Income Inequality Author Turns Down Prestigious Award; Can you Solve a Problem When You Don't Know the Cause?

Mike Shedlock writes Income Inequality Author Turns Down Prestigious Award; Can you Solve a Problem When You Don't Know the Cause?.

Mish Comment: Already his thesis is suspect. One need only look at the developers of Google, Microsoft, and countless other extremely successful individuals who became the world's wealthiest by their actions, not their inheritance. Piketty attempts to explain this away later, but for now let's continue with the Guardian.

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Shedlock overlooks the influence of white male privilege because fish cannot water. The examples he gives all had tremendous advantages of being born into the right families, having sufficient income to indulge hobbies and attend good schools followed by universities, and having the right connections to get the right jobs or attract the right investors.

Piketty proposes solutions to economic problems even though he does not know what drives economic growth. He also confuses symptoms of problems with the problem.

Rising income inequality is a symptom of government interference in the free markets, of increasing government percentage of GDP growth, and of inane central bank inflation policies.

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Shedlock does not understand that the state supports the majority of the Capitalists. The vocal miniority of Capitalists are complaining because they are being screwed by the majority.

Shedlock is correct in saying that we have to understand how Capitalism works before we start proposing solutions. And the best explanation for this is from Karl Marx and Frederrick Engels in "Capital". And inequality is a sign that the system is working well for the Capitalists.