Are the rich getting richer? Take our quiz on inequality and incomes.

The income gap between rich and poor has widened in the United States and in many other advanced economies since the 1970s. The trend makes this a hot political topic at a time when middle-class families feel they are struggling to get ahead, and as some wonder whether inequality is harming economic growth. This quiz tests how big (or narrow!) your own "gap" is when it comes to knowing the economics and politics of income disparities from the French Revolution to the Great Recession.

2. Inequality doesn’t all stem from meritocracy. In the US, for example, inequality researcher Richard Reeves identifies which of the following as policies that prevent greater social mobility?

Issei Kato/Reuters
A money changer shows some one-hundred U.S. dollar bills at an exchange booth in Tokyo November 8, 2010.

“Legacy preferences” in college admissions, favoring children of alumni.

Exclusive zoning, such as for only a neighborhood to include only detached single-family homes.

The tax deduction for mortgage interest

All of the above

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About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

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