ABSTRACT
The worthy rich travel in an exclusive circle for which mere money does not qualify its members. There are clubs, resorts, and communities for which people's whole background must be examined before they can be admitted. The worthy rich come from good OLD families, have grace and manners, dress properly, show good taste, and appreciate fineries like vintage wines. The unworthy rich are nouveau riche, impertinent upstarts, just barely earning their fortunes, who have to work to maintain and grow their wealth, lack grounding in society, and are ignorant of the rules of proper etiquette. Piketty proposes that inequality somewhat diminished from 1920 to 1980, but it has grown so much since then that people have entered a new Gilded Age. Piketty suggests the gap between the rich and everyone else is so wide and the possibility of intergenerational mobility so low that capitalism has become essentially a caste society.
