 Numerous arguments have been brought forward against markets, either in order to reject them altogether or in order call for their limitation. One of the main criticisms of relying on markets to organize economic life points to their unequal outcomes, and the poverty – understood in absolute or relative terms – they can create. In the 19th century, this concerned in particular those members of society who did not own the means of production and therefore had to sell their labor to earn an income. During the industrial revolution a large percentage of the laboring classes turned into a proletariat that, in Marx’ and Engels’ famous words, had “nothing to lose but its chains” [Communist Manifesto, 1848]. The ability of markets to be a “tide that lifts all boats” (a phrase attributed to J.F. Kennedy) has thus been questioned at least since the 19th century. Critics have called for a more equal distribution of resources in society. Often, this criticism was combined with the call for a complete overthrow of the capitalist system, which was seen as self-undermining because of the ever-greater divisions it created; this debate has been revived by the publication of Piketty (2014) and the ensuing controversies about diverging tendencies in capitalist societies.