Rising inequality has reduced the supply of legal aid by kindling resistance to taxation. A sense of entitlement to income produced by the fruits of one’s own labor has always existed, but in today’s winner-take-all economy, those on top earn vastly more than before. And changes in campaign finance laws have enabled them to lobby successfully for lower tax rates, contributing to widening budget deficits.

Those shortfalls help explain why the Legal Services Corporation, which received more than $860 million in 1981, received only $385 million in 2017 (both in 2017 dollars).

Rising inequality has increased the need for legal assistance by inflating the cost to low-income families of achieving other basic goals.

In almost every modern society, for example, an important goal of parents is to send their children to good schools. But a “good school” is an inescapably relative concept — it is one that compares favorably with other schools in the local environment. And the best schools are almost invariably located in costlier neighborhoods.

Higher spending on housing by top earners has shifted the frames of reference that shape spending by those just below them, and so on. Because of this expenditure cascade, the median new house in the United States is now 50 percent larger than in 1980, even though median income has grown little in the interim.

The share of poor families’ income spent on housing has thus risen sharply, and the inevitable struggle to keep pace has caused measurable increases in economic and social distress. In United States census data, for example, counties in which income inequality grew most rapidly also saw the biggest increases in bankruptcy filings, long commutes and divorce rates.

Is this a matter of public concern? Most economists celebrate reliance on market rates of pay in the name of efficiency, but many go on to argue that they also promote a measure of fairness, rewarding those who work hard and invest in developing their skills. Well and good. Yet it is an overreach to claim that market-determined rates of pay are morally just.