Ricardo Gómez-Carrera, a research economist at the World Inequality Lab and co-editor of the 2026 World Inequality Report, discusses his research on the benefits of early schooling and how early human capital investment closes the “inequality gap” and the effects of such research within current Mexican educational policy. Focusing on the finding of this year’s World Inequality Report, Gómez-Carrera elaborates on the increasing wealth disparities on a global scale such that wealth is becoming even more concentrated, as demonstrated by the fact that the top 10% earn 53% of the global income, “the top 10% own three-quarters of global wealth, while the bottom half holds only 2%,” and, for the top .001%, the distribution of wealth growth is as high as 8% per year. Gómez-Carrera argues that if we don’t address inequality, only the privileged will have rights, opportunities, assets, and control over politics. Ultimately, even if 90% or 99% of the population are paying their taxes and contributing to society, the top 1% maintain a disproportionate influence over politics and access to opportunities, which in turn influences the decisions that ensure they maintain their privilege. While power, as Gómez-Carrera clarifies, is becoming more and more concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, the negative effects of such power, such as ecological damage, will be felt disproportionately by the poor, as they are more vulnerable to the impacts of global warming, despite their contributing less to this damage. Examining one of the more surprising aspects of the 2016 World Inequality Report, he notes how the top .001% increased in their charitable donations since 1960, a gesture which moves the wealthy beyond strictly economic realms of power. Noting how the economic patterns suggest a rising top-end inequality, Gómez-Carrera claims that this not only translates into ideological capture and unequal influence over philanthropy and politics, but it invariably translates into public policy, law, campaigning, and, invariably, political choices, or lack thereof.

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