170 Quotes by Thomas Piketty

Income from labor [in the United States] is about as unequally distributed as has ever been observed anywhere.

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

We know something about billionaire consumption, but it is hard to measure some of it. Some billionaires are consuming politicians, others consume reporters, and some consume academics...

Cuando la tasa de rendimiento del capital supera la tasa de crecimiento de la producción y los ingresos, como lo hizo en el siglo XIX y parece muy probable que lo haga de nuevo en el siglo XIX, el capitalismo genera automáticamente las desigualdades arbitrarias e insostenibles que socavan radicalmente los valores meritocráticos en que se basan las sociedades democráticas.

If you have free trade and free circulation ofcapital and people but destroy the social state and all forms of progressive taxation, the temptations of defensive nationalism and identity politics will very likely grow stronger than ever in both Europe and the United States. Note, finally, that the less developed countries will be among the primary beneficiaries of a more just and transparent international tax system.

Capitalul nu este niciodată pașnic: el este mereu riscant și antreprenorial, cel puțin la începuturile lui; și, în același timp, are mereu tendința de a se transforma în rentă, din momentul în care se acumulează fără limită – este vocația lui, destinul lui logic.

Economists tend to think they are much, much smarter than historians, than everybody. And this is a bit too much because at the end of the day, we don't know very much in economics.

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

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