The role of the owner in new capitalist accumulation processes: The case of Finland

In this chapter, we explore the role that ownership and capital income play in creating today’s top earnings and elites, even in a relatively equal society, such as that of Finland, with a strong welfare model. We address the question of income and wealth accumulation by drawing on our large empirical research on the top 0.1% of earners in Finland between 2007 and 2016. In the project, we tracked the top 0.1% from income tax data and identified their sources of income from public records. The three largest groups among the top 0.1% were inheritors of family fortunes, entrepreneurs, and business executives. We also interviewed 90 individuals among them and gathered statistical data. Our results show that private owners of wealth – most notably inheritors and entrepreneurs – constitute the highest-earning group among the top 0.1%, thus playing a substantial role in the intense accumulation of incomes at the top. By analysing how ownership creates top incomes in a Nordic society that has historically tamed income inequalities actively yet has also witnessed the growing pressures of economic inequalities at the top, we contribute to contemporary discussions on the economic role of the elites and on the dynamics of accumulation through ownership. In doing so, we take steps to further illuminate an axiomatic but a surprisingly neglected economic position in contemporary capitalism and elite studies, that of the owner who accumulates income and wealth by virtue of ownership.