thomas piketty - his book on wealth inequality

Propagandhi711 wrote:Where did you glean that he only leans to the left? He's considered far left even in France which means he has Karl Marx and lenin's photos above his mantel. Nothing new except data which got liberals in the west all tingly in the shorts. Core to his thesis is capital has been yielding more returns than sweat and that's leading to inequality...what that means in practical terms is to tax tax tax which gets the bicoastals excited like it were 1917. Prepare yourself for a barrage of bar charts soon

Propagandhi711 wrote:Yeah that's how it starts...govt expansion in the most innocuous and noble sounding words and next thing there will be an educated elite with most of others working in collectives so there is no more broadbased inequality..that is the most fair system of all

Propagandhi711 wrote:Where did you glean that he only leans to the left? He's considered far left even in France which means he has Karl Marx and lenin's photos above his mantel. Nothing new except data which got liberals in the west all tingly in the shorts. Core to his thesis is capital has been yielding more returns than sweat and that's leading to inequality...what that means in practical terms is to tax tax tax which gets the bicoastals excited like it were 1917. Prepare yourself for a barrage of bar charts soon

truthbetold wrote:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/stoi/deep-focus/Top-1-in-India-owns-8-9-of-national-income-rockstar-economist-Thomas-Piketty-says/articleshow/34949259.cms

He collected and analyzed lot of data on wealth of nations.
he leans left but is not affiliated to a specific ism such as Marxism.

I am planning to read this book. It will take a long time for me to finish the book. Would appreciate any cliff notes versions.
His data driven approach makes the book a must read for me.

Idéfix wrote:

Propagandhi711 wrote:Yeah that's how it starts...govt expansion in the most innocuous and noble sounding words and next thing there will be an educated elite with most of others working in collectives so there is no more broadbased inequality..that is the most fair system of all

Hahaha, your ignorance never fails to shine through your posts on this subject. Did you know that His Holiness Saint-King Ronald Reagan did exactly what Max suggested above -- raised the capital gains tax rate to match the peak earned income tax rate?

In the name of fairness, the Tax Reform Act of 1986 raised the maximum tax rate on long-term capital gains to 28 percent from 20 percent at the same time it reduced the maximum rate on ordinary income to 28 percent from 50 percent.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/23/business/a-starting-point-for-tax-reform-what-reagan-did.html

Time to accuse the Saint-King of treading on the slippery slope to socialism, perhaps?

Idéfix wrote:

Propagandhi711 wrote:Where did you glean that he only leans to the left? He's considered far left even in France which means he has Karl Marx and lenin's photos above his mantel. Nothing new except data which got liberals in the west all tingly in the shorts. Core to his thesis is capital has been yielding more returns than sweat and that's leading to inequality...what that means in practical terms is to tax tax tax which gets the bicoastals excited like it were 1917. Prepare yourself for a barrage of bar charts soon

More ignorance on display.

Isaac Chotiner: Can you talk a little bit about the effect of Marx on your thinking and how you came to start reading him?

Thomas Piketty: Marx?

IC: Yeah.

TP: I never managed really to read it. I mean I don’t know if you’ve tried to read it. Have you tried?

IC: Some of his essays, but not the economics work.

TP: The Communist Manifesto of 1848 is a short and strong piece. Das Kapital, I think, is very difficult to read and for me it was not very influential.

IC: Because your book, obviously with the title, it seemed like you were tipping your hat to him in some ways.

TP: No not at all, not at all! The big difference is that my book is a book about the history of capital. In the books of Marx there’s no data.

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117655/thomas-piketty-interview-economist-discusses-his-distaste-marx

Idéfix wrote:The Economist magazine is not known for its leftist leanings. Here is the magazine's review of the book:

http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21592635-revisiting-old-argument-about-impact-capitalism-all-men-are-created

Note the absence of ignorance-based labels.

Propagandhi711 wrote:

Idéfix wrote:

Propagandhi711 wrote:Yeah that's how it starts...govt expansion in the most innocuous and noble sounding words and next thing there will be an educated elite with most of others working in collectives so there is no more broadbased inequality..that is the most fair system of all

Hahaha, your ignorance never fails to shine through your posts on this subject. Did you know that His Holiness Saint-King Ronald Reagan did exactly what Max suggested above -- raised the capital gains tax rate to match the peak earned income tax rate?

In the name of fairness, the Tax Reform Act of 1986 raised the maximum tax rate on long-term capital gains to 28 percent from 20 percent at the same time it reduced the maximum rate on ordinary income to 28 percent from 50 percent.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/23/business/a-starting-point-for-tax-reform-what-reagan-did.html

Time to accuse the Saint-King of treading on the slippery slope to socialism, perhaps?

on one hand you claim the 70s was best for aam aadmi and excoriate reagan but on other hand you are wetting your chuddies over capital gains tax rate increase at time of his admin. conflicted much?

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:btw, stiglitz and krugman have been at this for a long time. i suppose what's different about this book is the volume of data that he has put together.

see this for example: