[Usagi_yo]

This is not new thinking and rather a plagiarized idea from Vilfredo Pareto, Pareto efficiency, that unbalanced wealth promotes political turmoil and that there is a set balance of poor to middle class to rich that strikes a balance of sort between society and governance, and that any leanings towards either spectrum leads to eventual violence and upheaval of some sort.

Why these people over the years are presented as new thinkers I don't know. Perhaps they avoid referencing Pareto because he's forever linked to the fascist movement of the early 20th century.

[petro45acp]

This the frog that cites karl marx?

KYPD

[CMailBag]

[Bob]

No surprise to me - That’s completely in line with Obama’s thinking that it’s government’s job to “correct” the imbalance of wealth in the country.

[driftless2]

Piketty is just another leftist loser from the world of academe who envies the wealthy. Like many other leftists, Piketty would like to be wealthy and famous...without working too hard that is. So ignoring the fact that many wealthy people worked harder and smarter than many non-wealthy people, he will make things fair for the non-wealthy.

In Piketty's wonderful world of equality, everybody will work just as hard. The poor and oppressed will work just as hard even though they will be handed a guaranteed income. And of course the wealthy will work hard so that their wealth can be taken away from them. Piketty's ideas are insane.

[silverleaf]

excellent

how disturbing is it that this is yet another reminder that Americans have twice “elected” a radical president who so despises capitalism, free enterprise and individual
liberty?

[MuttTheHoople]

Dr. Limbaugh eloquently refuted Piketty last week. He showed that only 13% of the "1%" stays in the one percent in any 10 years. In America, people make and lose millions. I know that one year, my wife and I were making a 6-figure income, the next year we were underemployed and on food stamps, and now we're back to making mid-5 figures. I can see us moving back into the 6-figure income family soon.

Obama and the Democrats want us to ALL be peasants.

[Lorianne]

Thank you. I’m going to look into the Pareto efficiency. Sounds logical.

[PapaBear3625]

This is not new thinking and rather a plagiarized idea from Vilfredo Pareto, Pareto efficiency, that unbalanced wealth promotes political turmoil and that there is a set balance of poor to middle class to rich that strikes a balance of sort between society and governance, and that any leanings towards either spectrum leads to eventual violence and upheaval of some sort.

What heads to unbalanced wealth is government. When the wealthy capture government to the point where they can use it to advantage themselves and DISadvantage any potential competitor, THEN you get social imbalance.

In the past you had hereditary nobility. In the present, you have "old rich" families who are heavily connected into the political class.

[onedoug]

Another islamist or facilitator.

[cpdiii]

Perhaps they avoid referencing Pareto because he's forever linked to the fascist movement of the early 20th century.

Crony Capitalism is Fascism wearing a velvet glove to cover the iron fist of tyrannical government.

[Paladin2]

Property taxes are a partial wealth tax as are estate taxes.

[pallis]

Government creates problems, and then it creates bigger problems by growing to solve the problems it creates.

We need politicians and government officials who read good literature about the economy, and how not to screw it up, but we have commies who want to destroy private wealth, and they read how to books that help them do it.

[I want the USA back]

The book tells what 0bama wants to do to the USA. He’s not finished yet.

[The Great RJ]

The answer to Piketty's rants was written decades ago: Hayak's Road to Serfdom

[Organic Panic]

Marx and Engels love child.

[newheart]

So what is this flaw? Supposedly under capitalism the rich get steadily richer in relation to everyone else; inequality gets worse and worse. It is all baked into the cake, unavoidable.

Typical of leftist analysis, this is firmly rooted in the assumption that it is fundamentally wrong that someone else has something that I don't. What the left refuses to recognize is that envy, which underlies every willful sin, is universally a part of fallen human nature (they don't believe in the Fall) and it is the fatal flaw in every human conceived economic system from communism and socialism to unrestrained free-market capitalism.

Inequality gets worse in any system. On the right the inequality is without question in wealth. But on the left the inequality is in power. In every case there is a group of elites whose wealth and/or power continues to grow, while those without those things continue to become poorer and less powerful.

So, is Piketty's solution, a world-wide wealth tax, a real answer to the problem? Of course not. The economic disruption that would occur simply sets the stage for chaos and devastation, opening the door to a global totalitarian regime. Good luck with that. Rather than wealth, the coin of that realm will be power, with an equally lopsided set of haves and have nots.

"You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God." James 4:2

[nothingnew]

Is he selling his "book" or giving it away?

FMCDH(BITS)