The increase in income inequality that has so greatly excited French economist Thomas Piketty and others is really just a natural outgrowth of the technology revolution, says John Steele Gordon, author of "An Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power."

He notes that it now takes $1.3 billion to make the Forbes 400. "Many regard this as a serious problem, seeing the development of a plutocracy dominating the American economy through the sheer power of its wealth," Gordon writes in The Wall Street Journal.

He begs to differ. "The great growth of fortunes in recent decades is not a sinister development," Gordon says.

Editor’s Note: Retire 10 Years Earlier With These 4 Stocks

"It is simply the inevitable result of an extraordinary technological innovation, the microprocessor, which Intel brought to market in 1971. Seven of the 10 largest fortunes in America today were built on this technology."

Those fortunes concentrate wealth at the top of the totem pole, Gordon writes.

"But no one is poorer because Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, et al, are so much richer," he says. "These new fortunes came into existence only because the public wanted the products and services—and lower prices—that the microprocessor made possible."

Interestingly enough, some experts say that the biggest challenge to the wealthiest Americans will come from those just below them, rather than from the middle class and the poor.

"The really upset people are those that are well in the top of the distribution," Nolan McCarty, a political scientist at Princeton University, told The New York Times. "There could be a populist uprising, but that is less likely than a battle within the top 1 percent."

Editor’s Note: Retire 10 Years Earlier With These 4 Stocks

Related Articles:

• Paul Krugman: Piketty Is Right on Inequality
• Piketty: Fed's Huge Stimulus Mostly Benefits the Rich