Capital in the Twenty-First Century

These notes were published in 2019 and discuss Piketty's account of wealth and inequality as presented in the book at that time.

As with my first attempt about 2 years back, I struggled to get through the whole book. The level of detail is great, but too much for me personally to get through.

In the end I did finish the whole book and found it a very interesting read or listen. Piketty's account left me thinking about inequality and poverty. I saw inequality as real and growing; my concern was less the gap itself than its consequences for people with little wealth. I wanted poverty reduced and living standards raised for millions (also see Factfulness).

My notes describe capital earning more than wages and cite Piketty's r > g shorthand for returns to capital exceeding economic growth. I found it hard to see a way around that dynamic. I also noted that population growth was already slow in level-four, developed countries and expected that trend to spread. A tax on capital might help, but competition between countries made it seem unlikely to me.

I was struck by how much more concentrated wealth at the top was than income. I recalled, uncertainly, that more than 40% owned little or nothing, while a very small group held most wealth. When thinking about influence, I wanted to pay attention to the top 1–5%, rather than only the 0.0001%, even though that smallest group held a larger relative share.