It's not surprising that at this time of year, even if it's just during the pre-game interviews, I like to take a few minutes to celebrate what may be America's greatest socialist institution, and the active system of redistribution that helps make it so great.

The rich won't be so easy to persuade -- in a massively unequal society, even modest economic growth still benefits economic elites. Don't worry about growth, worry about inequality.

In a market economy, the median voter's income will invariably be below the national average creating an apparently compelling opportunity for a politics of redistribution. This makes the sustained increase in income inequality in the United States and other developed countries a bit of a puzzle.

As inequality grows, the rich become more powerful than the rest of the population, enabling them to veto any policy that impedes their one-sided enrichment. They also become less empathetic toward the rest of the population, whose lives seem less similar to their own with each passing year.

The intellectual terrain that the Catholic Church now navigates is far different from now than it was even a few short years ago. Thomas Piketty's "Capital in the 21st Century" is on the top of Amazon's best-seller lists, and Francis is on his way to becoming one of the most popular popes in history.

Americans face a genuine dilemma. If they are truly committed to equality of opportunity, then they will have to demand vigorous measures to reduce the drastic levels of inequality that now divide the nation.