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.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the low respect for economists in France, suggesting they must be more open-minded towards other disciplines.
In this quote, Thomas Piketty critiques the status of academic economists in France, pointing out that their low esteem in the broader intellectual community compels them to confront their own biases and limitations. Instead of clinging to a false sense of superiority regarding their field's scientific credence, they are encouraged to engage with other disciplines, recognizing the value of diverse perspectives and expertise, which ultimately leads to sounder and more comprehensive economic discussions.
In practice
This quote could be used in a lecture on the importance of interdisciplinary approaches in academic research.
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.
The main force pushing toward reduction in inequality has always been the diffusion of knowledge and the diffusion of education.
Over a long period of time, the main force in favor of greater equality has been the diffusion of knowledge and skills.
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.
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.
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.
Let's face it: Most of us don't realize it, but we are failing our kids as reading role models. The best role models are in the home: brothers, fathers, grandfathers; mothers, sisters, grandmothers. Moms and dads, it's important that your kids see you reading. Not just books - reading the newspaper is good, too.
Good books are for consideration after, too.
Handle a book as a bee does a flower, extract its sweetness but do not damage it.
Make this the golden rule, the equivalent of the Hippocratic oath: Everything we ask a child to do should be worth doing.
Young people must be included from birth. A society that cuts itself off from its youth severs its lifeline; it is condemned to bleed to death.
The scandal of education is that every time you teach something, you deprive a [student] of the pleasure and benefit of discovery.
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