But here's a question: why can't we oppose the inequities of a society weighted in favour of wealth, and all the trash that wealth accumulates, without at the same time having to snuggle up to Putin, pal out with Hamas, and make apologies for extremists?
But Lawrence Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute points out that several societies that are more egalitarian than America have higher college enrolment rates.There might also be an argument in favour of wealth disparities if social mobility was high and the sons and daughters of office cleaners could fairly easily rise to become chief executives.
Mr Piketty focuses on the demographic side of things, which argues in favour of rising wealth.
He uses both authors to illustrate how, by the early 19th century, it was logical to disdain work in favour of marrying into wealth.
Scrapping the 50p rate alongside such policies would not only make better economic sense – tilting the tax system away from heavy-handed redistribution and in favour of dynamism and wealth creation.
Some ministers have openly supported positive discrimination, to redress the balance of wealth in favour of indigenous Indonesians.
In the same issue Matthew Engel chronicles the huge rise in London property prices, a massive redistribution of wealth in favour of the rich as against the majority of non-property owners, the young and the poor, who were dissatisfied enough to vote for Brexit.
'To have the kind of internal strength and internal courage it takes to say, "No, I will not let you treat me this way", is what success is all about,' she told an interviewer, dismissing the success of wealth in favour of simply surviving the abuse of others.
I used to be the next president of the United States.' Many Democrats, disillusioned with the war in Iraq, dismayed by routine torture and by the wiretapping of citizens, depressed by the shift of wealth in favour of the already-rich, and quite a lot of other things besides, are asking whether the new Gore Unplugged could in fact still be the next president of the United States.
And the data leans in favour of Thomas Piketty's thesis that wealth inequality is increasing: certainly the period of the financial crisis upholds that depressing view.
Will governments, especially in democracies, have the nerve to tell people to drop their old cultural values in favour of smaller broods?And can wealth creation match population growth?
