Let me start with the economist Sherwin Rosen. In the early eighties, he wrote papers about “the economics of superstars.” In one of the papers he conveyed his sense of outrage that a basketball player could earn $1.2 million a year, or a television celebrity could make $2 million. To get an idea of how this concentration is increasing—i.e., of how we are moving away from Mediocristan—consider that
