Should-Read: Thomas Piketty (2015): Putting Distribution Back at the Center of Economics: Reflections on Capital in the Twenty-First Century

Should-Read: Thomas Piketty (2015): Putting Distribution Back at the Center of Economics: Reflections on Capital in the Twenty-First Century: “until 1914, the French elite often justified its strong opposition to the creation of a progressive income tax by referring to the principles of the French Revolution…

…France had become equal after 1789 thanks to the end of aristocratic privileges and the development of well-protected property rights for the entire population. Because everybody had been made equal in their ability to hold property, there was no need for progressive taxation (which would be suitable for aristocratic Britain, the story went, but not for republican France). What I find particularly striking in this pre-1914 debate is the combination of strong beliefs in property-rights-centered institutions and an equally strong denial of high inequality. In my book, I try to understand what we can learn from the fact that wealth inequality was as large in France in 1914 as in 1789, and also from the fact that much of the elite was trying to deny this. I believe there are important implications for the current rise in wealth and income inequality and the current attempts to minimize or deny that they are occurring…