If we don’t do something radical to reduce inequality, Piketty argues, “xenophobic populism could well triumph at the ballot box and initiate changes that will destroy the global, hypercapitalist digital economy”. Piketty’s 2014 book Capital in the 21st Century showed how inequality is baked into our current economic model. Photograph: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP via Getty ImagesFor Piketty, the history of ideologies is autonomous from that of the societies they have been used to justify. By the time we get to page 1,027, and Piketty’s design for a world government, we are well and truly down the rabbit hole of bright abstractions. Paul Mason is a writer and broadcaster on economics and social justice• Capital and Ideology by Thomas Piketty is published by Harvard University Press (£31.95).

Source: The Guardian March 01, 2020 09:00 UTC