Source: CounterPunch
by David S D’Amato
“Krugman admits that where he once saw the absurd inequalities of the present day as primarily the consequences of technological change and the market economy, ‘looking into the math’ changed his mind, and it became clear to him that ‘much of the rise of the modern American oligarchy has been driven by deliberate policy.’ The math Krugman is focused on is the tax gap and thus the effective tax rate. The problem for Krugman’s hypothesis is that the United States was already firmly an oligarchy when the tax gap was much smaller and the effective tax rate much higher. Oligarchy is not first and foremost a product of the system of taxation, and it never has been. It is rather a product of the pre-distribution of wealth through state-created special economic privileges.” (09/04/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/09/04/oligarchy-and-redistribution-a-reply-to-paul-krugman/