This is the best intro to a magazine story I’ve seen in ages. These three paragraphs by Jeffrey A. Winters have real stopping power:

In 2005, Citigroup offered its high net-worth clients in the United States a concise statement of the threats they and their money faced.

The report told them they were the leaders of a “plutonomy,” an economy driven by the spending of its ultra-rich citizens. “At the heart of plutonomy is income inequality,” which is made possible by “capitalist-friendly governments and tax regimes.”

The danger, according to Citigroup’s analysts, is that “personal taxation rates could rise – dividends, capital gains, and inheritance taxes would hurt the plutonomy.” [In These Times]

How is it possible, Winters wonders, that our society has made such strides towards equality on race, gender, sexual orientation and disability, yet has fallen so far behind in income equality? The answer, Winters argues, is oligarchy.

[Photo credit: Lee Bailey, Creative Commons.]