Tax Day is a reminder of America’s unequal tax system. But we can fix it | Zohran Mamdani, Gabriel Zucman and Joseph Stiglitz

There is no justification for a regressive system in which the super-rich contribute less than the rest of us

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oday, we have more income and wealth inequality than ever before. New York City’s average household income is $131,000. Without extreme inequality, residents could live reasonably well. Instead, a few people at the top of the income ladder capture enormous wealth, while millions of others struggle just to get by. Some simply can’t make it. For them, New York has become fundamentally unaffordable.

This outsized level of inequality has enormous economic, political and social consequences. It undermines social and political cohesion, erodes trust in institutions and leads people to conclude, correctly, that the system is rigged.

Nearly one-fifth of America’s super-rich live in New York, the highest concentration of wealth in any state. But inequality is not just a New York problem or even an American problem – though the United States is more unequal than almost every other advanced economy. It is a global crisis.