Thomas Piketty Quotes

28 quotes in 480 categories

• ...the discipline of economics has yet to get over its childish passion for mathematics and for purely theoretical and often highly ideological speculation, at the…
• For far too long economists have sought to define themselves in terms of their supposedly scientific methods. In fact, those methods rely on an immoderate…
• Over a long period of time, the main force in favor of greater equality has been the diffusion of knowledge and skills.
• When the rate of return on capital exceeds the rate of growth of output and income, as it did in the nineteenth century and seems…
• What was the good of industrial development, what was the good of all the technological innovations, toil, and population movements if, after half a century…
• Democracy will never be supplanted by a republic of experts—and that is a very good thing.
• Contrary to a tenacious myth, France is not owned by California pension funds or the Bank of China, any more than the United States belongs…
• There is one great advantage to being an academic economist in France: here, economists are not highly respected in the academic and intellectual world or…
• Indeed, the distribution of wealth is too important an issue to be left to economists, sociologists, historians, and philosophers.
• I loved American universities. In many ways, they are better organized - certainly than French universities.
• Capitalism and market forces are very powerful in producing wealth and innovation. But we need to ensure that these forces act in the common interest.
• We want capitalism and market forces to be the slave of democracy rather than the opposite.
• Once constituted, capital reproduces itself faster than output increases. The past devours the future.
• We know too little about global wealth dynamics, so we need international transmission of bank information.
• I think if you look back through time, the history of income, wealth and taxation is full of surprise. So I am not terribly impressed…
• When inequality gets too extreme, then it becomes useless for growth, and it can even become bad because it tends to lead to high perpetuation…
• Having a decent share of the national wealth for the middle class is not bad for growth. It is actually useful both for equity and…
• The United States could transform its property tax system into a progressive tax on net worth without asking permission to the rest of the world.
• I am not political. It is not my job. But I would be happy if politicians could read my work and draw some conclusions from…
• What I argue for is a progressive tax, a global tax, based on the taxation of private property.

Browse Thomas Piketty Quotes by Category