Economics and Inequality - Piketty

  

 

The world’s foremost economist talks about wealth, inequality, and ideology. A video introduction. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5Zb9Iu2wI0&t=1s

 

Nobody comes out of the womb a socialist, and Thomas Piketty, like the rest of us, was not born a socialist.  Socialists are made through life experiences, and the experiences that create socialists are unique to each of us even if there may be some common themes. 

In 2014, Piketty published an 800-page book, Capital in the 21st Century. Despite its length and the fact that it was written by an economist, the book became a global best seller. It contained many ideas and proposals that socialists support, but Piketty did not define himself as a socialist.

Now he does. And his socialism is not dissimilar to that of many DSA members: it is opposed to hierarchies of domination based on gender, race, ethnicity, etc. It is a socialism that compels us to “change the economic system” by reducing inequalities and providing equal access to “education, employment and property, including a minimum inheritance for all, regardless of their origins” (p. 25). 

I think what made Piketty (and myself) a socialist is a long-time concern with inequality, especially wealth inequality and how to counter the overwhelming global power and planetary destructiveness of this concentration of wealth.  Let me be clear: Piketty does argue that wealth is less concentrated than perhaps it was in the “gilded age” of the late nineteenth century. But I believe – and I think he would agree – that the global concentration of wealth in the hands of no more than 2,500 people, a group – dare we say a global ruling class – that collectively holds more wealth than the global underclass of 4.6 billion, poses an existential challenge to humanity, and one that socialists must take on if we can have any hopes of “changing] the economic system.”  

https://www.dsausa.org/democratic-left/review-thomas-pikettys-time-for-socialism-dispatches-from-a-world-on-fire/

Bill Barclay.

Piketty in a video describes what he sees as the major ideological discussions of our time. 

In this interview he discusses what he thinks of the writing of Karl Marx.

https://www.dsausa.org/democratic-left/piketty/