Inequality in America Is Less Than It Seems

Phil Gramm’s new book makes the case that the official statistics overstate inequality in America and understate progress and mobility.

Alexis de Tocqueville opened Democracy in America by pronouncing, “among the new things that attracted my attention during my stay in the United States, none struck me more forcefully than the equality of conditions.” Today, Bernie Sanders says that the United States has “more income and wealth inequality than any other major country on earth.” “We are the most — one of the most unequal societies in the history of the world,” proclaimed Nikole Hannah-Jones of the New...