Morning Must-Read: Heather Boushey: On Thomas Piketty

Heather Boushey: On Thomas Piketty: “Has Piketty convinced us that ‘The past tends to devour the future’…

…[that] we are likely to see ever-increasing inequality unless we take action?…. Piketty’s predictions hinge on a few assumptions…. Policy makers in developed-country democracies obviously have the ability to raise tax rates, but for Piketty the assumption they will not is useful, as it establishes the outer bound on the rate of return if policymakers choose to eliminate all capital taxes…. Piketty provides a convincing case that there is nothing natural about equitable growth…. I agree with Piketty that we should worry whether income inequality is calcifying into wealth inequality. I am far less concerned about whether his predictions about the rate of return on capital or the rate of growth are precisely true…. I’m living in the here and now, where the top 1 percent take home an astonishing 22 percent of total national income, leaving too many unable to tap into the benefits of economic growth. This is not a sustainable system… not good for the economy… either.