The principle of equality precedes our government and is foundational to it. Thomas Jefferson believed this principle to be “self-evident”; Abraham Lincoln considered it the “proposition” to which the country is “dedicated.”
But there are those who maintain that the opposite is closer to the truth. What is self-evident, they affirm, is inequality in power, wealth, influence, education, achievement and ability, between individuals and groups alike. A mass of damning statistical evidence can be cited, from Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century to articles such as “The Top One Percent of Americans Have Taken $50 Trillion From the Bottom 90 Percent,” “Ten Shocking Facts About Inequality in America,” and many more.
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