{"id":701,"date":"2014-10-13T15:17:37","date_gmt":"2014-10-13T15:17:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anthrohealth.net\/blog\/?p=701"},"modified":"2014-10-13T15:17:37","modified_gmt":"2014-10-13T15:17:37","slug":"capital-tax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anthrohealth.net\/blog\/capital-tax\/","title":{"rendered":"Capital Tax"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thomas Piketty’s book, Capital in the 21st Century<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, has received a great deal of press. \u00a0Having just finished the book, I believe that most of the commentators skimmed\/skipped the first two\u00a0parts and just read the last two parts. \u00a0Unless you are an econ geek (I am not.), the first two parts are pretty tedious and difficult. \u00a0However, they do provide Piketty with his bona fides<\/em>. \u00a0Anyone who criticizes Piketty on the basis of his credentials probably hasn’t read\/understood Parts 1 and 2.<\/p>\n

Parts 3 and 4 are where the meat of Piketty’s argument is discussed. My interpretation of his main points is as follows:<\/p>\n

\n
Income inequality is increasing in all the OECD (economically-developed and democratic) countries.<\/li>\n
Wealth\/capital inequality is even worse than income inequality.<\/li>\n
The United States is the most unequal of the OECD nations.<\/li>\n
A progressive tax on income is good, but a progressive tax on capital\/wealth would be much, much better.<\/li>\n
Billionaires can hide most of their wealth so that they end up paying taxes on their much lower level of income.<\/li>\n
In order to implement a progressive tax on capital, banks must provide governments all data on their depositors so that wealth cannot be hidden.<\/li>\n
Excessive accumulations of wealth\/capital actually depress economic productivity.<\/li>\n
If steps are not taken to reduce income and wealth inequality, levels of inequality will worsen and revolution of the increasingly-strapped lower and middle classes is probable.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Piketty explains his ideas in this TED video.<\/p>\n
<\/iframe><\/p>\n<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0 5px 5px;float:right;height:100px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/anthrohealth.net\/blog\/capital-tax\/\" send=\"true\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"true\" font=\"arial\" action=\"like\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thomas Piketty’s book, Capital in the 21st Century, has received a great deal of press. \u00a0Having just finished the book, I believe that most of the commentators skimmed\/skipped the first two\u00a0parts and just read the last two parts. \u00a0Unless you are an econ geek (I am not.), the first two parts are pretty tedious and … <a href=\"https:\/\/anthrohealth.net\/blog\/capital-tax\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Capital Tax<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">→<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[18,120],"tags":[193,195,187,81,197,196,194],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2YcBF-bj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":687,"url":"https:\/\/anthrohealth.net\/blog\/inequality-faultlines\/","url_meta":{"origin":701,"position":0},"title":"Inequality Faultlines","author":"Kathleen Fuller","date":"September 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I recently finished The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap by Matt Taibbi. \u00a0Instead of paraphrasing Taibbi's words, I've decided to post a number of what I consider the most pertinent quotes from this extremely important book. \"We [Americans] have a profound hatred of the weak\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adaptation"","block_context":{"text":"Adaptation","link":"https:\/\/anthrohealth.net\/blog\/category\/adaptation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/1\/1e\/Chuetsu_earthquake-earthquake_liquefaction1.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":223,"url":"https:\/\/anthrohealth.net\/blog\/material-wealth-equals-intelligence-part-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":701,"position":1},"title":"Material Wealth Equals Intelligence? Part 1","author":"Kathleen Fuller","date":"July 15, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Recently, a supporter of Mitt Romney at one of his fundraisers equated poverty with poor education and, by implication, lower intelligence. \u00a0\"I just think if you're lower income -- one, you're not as educated, two, they don't understand how it works, they don't understand how the systems work, they don't\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adaptation"","block_context":{"text":"Adaptation","link":"https:\/\/anthrohealth.net\/blog\/category\/adaptation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":769,"url":"https:\/\/anthrohealth.net\/blog\/the-bandwidth-tax\/","url_meta":{"origin":701,"position":2},"title":"The Bandwidth Tax","author":"Kathleen Fuller","date":"July 6, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Scarcity is the\u00a0limiting factor that can make life more difficult whether the\u00a0scarce resource is money, time, energy, etc. \u00a0It\u00a0becomes more difficult to make appropriate decisions when\u00a0the brain's cognitive capacity is focused on that scarce resource. \u00a0Thinking of cognitive capacity as 'bandwidth' allows us to realize that there is only so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adaptation"","block_context":{"text":"Adaptation","link":"https:\/\/anthrohealth.net\/blog\/category\/adaptation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/c\/c6\/PET-image.jpg\/800px-PET-image.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":866,"url":"https:\/\/anthrohealth.net\/blog\/bridges-or-walls\/","url_meta":{"origin":701,"position":3},"title":"Bridges or Walls","author":"Kathleen Fuller","date":"June 27, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I just finished reading Our Political Nature: The Evolutionary Origins of What Divides Us\u00a0by Avi Tuschman, an appropriate topic for this election year. \u00a0While well-written, this\u00a0\u00a0heavily-researched, scientific analysis of where and why individuals fall on the political spectrum of left to right might not be everyone's idea of summer reading,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adaptation"","block_context":{"text":"Adaptation","link":"https:\/\/anthrohealth.net\/blog\/category\/adaptation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.communitas.pe\/29370-thickbox\/our-political-nature.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4,"url":"https:\/\/anthrohealth.net\/blog\/bounding-in-to-solve-the-textbook-cost-dilemma\/","url_meta":{"origin":701,"position":4},"title":"Bounding in to Solve the Textbook Cost Dilemma","author":"Kathleen Fuller","date":"October 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Students are always strapped for cash.\u00a0 Textbooks cost a bundle.\u00a0 Some schools are now renting textbooks to students who cannot afford to buy new and\/or for whom used texts are unavailable.\u00a0 Many students hope to get by without buying the textbook.\u00a0 But that can be a risky option. Three entrepreneurs\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Education"","block_context":{"text":"Education","link":"https:\/\/anthrohealth.net\/blog\/category\/education-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":248,"url":"https:\/\/anthrohealth.net\/blog\/material-wealth-equals-intelligence-part-1-5\/","url_meta":{"origin":701,"position":5},"title":"Material Wealth Equals Intelligence? 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