.. meta::
   :description: Rognlie showed Piketty's rising capital share is housing, not productive capital. Rome, China, and India maintained extreme inequality for centuries.
   :keywords: Piketty, r > g, Rognlie, housing capital, Kuznets waves, Milanovic, Scheidel, Great Leveler, Acemoglu, adversarial review
   :author: Yah, Yas, everyone, LLoL as Laurence Loewe of Laodicea, ClaudeOp46Max, Anthropic, and Spirit of Boolean Truth
   :og:card:title: Con-D.6 — Piketty's r > g<br>Does Not Entail Collapse
   :og:card:description: The rising capital share is driven by housing, not productive capital. And empires maintained extreme inequality for centuries without civilizational collapse.

.. SOCIAL-CARD-QUALITY-COMPARE --- OO (default effort) vs PP (max effort), 2026-03-26
   OO :description: Adversarial objection: Piketty's r > g is contested, and even granted, inequality can persist without collapse. Severity D.
   OO :keywords: Piketty, r > g, Rognlie, housing capital, Kuznets waves, Scheidel, Great Leveler, adversarial review, theodicy
   OO :og:card:title: Con-D.6 — Piketty's r > g<br>Is Contested
   OO :og:card:description: Rognlie showed the rising capital share is driven by housing, not productive capital. Inequality can persist for centuries without collapse.
   PP :description: Rognlie showed Piketty's rising capital share is housing, not productive capital. Rome, China, and India maintained extreme inequality for centuries.
   PP :keywords: Piketty, r > g, Rognlie, housing capital, Kuznets waves, Milanovic, Scheidel, Great Leveler, Acemoglu, adversarial review
   PP :og:card:title: Con-D.6 — Piketty's r > g<br>Does Not Entail Collapse
   PP :og:card:description: The rising capital share is driven by housing, not productive capital. And empires maintained extreme inequality for centuries without civilizational collapse.

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   dv_ClaOp46_PP_2026m03d26 --- max-effort rewrite, read full page.
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.. Migration: from quest.rst label jub-con6 -> jub-con16
..   Phase 2I-6 migration, 2026-03-24

.. include:: /_templates/include-file/page-prefix.rst

.. _jub-con16:

Con-D.6 --- Piketty's r > g Is Contested; Does Not Entail Collapse
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*Severity: D (Substantial)*  |  *Sphere: Se6*  |  *Target: th8 (evidence base)*

The PET system's empirical case for "capitalism without Jubilee leads
to BABL" leans heavily on Piketty's r > g thesis. This premise is
contested:

1. **Rognlie (2015)** showed Piketty's rising capital share is driven
   almost entirely by housing, not productive capital. Net-of-housing
   capital income shares have been roughly stable.

2. **Acemoglu and Robinson (2015)** argued Piketty's "general laws of
   capitalism" ignore institutional roles. Wealth concentration is
   a consequence of specific institutional arrangements, not an iron
   law.

3. **Even granting r > g, inequality can persist for centuries without
   civilizational collapse.** The Roman Empire, Chinese imperial
   system, and Indian caste system all maintained extreme inequality
   for extended periods.

**Steel-man:** Milanovic (2016) documents "Kuznets waves" — inequality
rising and falling over long periods without convergence to either of
th8's two attractors. Scheidel (2017), *The Great Leveler*, shows the
historical forces that actually reduce inequality are mass-mobilization
warfare, revolution, state collapse, and pandemics — not voluntary
Jubilee. The mechanism of redistribution matters, and the historical
record does not support voluntary periodic resets as the primary mode
of preventing concentration.

*(Source: C6 from OOv1 Critique Round 1.)*