We discussed it sitting near a priceless painting by a master with only a few examples of his work in private hands. This was all brought to mind by the recent publication of the book Capital in the Twenty First Century by French economist Thomas Piketty. It s being hailed by some as one of a handful of important economic treatises in the last years. Others question it as the work of a naïve academic.
A But the gist of Piketty s findings based on centuries of historical economic analysis is that returns to capital have except for a time after the wars and depression of the twentieth century outpaced economic growth. As a result Chinese Overseas America Number Data returns to labor have lagged far behind accentuating the concentration of income and wealth in the hands of an increasingly small number of people. The pace of this trend has accelerated since the s. Work by a number of other economists disputed at times suggests that inequality of wealth is associated with slowing economic growth. To Piketty s way of thinking forces leading to inequality are so serious that they threaten democracy.
His data suggest that unless halted by external mechanisms the situation is not self correcting. His preferred form of intervention is a global tax on real wealth minus debt . that a mechanism be devised to effect a proportional transfer of wealth from the top to the bottom of the social structure by reducing the tax burden for those at the bottom. The object here is not to analyze Piketty s work or biases—this is already happening. His strong views on oversized executive paychecks are under debate and estimates of wealth can be subjective.
發表於 2024-3-12 12:07:23
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