- I've been an enthusiastic fan of French economist Thomas Piketty ever since his bestselling Capital in the Twenty-First Century was released in 2013. It was a remarkable tome, a totally absorbing 700 pages read. It galvanised global debate about inequality. He followed that blockbuster up with another one, Capital and Ideology in 2020. That was a far more difficult and rather tiresome read, mainly for academic economists.
- His newest release however, Time For Socialism, is much more accessible. It is a collection of his articles published over the last five years in the French newspaper Le Monde. Its subtitle is Dispatches from a World on Fire, 2016-2021.
- The blurb inside the dust jacket summarises it well: Piketty argues that the time has come to support an inclusive and expansive conception of socialism as a counterweight against the hyper-capitalism that defines our current economic ideology.
- What I found refreshing was his critique of the radical path capitalism has taken over the last fifty years in America and throughout the West, including Australia - the removal of government power and control from the marketplace; the massive lowering of personal and corporate tax rates thus requiring substantial cutbacks in government spending; the abolition of property and inheritance taxes, and more. The result has been a huge increase in inequality and poverty, and government services that are starved of sufficient funding. (Our current Australian government's fetish for maintaining a taxing and spending ratio to GDP of 24% is a case in point. It's infantile.)
- I skimmed quite a few of the pieces that concentrated on French issues, and Macron's failures in particular. But the majority are focussed on the US economy under Trump, and the issues surrounding the 2020 election. Piketty is not so much a fan of Biden. He's a Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren enthusiast.
- There are tables and charts littered throughout and they're very enlightening.
- He's a clear thinker, an excellent communicator, and this book, like his others, is well translated into English.
- Highly recommended if you're at all interested in our current economic and social challenges.
- (By the way, Australia would be a far more prosperous and egalitarian nation if our tax/spend ratio was 30%).
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