Have you read the book? It is clearly not his focus (or area of expertise!) but the book makes its premise clear: extreme inequality is inconsistent with the meritocratic ideals upon which modern capitalist democracies are founded, and can lead to social unrest. This is close to a direct quotation from the book's introduction --0 I would quote it exactly if I had the book in front of me right now. Maybe you don't agree with this premise, but I don't think you can fault Piketty for taking it as an assumption (explicitly!), particularly given that he is not a sociologist or political philosopher.
And in either case, it strikes me a significant contribution in itself to move the debate from "does capitalism and rising productivity raise all boats?" (answer: no) to "ok then...is extreme inequality really such a bad thing?"
You're right, I was imprecise. Piketty does not claim (I don't think) that capitalism doesn't raise all boats, only that capitalism and increased productivity do not raise all boats equally.
Comments
Have you read the book? It is clearly not his focus (or area of expertise!) but the book makes its premise clear: extreme inequality is inconsistent with the meritocratic ideals upon which modern capitalist democracies are founded, and can lead to social unrest. This is close to a direct quotation from the book's introduction --0 I would quote it exactly if I had the book in front of me right now. Maybe you don't agree with this premise, but I don't think you can fault Piketty for taking it as an assumption (explicitly!), particularly given that he is not a sociologist or political philosopher.
And in either case, it strikes me a significant contribution in itself to move the debate from "does capitalism and rising productivity raise all boats?" (answer: no) to "ok then...is extreme inequality really such a bad thing?"
How is the answer to raise all boats 'no'?
You're right, I was imprecise. Piketty does not claim (I don't think) that capitalism doesn't raise all boats, only that capitalism and increased productivity do not raise all boats equally.