The past four chapters have focused on the distribution of wealth in various segments of the population. I profiled the entire population in Chapter 3. In Chapters 4 and 5, I concentrated on wealth ownership patterns among the rich, middle class, and poor, and in Chapter 6, I compared patterns of wealth ownership and distribution across generations. I now turn my attention to a more a detailed investigation of the processes that underlie these patterns. I begin, in this chapter, with an examination of the role that social and economic trends play in creating, reproducing, and changing the distribution of wealth. As the quote by Marx above suggests, microlevel changes in well-being correspond in important ways to periodic, and in some cases predictable, changes in aggregate-level cycles. In this chapter, I identify some of the aggregate trends that are relevant to understanding wealth inequality, and I specify the nature of the relationships between these trends and microlevel patterns of well-being. I examine the role that demographic patterns, financial and real estate market trends, and government policies play in creating patterns of wealth distribution. As I do in other chapters, I explicitly examine patterns of wealth accumulation and distribution in the United States between 1962 and 1995. I hope, however, that some of the lessons of this period are generalizable to patterns of inequality in the United States and elsewhere both during other historical periods and in future times.