Its excellent that Piketty has gotten us talking about inequality - TopicsExpress



          

Its excellent that Piketty has gotten us talking about inequality and the oligarchic control that wealth can obtain. But a lot of the discussion centres around unearned income relating to a notion of rentier capitalism (or even criminal appropriation as Michael Hudson has been talking about). Is return on capital investment ever earned income? Why should there ever be a group of people who make money based simply on returns of the money they have at their disposal? Could we not employ people to make investment decisions in the interest of the public as a public utility? Further, there is the question of how things got this way in the first place (r > g). Was the neo-liberal revolution an uncaused cause? And if so, what would roll it back and prevent it from happening again? If its not an uncaused cause (my opinion), and some other dynamic lead to a group having the capacity to capture the state regulatory system then shouldnt the aim be this root cause, and not the epiphenomena? Of course, being one of those stodgy old Marxists Id say its the ability to make returns on capital which is the root cause.
Posted on: Thu, 01 May 2014 09:23:06 +0000

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