better be “change

If your endpoint for inequality is “X% of people have Y% of wealth” and you also want to talk about income, then the income you talk about had better be “change in wealth.” Otherwise we get all kinds of intellectually dishonest equivocation about how to deal with the problem of billionaires, we need to tax the shit out of doctors and engineers. The incomes behind our staggering wealth inequality aren’t wage incomes! If on the other hand you think unrealized gains aren’t important, then you should be thinking of inequality in terms of something else, like consumption. But consumption inequality is both much smaller absolutely and much slower growing than wealth inequality; it doesn’t make a good political rallying point.