Thomas Piketty is Professor of Economics and Economic History at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences and the Paris School of Economics. His books include A Brief History of Equality, Capital and Ideology, and the bestselling Capital in the Twenty-First Century.
"Large-scale social organization is never simple, and criticism of an existing regime is never enough to ensure that something better will replace it."
"The wealthiest individuals can use it to justify their position vis-à-vis the poorest: they deserve what they have, they say, because of their talent and effort, and in any case inequality contributes to social stability, which supposedly benefits everyone. The wealthiest countries can also justify "
"There was no reason to take the risk of spoiling everything by indulging egalitarian fantasies when the country had never been as prosperous and its power extended throughout the world."
"A set of priori plausible ideas and discourses describing how society should be strucutred."
前面读了一部分,然后把第四部分读完了。文笔很简单是真的,但是过于冗长。感觉可以缩小一半。皮凯蒂的经典语句是Note...But I'll come back later。前面经济史部分,如果有时间还是可以读读。总之,历史确实不新鲜,人类在剥削的艺术上确实登峰造极。第十七章的蓝图很美好,然而不知道会不会对现实有影响。至少在中国,因为直球输出而被封杀的皮凯蒂,是不会有影响了。不过按照他的一个分析,中国也许会深陷于social nativism。就看上面的merchant reds能抗多久了。