Back during the gold rush, there was a sudden explosion of inequality. In the mining towns, some owned concessions, business licenses and strategic assets – and these were the ones who made the most money. Everyone else (especially the miners) just got poorer. It’s called the “Cantillon effect” and it explains the deep imbalance between the distribution of wealth there where it cycles the most. Yesterday like today. In the XXI century just like in the days of the boomtowns, expansionary monetary policies, quantitative easing and the emission of public debt have all contributed to the erosion of monetary value. This has deepened social inequality, especially in the Silicon Valley – which appears as a frontier of technological innovation, but which looks more and more like our tragic and unfair future.

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