Worldview Matters

Comparing Piketty's inequality generating mechanism (r>g) to Marx's circuits of capital underscores a central difference: Marx wanted to replace capitalism while Piketty merely wants to fix it by taxing the rich. Piketty's discussion of slavery reifies human chattel's role in economic history. The failure to exclude the income of supermanagers as a return to labor may lead to an understatement of the inequality Piketty describes. Similarly, a brief mention of the environment without analysis of the wealth obtained from its abuse also understates the growth of inequality.