It's not entirely obvious that inequality is increasing

It's a standard trope of our times that inequality is increasing beyond all reasonable levels. And it's also true that this isn't really quite true. Inequality within the rich countries has been increasing in recent decades, this is true. But global inequality has been falling. And now from Branko Milanovic (one of the major scholars on this subject) we get that chart above, and this:

...the noted convergence of countries’ inequality levels (see the graph, indicating that countries with higher inequality before 1980 had smaller increases or even declines in inequality since)?

He's actually arguing about something else which is why the quote is so truncated. But this is interesting, don't you think? While there has been rising inequality in some to many countries in recent decades those with the highest original inequality have seen, in some cases at least, falls. And that convergence does mean that the world is, at the country level, becoming equally unequal.

The standard trope of that increasing inequality has more than a few problems with it therefore: not just that decreasing global inequality but also this convergence of inequality. and that's before we even get into things like trying to measure inequality of consumption, adjusted for price levels, at which point we'd be very hard pressed indeed to claim that there's been any rise in inequality in the UK at all.