Thomas Piketty's Theory of Economic Inequality is A Natural: Wealth Grows Faster Than Incomes

Thomas Piketty, author of  Capital in the Twenty-First Century, makes a major contribution by putting forth a theory of natural economic evolution under capitalism. 

His argument is that capital or wealth grows at the rate of return to capital, a rate that normally exceeds the economic growth rate. Thus, economies will tend to have ever-increasing ratios of wealth to income, barring huge disturbances like wars and depressions. 

Since wealth is highly concentrated, it follows that inequality will tend to increase without bound until a policy change is introduced or some kind of catastrophe interferes with wealth accumulation.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/05/thomas-piketty-is-right-about-the-past-and-wrong-about-the-future/370994/

Why We’re in a New Gilded Age

Thomas Piketty, professor at the Paris School of Economics, writes in Capital in the Twenty-First Century that we haven’t just gone back to 19th-century levels of income inequality, we’re also on a path back to “patrimonial capitalism,” in which the commanding heights of the economy are controlled not by talented individuals but by family dynasties.

Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman, Professor of Economics & International Affairs at Princeton, and New York Times columnist, smartly unpacks the statistical evidence here:  http://billmoyers.com/2014/04/16/paul-krugman-why-we%E2%80%99re-in-a-new-gilded-age/ 

Piketty ends Capital in the Twenty-First Century with a call to arms — a call, in particular, for wealth taxes, global if possible, to restrain the growing power of inherited wealth. It’s easy to be cynical about the prospects for anything of the kind. But surely Piketty’s masterly diagnosis of where we are and where we’re heading makes such a thing considerably more likely.

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5 hypocritical credos used to justify inequality

The hypocrisy is spread evenly among corporations, Congress, and free-market apologists, all of whom insult and imperil average Americans with their double standards. Here are some of the worst:

1. Poor People Just Need to Get a Job. But there are No Jobs.

2. Government is the Problem. Unless the Rich Need a Subsidy.

3. “The Free Market System Distributes the Fruits of Economic Progress Among All People”

4. Entitlements Must Be Cut. Except for the Entitlements Owned by the Rich.

5. The Super-Rich are the Most Productive Americans – They Earn Everything They Make

http://www.salon.com/2014/02/25/5_hypocritical_credos_gop_uses_to_justify_inequality_partner/