For what it's worth, Piketty argues that high inequality is actually the norm, and that the periods of relative equality we've enjoyed since the dawn of modern economics are due to wholesale wealth and inheritance destruction due to two world wars. He further argues that the reason things really start getting pear-shaped in 1980 is because the world had enough time to recoup from the shocks of 1914 and 1945. And, for what it's worth, he does pretty much make the argument that a good economy is a capitalist economy run by socialists. Dunno. Curious to see how this develops. I remember raising the minimum wage discussion to Jay Inslee in 2004 and he looked at me like a deer in headlights. It wasn't even on his radar. Now he's governor of Washington and Occupy happened. We'll see what we see.