Reply To: Historical data on wealth distribution

#18463
samgheb
Participant

I have tried looking at studies of inequality and I have only found 2 that correlate with Pareto’s distribution.
Looking at a lot of different data sets like those made by Piketty it doesn’t show Pareto’s principle at work except that wealth is very concentrated.

Could this be because Pareto’s principle should primarily be understood as one power law among many. Reading Richard Koch’s book on the Pareto principle he suggests it shouldn’t be taken face value even if the precise 80/20 distribution does in fact turn up many times in socal findings. Should I take the principle as a mean from which to measure distributions or rather a metaphor for how small number of actors create a majority of results?