The Power of Numbers – and the Power of Suggestion

Hardly any number has shaped the French debate on inequality in recent years more than the "42 percent." It stands for the claim that the 500 richest French people today own wealth equivalent to 42 percent of the French gross domestic product. The number feels monumental – almost obscene. It evokes a country whose economic substance is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few families and corporations. It's no…