Thomas Piketty

“Everyone is political in his or her own way.”

— Thomas Piketty

I am not political. It is not my job. But I would be happy if politicians could read my work and draw…

— Thomas Piketty

Once constituted, capital reproduces itself faster than output increases. The past devours the future.

— Thomas Piketty

What I argue for is a progressive tax, a global tax, based on the taxation of private property.

— Thomas Piketty

“In other words, by 2100, the entire planet could look like Europe at the turn of the twentieth century, at least in…

— Thomas Piketty

“Those who have a lot of it never fail to defend their interests. Refusing to deal with numbers rarely serves the interests…

— Thomas Piketty

The U.S. is the country that invented progressive taxation of income and of inherited wealth in the 1910s and '20s.

— Thomas Piketty

Refusing to deal with numbers rarely serves the interests of the least well-off.

— Thomas Piketty

I don't pretend that I can predict the future value of the growth rate or rate of return.

— Thomas Piketty

“the rate of population growth observed from 1700 to 2012—0.8 percent per year—were to continue for the next three centuries, the world’s…

— Thomas Piketty

Economists should be modest and be aware that they are part of the broader social science community. We need to be pragmatic…

— Thomas Piketty

“countries with similar growth rates of income per capita can end up with very different capital/income ratios simply because their demographic growth…

— Thomas Piketty

“Ultimately, a government bond is nothing more than a claim of one portion of the population (those who receive interest) on another…

— Thomas Piketty

I am afraid that if you don't find peaceful domestic solutions to our inequality and social problems, then it's always tempting to…

— Thomas Piketty

“To put it bluntly, the discipline of economics has yet to get over its childish passion for mathematics and for purely theoretical…

— Thomas Piketty

I certainly agree that capital is not a one-dimensional object, and that the return on capital takes very different forms for different…

— Thomas Piketty

“for example, the wealthy planter Quentin Tarantino portrays in Django Unchained is prepared to sell beautiful Broomhilda for only $700 but wants…

— Thomas Piketty

“In contrast to what many people in Britain and the United States believe, the true figures on growth (as best one can…

— Thomas Piketty

There is one great advantage to being an academic economist in France: here, economists are not highly respected in the academic and…

— Thomas Piketty

What I'm pushing for is an economic discipline that will be closer to other social sciences; in particular, we should be more…

— Thomas Piketty

“always increasing and that the world is by definition always becoming more unjust. Others believe that inequality is naturally decreasing, or that…

— Thomas Piketty

Contrary to a tenacious myth, France is not owned by California pension funds or the Bank of China, any more than the…

— Thomas Piketty

“The second conclusion, which is the heart of the book, is that the dynamics of wealth distribution reveal powerful mechanisms pushing alternately…

— Thomas Piketty

“For millions of people, “wealth” amounts to little more than a few weeks’ wages in a checking account or low-interest savings account,…

— Thomas Piketty

“the decrease in the top marginal income tax rate led to an explosion of very high incomes, which then increased the political…

— Thomas Piketty

“Social scientific research is and always will be tentative and imperfect. It does not claim to transform economics, sociology, and history into…

— Thomas Piketty

I loved American universities. In many ways, they are better organized - certainly than French universities.

— Thomas Piketty

“In 1860, the average price of a male slave of prime working age was roughly $2,000, whereas the average wage of a…

— Thomas Piketty

It's important to realize that innovation and growth in itself are not sufficient to moderate inequality of wealth.

— Thomas Piketty

I don't think there is any serious evidence that we need to be paying people more than 100 times the average wage…

— Thomas Piketty

“Knowledge and skill diffusion is the key to overall productivity growth as well as the reduction of inequality both within and between…

— Thomas Piketty

There is a fundamentalist belief by capitalists that capital will save the world, and it just isn't so.

— Thomas Piketty

The main force pushing toward reduction in inequality has always been the diffusion of knowledge and the diffusion of education.

— Thomas Piketty

The United States could transform its property tax system into a progressive tax on net worth without asking permission to the rest…

— Thomas Piketty

My premise is not to tax to destroy the wealth of the wealthy; it's to increase the wealth of the bottom and…

— Thomas Piketty

The principal mechanism for convergence at the international as well as the domestic level is the diffusion of knowledge.

— Thomas Piketty

Over a long period of time, the main force in favor of greater equality has been the diffusion of knowledge and skills.

— Thomas Piketty

Without precisely defined sources, methods, and concepts, it is possible to see absolutely everything and its opposite.

— Thomas Piketty

“Progress in medicine together with improved living conditions has therefore, it is argued, totally transformed the very essence of capital.”

— Thomas Piketty

Capitalism and market forces are very powerful in producing wealth and innovation. But we need to ensure that these forces act in…

— Thomas Piketty