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Piketty- Capital in the Twenty -First Century. Quote 1: “The distribution of wealth is one of today’s most widely discussed and controversial issues. But what do we really know about it’s evolution over the long term ?” Wealth≠income Part 1: Theoretical concepts
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Piketty-Capital in the Twenty-First Century • Quote 1: “The distribution of wealth is one of today’s most widelydiscussedandcontroversial issues. But what do we reallyknowaboutit’sevolutionover the long term?” Wealth≠income • Part 1: Theoretical concepts • Part 2-3: Empirical findings&historical interpretation • Part 4: Predicion and policy advise
Quote 2 • ”Capitalismautomaticallygeneratesarbitraryandunsustainableinequalitiesthatradicallyundermine the meritocraticvalues on whichdemocraticsocieties are based” (p. 1)
How much of totalwealthownedby top-10%? • A) 20% • B) 30% • C) 40% • D) 50% • E) 60% • F) 70% • G) 80% • H) 90%
Causes/background • Economic • R>g • Political (1975-heden) • GlobalisationBargaining power capital (‘race to the bottom’) • Weaker unions • End of Cold War • Saturized product markets • Trans-national governance • Deregulation (or: reregulation)
Quote 3 • ”A gap r-g of fairly modest size is allthatit takes toarrive at anextremelyinegalitariandistribution of wealth” (p. 451)
Quote 4 • ”the averageincome of the parents of Harvardstudents is currentlyabout 450.000 (..) Such a finding does notseementirely compatible with the idea of selectionbasedsolely on merit” (p. 485)
Quote 5 • ”The richworld is rich, but the governments of the richworld are poor. Europe is the most extreme case: it has both the highest level of private wealth in the worldand the greatestdifficulty in resolvingits public debt crisis” (p. 485)
Quote 6&7 • ”in a democracy, the professedequality of rights of allcitizenscontrastssharplywith the very real inequality of living conditions” (p. 423) • “The top thousandth would then own 60% of global wealth, which is hard to imagine in the framework of existing political institutions unless there is a particulary effective system of repression or an extremely powerful apparatus of persuasion, or perhaps both” (p. 439)
On the roadtopatrimonialcapitalism • Vautrin’slesson in Balzac’s Pere Goriot (1835) to Rastignac
FinalsentencePiketty • “Refusingto deal withnumbersrarely serves the interests of the least well-off” (p. 577).