Wealth Gap Rhetoric in the Face of Reality

French economist Thomas Piketty's best-seller "Capital in the Twenty-First Century" has given widespread attention to the rising gap between the world's rich and poor, and to populist calls for government action that lead to more equal distributions of income and wealth.

That rhetoric, however, overlooks the reality that any major state role in leveling income-wealth differences risks eroding economic freedom, which is the true engine of economic progress for all people.