Defenders of the economic status quo in America continue to assert that economic inequality (1) doesn’t exist, (2) isn’t as bad as you think, or (3) is actually good for everybody.

That’s despite empirical evidence that the gap between the rich and the middle class is wide and growing and that the trend is hollowing out the middle class, as well as sociological findings of its corrosive effect on society and politics. Among the “grave moral consequences of widening inequality in an environment of modest growth” identified by political economist Benjamin M. Friedman in 2009, for instance, are “racial and religious discrimination, antipathy toward immigrants, [and] lack of generosity toward the poor”–all features of our current campaign…