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The problem with saying it’s the tax code is that there are so few else who also became that rich despite having the same tax code.

Personally I think it’s luck, a lottery with no upper bound with ever diminishing odds of winning as the prize goes up.

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>The problem with saying it’s the tax code is that there are so few else who also became that rich

The whole point of the article is that there are more ultra wealthy now than there ever were before.

>Personally I think it’s luck

So what, some people are just luckier now?

> So what, some people are just luckier now?

Yes. Partly. Peak relative wealth — or the specific Gini coefficient — is not something I would expect to be constant, but is something I expect to be modified by social policies more than tax rates: what the money is spent on is more important than how much is raised.

Luck is a big factor in the success of startups, but it is not the only factor. E.g. Jeff Bezos is lucky, but he's not merely lucky.

Certainly. I do not mean to imply it is only luck, merely that luck is the major difference between him and any of my successful private sector employers.

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