Friday, May 02, 2014

Piketty: "(Blowing up) libertarian fantasies one by one."

Parramore's essay goes into greater detail than my previous posting on the topic of Pinketty's book, leading me to the unprecedented likelihood of my actually reading a book about economics -- which, in turn, probably disqualifies me from holding political office in New Albany until the end of time, or until CeeSaw's Bicentennial Crutchfield paving stones are sold, whichever comes first.

Piketty shrugged: How the French economist dashed libertarians’ Ayn Randian fantasies; "Capital in the 21st Century" reveals once and for all that the invisible hand of the market can't solve inequality, by Lynn Stuart Parramore (Alternet via Salon)

Libertarians have always been flummoxed by inequality, tending either to deny that it’s a problem or pretend that the invisible hand of the market will wave a magic wand to cure it. Then everybody gets properly rewarded for what he or she does with brains and effort, and things are peachy keen.

Except that they aren’t, as exhaustively demonstrated by French economist Thomas Piketty, whose 700-page treatise on the long-term trends in inequality, Capital In the 21st Century, has blown up libertarian fantasies one by one.

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