[rwcarlsen]

I didn't throw out any "alternative world scenarios". I was just pointing out that a lot of things were going on in the world that could easily have had a very significant impact on things such as income inequality. There are also many examples in economics where a simple/obvious solution actually has the opposite of the intended effect. Rent price control would be an obvious example (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent_regulation#Economists'_vi...).

If you want to dig in to the gory details of reaganomics, economists have researched and debated about its effects for decades. There are many economists who make cases both for and against it having appreciably affected income inequality in various ways.