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The Libertarian Podcast: Epstein on Piketty
In case you haven’t noticed yet, Professor Epstein’s been on a bit of a tear lately rebutting Thomas Piketty’s new book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century. And there’s only one thing to do when he shifts into that gear: hand him the microphone. In this episode, Richard explains his criticisms of the French economist. It’s 15 minutes of Epstein vs. 700 pages of Piketty — which, let’s be honest, is a fair fight.
Published in General
Professor Epstein’s critiques of Piketty are the best I’ve read so far.
When people ask me, “have you even read Piketty’s book,” I reply, “not yet, but I’ve read Professor Richard Epstein’s critiques, and you should too.”
Is this podcast on iTunes?
It’s a stupid critique to say “Have you even read it?” Those holding it up as brilliant haven’t read it either.
Yes, but it’s in the iTunes U section, not the podcast section.
It took me a long time to figure that out.
Many of ’em claim to have read it though, and unless I’ve read it I have no way to prove that they haven’t.
Thanks
I’m pretty sure I’ve listened to every episode of Law Talk, and I’m still routinely baffled as to how Professor Epstein manages to convey so much information in such an organized way, complete with a nice wrap up at the end of each point. Aside from the arguments being made (which I usually cheer very loudly), his ability to do this at the drop of a hat is amazing. I sit, amazed. OK, sometimes I’m running when I become amazed, but still: Amazing.
Oh, and reading some excerpts from Piketty is enough. Anyone whose premise is that those who are already shouldering the vast majority of income taxes collected (top half of income earners in the US pay 97% of all income taxes collected) should pay even more has no factual argument to make; it’s a political one.
Piketty commits a major deceit, in that he uses “income “as that reported on Federal income tax forms. And transfer payments represent a huge proportion of GDP. Thus, a household that receives any of the various type of welfare, plus Section 8 vouchers, plus Food Stamps plus Medicaid is listed by Piketty as having an income of $0. This even though they have a roof over their head, food, refrigeration, likely transportation, phone(s) and air conditioning, as well as health care. They won’t be living royally, but will be living far better than an income of $0 would indicate.
And the wealth concentration is further diluted by the fact that Social Security payouts, which amount to 5% of GDP, are also not listed as Federal income.
You can know all you need to about Piketty from 1 interview. The genesis of his thesis was in re-reading Charles Dickens.
Dickens, more than Marx, always holds a strong appeal for Socialists. He is seen as being some great proto-reformer, fighting the evils of the industrial revolution and of old corrupt money.
Thus Picketty’s Charge is aimed at the ultimate straw man – the archetypal villains of a 19th century novelist.
Takes a genius to clearly describe 700 pages in 12 minutes! Thanks