2023-12-22 18:35:32
Only a small proportion of economists are known to the general public. The number of fingers on two hands exceeds the number that economists can easily count. Some would say John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman. A daring few might try to name Friedrich von Hayek. But very few would deny that French economist Thomas Piketty is among them. His work on inequality, spanning three decades, has entered the political debate, and his economic treatises are bestsellers.
Finally, the story he tells is an endearing one: income and wealth inequality was high in the early 20th century and then fell rapidly in Western countries as they increased taxes on the rich and built an expensive welfare state. Then, in the middle of the century, there was a golden age of equality. A golden age that ended in the 1980s with tax cuts and welfare state reforms. Since then, inequality has continued to rise and now exceeds the peaks of the early 20th century. To top it off, Piketty points out that economic growth has been unevenly distributed since the 1980s – the richest one percent in particular have benefited from this. For political actors and experts, the conclusion is simple: increase taxes for the rich and expand the welfare state. Piketty, who is himself heavily involved in left-wing French politics (first in the Parti Socialiste and now in the far-left La France Insoumise), has aggressively advocated for such policies.
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