Capital In The 21st Century (2000) - Plot & Excerpts
I started reading this book in August while I was traveling in Africa, I just finished on New Year's Eve back in NYC, which seems appropriate. as the book's scope is really global, as Piketty constructs a really rigorous, data-based model for how capitalism actually works, with a particular focus on the distribution of wealth and income. Piketty and his collaborators did something very rare in economics and politics: they found primary data sources related to their subjects of interest (income and capital) going back as far in some cases as the 18th century in France, Britain, the U.S. and other countries, and they use this data, first, to say what actually happened in terms of the distribution of income and wealth (rather than just theorizing about what they think should have happened, as many social scientists do). Then they used this foundation of reliable data to build a model of how social and political systems impact real people in the economy, and finally, to put forward what he thinks we can do to use these insights to make better political and economic decisions and policies going forward.Spoiler: It's not a coincidence that Piketty called his book "Das Kapital in the 21st Century" (that's actually the German translation of the title): he is not a socialist, but his on the left end of the political spectrum, which means he does not think 60% (and growing) of a country's wealth being owned by the top 1% is a good thing, but he's not reflexively left wing. He goes to enormous trouble to prove empirically that income and wealth inequality are growing, and he presents ambitious but not crazy ideas about what to do about it.It took me more than 4 months to finish the book; sometimes reading a chapter would be a real slog, and then put it down for a couple weeks; then I'd read a whole section in a day or two, with fascinating history and exciting ideas just rolling over me in waves. It took some perseverance, but I found the experience extremely rewarding overall, not least because, like other non-fiction books I've loved, this book gave me a new way to look at the world. This puts the book in amazing company, up there, in my view, with some of the books that have had the biggest impact on me, including Jane Jacobs' Death & Life of Great American Cities; Robert Caro's The Power Broker; and Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel. I admit, i did this one as audiobook, and i recommend that if you are curious about it but turned off by the heft of the book.I also admit that i skipped through discs some, and didn't look at the pdfs on the bonus dis, but I did get a lot of info out of it (retention - that's something else!). It was interesting in that it was not US-centric; in fact, his presentation of economic history and policy in different European countries over the past 3 centuries was really useful for putting our current situation of inequality in context. Like me, he puts the blame on Reagan and Thatcher for causing the growing rift between the rich and the rest of us. Give it a listen! I think there are 21 discs!
What do You think about Capital In The 21st Century (2000)?
Interesting book, but plodding. I'm about half way through and get the gist.
—SkinnyJeansLover
