Medians aren&#x27;t the only important thing.  If mean incomes increase, (I think they probably have since the top 1-5% will be overrepresented in the US and Europe) then the total amount of money to go around in these countries has increased.<p>Now there might be barriers to redistributing this money (e.g. these people might be very mobile), but it might also be the case that this money is not being redistributed for other reasons.  E.g. a political shift to the right in these countries.<p>Even if redistribution had increased in the US and Europe, it might not show up in these figures, which only measure income and not, for example, service provided by the govt.