Source: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgxwDrHqWJXcNpQfRgjKlmBppvhhT
September 13, 2019
By EconomicPolicyJournal – Robert Wenzel
French socialist economist Thomas Piketty, whose 2013 book on inequality, “Capital in the 21st Century,” https://www.amazon.com/Capital-Twenty-First-Century-Thomas-Piketty/dp/0674979850/ref=as_li_ss_tl?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1568338853&sr=8-1&linkCode=sl1&tag=economicpolicyjournal-20&linkId=f884b4bf033ddb5f952f3620c1165d90&language=en_US became a global bestseller, has just published a 1,200-page follow-up book called “Capital and Ideology.” https://www.amazon.com/Capital-Ideology-Thomas-Piketty/dp/0674980824/ref=as_li_ss_tl?keywords=Capital+and+Ideology&qid=1568338914&s=gateway&sr=8-1&linkCode=sl1&tag=economicpolicyjournal-20&linkId=3cd431fb3e5c6f35c9a9874f7b05dcbe&language=en_US
It won’t be published in English until March. But in an interview with the French magazine L’Obs, Piketty called for a graduated wealth tax of 5% on those worth 2 million euros or more and up to 90% on those worth more than 2 billion euros.
Yes, 90%!
“Entrepreneurs will have millions or tens of millions,” he said. “But beyond that, those who have hundreds of millions or billions will have to share with shareholders, who could be employees. So no, there won’t be billionaires anymore. How can we justify that their existence is necessary for the common good? Contrary to what is often said, their enrichment was obtained thanks to these collective goods, which are the public knowledge, the infrastructures, the laboratories of research.”
This guy has no understanding of how the economy works and the importance of capital accumulation. He has no understanding of how the taxation of capital, to be redistributed by government, destroys the productive engine of an economy.
In short, he is not a very deep thinker but sure knows how to do surface-level promotion based around current pop thinking around the absurd concept of egalitarianism.
Bloomberg notes https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-09-12/thomas-piketty-s-capital-and-ideology-expropriation-by-another:
To Piketty, 1980 marked a regrettable turning point as leaders such as Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher turned their backs on progressive taxation. He writes:
Both American and European growth were stronger in the egalitarian 1950-1980 period than in the subsequent period, characterized by rising inequality, raising serious questions about the social utility of the latter. The greater increase in inequality observed since 1980 in the U.S., compared to Europe, has also generated little additional growth, and in any case has not benefited the poorest 50%, who have experienced total stagnation in their absolute standard of living in the U.S. and a collapse in their relative level.
For the problems with egalitarianism, see: Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays by Murray Rothbard
And there is this about Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century:
Phil Magness@PhilWMagness
Since Piketty is back in the news, here’s a reminder that his last book was an error-riddled mess of tortured and misrepresented data. Will the new one be any different?https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2543012 …
9:50 PM – Sep 12, 2019
Emma Olive 