Bob Murphy reviews Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Here’s Bob’s conclusion:
After all of the above, you might be tempted to excuse Piketty’s numerous, fatal errors because after all, his goal is to help poor people. Yet as I document elsewhere, the book is filled with shocking quotations making it perfectly clear that Piketty’s proposed taxes are not designed to raise revenue, but instead are designed to prevent people from creating large wealth and incomes in the first place.
I must admit, I learned a lot from reading Piketty’s book. Specifically, I learned how many self-styled progressives today are willing to sacrifice the standard of living of billions of poor people, in order to prevent a few people from becoming really rich.
Stephanie Rugolo explains that the economic well-being of the poor is improved by globalized free markets – globalized free markets that Piketty would burden with heavy taxes in order to reduce the economic well-being of the rich.
I look forward to Kevin Vallier’s forthcoming evaluation of Piketty’s normative arguments.
Phil Magness on Piketty: start here, then go here; now here and here; and now here; then here; and finally (for now) here. (HT Steve Horwitz)
