Why has domestic inequality risen, and fallen, and risen?

This chapter examines theories about what drives broad-based expansions and contractions in inequality. These theories set the stage for examining the seven primary reasons behind our current trend toward increasing inequality; reasons that are not mutually exclusive. The factors that are driving growing within-country inequality today are the result of the changing nature of production in modern, information-based economies, and the impact that these economic changes are having on our social norms. Changes in our economics—such as the growing importance of education-intensive labor, intangible capital, the role of globalization, and the creation of economic superstars and winner-takes-all markets—have changed the ways that we organize ourselves in our work, but also the ways that we organize our families, our broader society, and our politics. All of these factors are contributing to the growing domestic inequality we are experiencing today.