Their analysis hits on a final reason to be concerned about the large and growing inequality of recent years: it could lead to the creation of extractive institutions that would slow our journey into the second machine age. We think this would be something more than a shame; it would be closer to a tragedy. We also believe, based on the work of Acemoglu and Robinson and others, that it is a plausible scenario. Instead of being confident that the bounty from technology will more than compensate for the spread it generates, we are instead concerned about something close to the reverse: that the
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