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Is Capitalism Working?

posted by n1 on Friday April 18 2014, @02:31AM   Printer-friendly
from the depends-who-you-are dept.

Blackmoore writes:

The Guardian brings us Economist Thomas Piketty — Capitalism simply isn't working and here are the reasons why.

Piketty is a man for the times. For 1970s anxieties about inflation substitute today's concerns about the emergence of the plutocratic rich and their impact on economy and society. Piketty is in no doubt, as he indicates in an interview in today's Observer New Review, that the current level of rising wealth inequality, set to grow still further, now imperils the very future of capitalism. He has proved it.

It is a startling thesis and one extraordinarily unwelcome to those who think capitalism and inequality need each other. Capitalism requires inequality of wealth, runs this right-of-centre argument, to stimulate risk-taking and effort; governments trying to stem it with taxes on wealth, capital, inheritance and property kill the goose that lays the golden egg. Thus Messrs Cameron and Osborne faithfully champion lower inheritance taxes, refuse to reshape the council tax and boast about the business-friendly low capital gains and corporation tax regime.

Piketty deploys 200 years of data to prove them wrong.

 
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 18 2014, @06:27PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 18 2014, @06:27PM (#33164)

    Marxism is not the best method of employee ownership.
    Had you removed one word and added one word, we would be in complete agreement:
    Marxism is not ALWAYS the best method of [] ownership.
    I covered this in my defining what the terms mean link in my other post in this thread. [soylentnews.org]
    Professional writer Bill Johnson deftly covers some examples of where each of the economic models applies well.
    An excellent piece to bookmark.

    Catholic teaching
    Recovering Catholic here.
    Anything that involves that dogma (or any other) quickly loses my interest.

    Mix a government true to the ideals of the founders[...]with small businesses owned by the employees
    Democracy that works well is a goal to be valued--in gov't and in the workplace.
    A gov't for sale to the highest bidder and mega-corporations with carte blanche are the opposite.
    http://movetoammend.org/#main [movetoammend.org]
    I think that you and I can easily find common ground.

    -- gewg_