El triunfo de la injusticia

The runaway inequality that we suffer has a clear driver: an unfair tax system. For the first time in more than a century, American billionaires are now being taxed at lower rates than any other social group. Meanwhile, the middle class is being asked for a greater tax effort. Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, two economists who have revolutionized the study of inequality, analyze the decisions (and sins of indecision) that have led to such a triumph of fiscal injustice. Combining historical analysis and the most cutting-edge economic contributions with an entertaining, jargon-free prose, Saez and Zucman show how the end of tax escalation ends up shaking the foundations of democracy. The United States, which was at the forefront of the fight for tax justice, has turned its back on its own tradition. If we want to prevent Europe from falling into an unfair and oligarchic drift like the one that has brought Donald Trump to power, action is urgent. Although the deterioration of the fiscal escalation in a context of increasing inequalities has been especially exacerbated on that side of the Atlantic, it is by no means specific to the United States. Fiscal injustice, one of the great political failures of our time, is a global phenomenon that demands comprehensive solutions.