I am reading Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century. I am interested in the subject. I am glad that Piketty wishes to bring economics out of the Nobel clouds, to make economics readable and accessible to the masses, for I am a mass, and to draw upon the "social sciences," including political science, for I am a Master in that according to my diploma. I have encountered two graphs so far and understand them. I have encountered two equations so far and don't, but I think I will.
I am reading Capital closely. I have read 41 of 577 pages. I am underlining and making margin notes. I have strong opinions on economic fairness and wealth inequality. Piketty's introduction, which I have completed, having just embarked upon Chapter One, is direct and clear, except for the two equations: Wealth maldistribution in these early years of the 21st Century is about where it was at the beginning of the 20th century. I believe, Picketty believes, that that is mal. There was about a thirty year span from 1950-1980, a period known in France as a Golden period, when wealth inequality was much less and appeared to have leveled off. Piketty summarizes in the introduction his data mining in the succeeding 437 pages: the upper deciles and centiles have accumulated wealth, through capital, at a mal rate compared to wealth accumulation from labor, by laborers. Mal.
How mal? Mal is in the eye of the beholder. As a Master, I have not thought the American masses have thought it as mal as the masses of France, who beheaded kings they thought it so mal, nor of Britain, where the economics of Karl Marx have been more influential. Piketty acknowledges the American exception in a demographic sense: France's population has doubled since its revolution; America's has increased 100-fold. "It is not the same country," Piketty says of America today, entirely correctly.
However, through 41 pages Piketty has not mentioned another component to American exceptionalism, which I, as a Master, am familiar with, and which has been remarked upon by countless others, some of whom I have read, Tocqueville and Fennimore Cooper, come immediately to mind. That component is upward mobility. It was on this subject and on page 40 of Capital that I wrote my most extensive margin note so far, which consists of 20 words. I elaborate here: An analysis of wealth distribution by deciles and centiles explains much, but not all. Such analysis is static, a decile a decile, a centile a centile. Such an analysis does not account for those individuals who move from a lower decile to an upper decile. It does not account for upward mobility. I know, that whatever the inconvenient reality, the American masses really, really believe in upward mobility, and downward, that, in popular formulation, "a pauper today can be a rich man tomorrow, and a rich man today can be a pauper tomorrow." Through 41 pages Piketty has hinted that he sees this may be true, in France and Britain as well as in the U.S., for his two graphs so far show a dramatic drop in wealth maldistribution during the two World Wars when the rich became paupers. That is not the same as upward mobility however, of the example of Andrew Carnegie and, in the American mind, of countless others. I hope, I trust, that Thomas Piketty treats of upward mobility, the reality or myth, in the remaining 436 pages.
I am reading Capital closely. I have read 41 of 577 pages. I am underlining and making margin notes. I have strong opinions on economic fairness and wealth inequality. Piketty's introduction, which I have completed, having just embarked upon Chapter One, is direct and clear, except for the two equations: Wealth maldistribution in these early years of the 21st Century is about where it was at the beginning of the 20th century. I believe, Picketty believes, that that is mal. There was about a thirty year span from 1950-1980, a period known in France as a Golden period, when wealth inequality was much less and appeared to have leveled off. Piketty summarizes in the introduction his data mining in the succeeding 437 pages: the upper deciles and centiles have accumulated wealth, through capital, at a mal rate compared to wealth accumulation from labor, by laborers. Mal.
How mal? Mal is in the eye of the beholder. As a Master, I have not thought the American masses have thought it as mal as the masses of France, who beheaded kings they thought it so mal, nor of Britain, where the economics of Karl Marx have been more influential. Piketty acknowledges the American exception in a demographic sense: France's population has doubled since its revolution; America's has increased 100-fold. "It is not the same country," Piketty says of America today, entirely correctly.
However, through 41 pages Piketty has not mentioned another component to American exceptionalism, which I, as a Master, am familiar with, and which has been remarked upon by countless others, some of whom I have read, Tocqueville and Fennimore Cooper, come immediately to mind. That component is upward mobility. It was on this subject and on page 40 of Capital that I wrote my most extensive margin note so far, which consists of 20 words. I elaborate here: An analysis of wealth distribution by deciles and centiles explains much, but not all. Such analysis is static, a decile a decile, a centile a centile. Such an analysis does not account for those individuals who move from a lower decile to an upper decile. It does not account for upward mobility. I know, that whatever the inconvenient reality, the American masses really, really believe in upward mobility, and downward, that, in popular formulation, "a pauper today can be a rich man tomorrow, and a rich man today can be a pauper tomorrow." Through 41 pages Piketty has hinted that he sees this may be true, in France and Britain as well as in the U.S., for his two graphs so far show a dramatic drop in wealth maldistribution during the two World Wars when the rich became paupers. That is not the same as upward mobility however, of the example of Andrew Carnegie and, in the American mind, of countless others. I hope, I trust, that Thomas Piketty treats of upward mobility, the reality or myth, in the remaining 436 pages.
