In the context of the ideological emptiness in bourgeois theory created by the Great Recession, it is by no means coincidence that Piketty’s book, which focuses on the dynamics of inequality in the capitalist economy, has become a significant political event, especially in Anglo-Saxon countries, and particularly in the US. According to The Guardian “Carrying it under your arm has, in certain latitudes of Manhattan, become the newest tool for making a social connection among young progressives.” The book that some consider the counterpart of the Fukuyama “moment” that took place more than a decade ago, and which is suggestively known just as “Capital” in the US, has generated an overwhelming variety of reviews from every position of economic theory. Originally published in Ideas de Izquierda 10 Thomas Piketty’s book Capital in the 21st Century has reached second place on the Amazon bestsellers list, and third on the The New York Times’ list. Is it not the same with knowledge? Endowments matter in the acquisition of knowledge too because technological diffusion depends on existing technology and skill capacity.Considerations on Thomas Piketty and inequality as manifest destinyĮconomist, Karl Marx Institute - Argentina In other words, wealth begets more wealth. Piketty’s fundamental inequality, r > g, is ‘amplified by inequality in the returns on capital as a function of initial portfolio size’ (439) arising primarily from ‘“economies of scale” in portfolio management’ (431). He underplays this element of contingency when he writes that the ‘overall conclusion of this study is that a market economy based on private property, if left to itself, contains powerful forces of convergence associated in particular with the diffusion of knowledge and skills’ (571). It also depends in large part on educational policies, access to training and to the acquisition of appropriate skills, and associated institutions’ (22, also 71). Indeed, as Piketty notes, ‘the principal force for convergence-the diffusion of knowledge-is only partly natural and spontaneous. ‘The main forces for convergence are the diffusion of knowledge and investment in training and skills’ (21). For Piketty, capitalism generates forces of convergence as well as divergence.

Capital book thomas piketty