On May 5, 1789, King Louis XVI of France inaugurated the Estates-General. The institution convened that year to address the problem of rampant inflation and the bankruptcy of the monarchy, which was deeply indebted due to a lack of revenue. Neither the nobility nor the clergy paid taxes. Not because they were short of money. Their reason for exemption was simpler and more absurd: it was their privilege.

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Inequality today is worse than what the United States experienced during the Gilded Age at the end of the 19th century, says Joseph Stiglitz. “The wealthiest person in that era was Rockefeller. And his wealth really doesn’t compare to that of Elon Musk, Larry Ellison, Jeff Bezos, and some of the new billionaires,” explains the economist, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2001, in a phone interview. “Their political influence under Donald Trump is also unprecedented, with Musk being the clearest example.”

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