The main force pushing toward reduction in inequality has always been the diffusion of knowledge and the diffusion of education.
Thomas PikettyRead
Contrary to a tenacious myth, France is not owned by California pension funds or the Bank of China, any more than the United States belongs to Japanese and German investors. The fear of getting into such a predicament is so strong today that fantasy often outstrips reality. The reality is that inequality with respect to capital is a far greater domestic issue than it is an international one.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Piketty addresses misconceptions about foreign ownership of countries and highlights domestic inequality as a more pressing issue.
In this quote, Thomas Piketty challenges the prevalent belief that foreign investors, such as California pension funds or the Bank of China, have control over countries like France or the United States. He argues that this myth distracts from the more significant issue of domestic economic inequality, which poses a greater threat to society than external foreign investments. Piketty emphasizes that the fear surrounding this misconception often exceeds the reality, suggesting that the focus should be on addressing internal disparities rather than worrying about foreign influence.
Themes
InequalityCapitalEconomyForeign OwnershipDomestic Issues
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on economic policy, one could use this quote to discuss domestic inequality.
More from Thomas Piketty
All quotes →Over a long period of time, the main force in favor of greater equality has been the diffusion of knowledge and skills.
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There is one great advantage to being an academic economist in France: here, economists are not highly respected in the academic and intellectual world or by political and financial elites. Hence they must set aside their contempt for other disciplines and their absurd claim to greater scientific legitimacy, despite the fact that they know almost nothing about anything.
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When the rate of return on capital exceeds the rate of growth of output and income, as it did in the nineteenth century and seems quite likely to do again in the twenty-first, capitalism automatically generates arbitrary and unsustainable inequalities that radically undermine the meritocratic values on which democratic societies are based.
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Having a decent share of the national wealth for the middle class is not bad for growth. It is actually useful both for equity and efficiency reasons.
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The discipline of economics has yet to get over its childish passion for mathematics and for purely theoretical and often highly ideological speculation, at the expense of historical research and collaboration with the other social sciences.
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