However, a given level of inequality can only remain constant if income growth is balanced (i.e. equal rates of income growth at all percentiles of the income distribution).1 When income growth is unbalanced, the level of inequality changes over time. It is one thing to say: “Australia is more unequal now than it was in 1980”, and quite another thing to say: “Australia is more unequal now than it w'as in 1980 and Australians can expect it to get ever more unequal each year into the indefinite future.” This paper therefore asks what the implications of ever increasing inequality might be and whether this can possibly be a steady state.