Summary

In chapter 9, Piketty sets his sights on the dynamics of labor income inequality, asking specifically what has caused the explosion of wage inequalities, and the rise of the supermanager in the U.S. He also asks why wage inequality varies across societies and historical periods.

He begins by discussing the hypothesis that a “race” between education and technology determines the distribution of wages. This hypothesis imagines that a worker’s wages are equal to their marginal productivity, and also that the worker’s productivity depends on the worker’s skills and the demand for those skills relative to their supply. In reality, a worker’s wages are not always a pure reflection of the forces of education and technology. The hypothesis has value, however, because it emphasizes the supply and demand of skills, which opens up the broader question of how society grants...