>"Income inequality increased from 1910 to 1930, for example, then declined for forty years before beginning its most recent ascent" The reason is for that is

>"Income inequality increased from 1910 to 1930, for example, then declined for forty years before beginning its most recent ascent" The reason is for that is simple, we lack wars. Ian Morris wrote a somewhat provocative book a few years ago called *War, What is it good for?", talking about the productive nature of war in increasing the capacity of states and populations. To take a very contemporary example, you can almost be certain Ukraine will come out of their current conflict less oligopolistic, more equal and more functional and capable than they were before. A little bit more like Israel, which also does not lack in the conflict department. That's problematic as a normative theory but evolutionary kind of obvious. If you want dynamism, you need to wipe the slate clean from time to time. That's usually a fairly violent process. Oligopoly is what happens in the abscence of that kind of disruption.