tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post2397183301417269929..comments2024-03-19T06:22:40.011-04:00Comments on The Philosopher's Stone: PIKETTY, PIKETTY, PIKETTYRobert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-44370741070338195992014-04-26T14:07:32.950-04:002014-04-26T14:07:32.950-04:00Thank you! It is very important to me not merely ...Thank you! It is very important to me not merely to instruct but to amuse.Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-88811133275530767492014-04-26T13:04:59.827-04:002014-04-26T13:04:59.827-04:00Prof. Wolff, You never fail to leave me with a smi...Prof. Wolff, You never fail to leave me with a smile on my face. Your wit is truly marvelous. I guffawed heartily when I read your line about Brooks making Douthat sound thoughtful!TheDudeDiogeneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11613928663752680375noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-78806345262516748652014-04-26T10:34:53.962-04:002014-04-26T10:34:53.962-04:00I am very grateful to you for visiting this blog, ...I am very grateful to you for visiting this blog, Professor Goldhammer. Your translation of Piketty's work is a marvel! Thank you so much for making it accessible to all of us here on this side of the Atlantic, as well as for your many other contributions. Having read your take-down of Poulos, I shall spare myself the pain of reading him. There are limits to what I will do for scholarship. :)<br /><br />Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-24308726053837593102014-04-26T10:06:45.372-04:002014-04-26T10:06:45.372-04:00James Poulos is even more obtuse than Brooks. I ta...James Poulos is even more obtuse than Brooks. I take him on here: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/26/poulos-gets-piketty-and-tocqueville-wrong.htmlArt Goldhammerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09634231576951069721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-29411007754489890392014-04-25T11:43:23.539-04:002014-04-25T11:43:23.539-04:00"When the David Brooks' of this world fee..."When the David Brooks' of this world feel that they must lay claim to quasi-Marxism in order to get some street cred, I begin to think there is hope for us yet."<br /><br />This is maybe the best line I've ever read not only on your blog, but any blog in general.<br /><br />I can claim to be a young professional, and I can safely say the richest amongst my students are those who are not taking on massive student loan debt. The poorest are those who are drowning in debt, and if they do not pass my class, will be (possibly) removed from the college, and sent him to sell their labor power for a minimum wage, if they're lucky. So far as I can tell I fraternize with the indebted and the vulnerable, not the well-to-do. Ergo, Brook's is a myopic buffoon.<br /><br />In regards to: ""Hey, Hey! We have been saying this for years!!""<br /><br />I think we can apply that truism to left-liberals, but also to the new capabilities theorists (of which we've spoken about before).<br />Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08250295324149056708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-24264973041516076282014-04-25T09:54:35.839-04:002014-04-25T09:54:35.839-04:00Brooks' snark about affluent liberals vs the r...Brooks' snark about affluent liberals vs the rich is not actually wrong, annoying as he is about it. I found his proposed agenda more informative:<br /><br />"First, acknowledge that the concentration of wealth is a concern with a beefed up inheritance tax."<br /><br />Wow! He didn't even call it a death tax. Maybe Piketty is shifting the Overton window a bit.<br /><br />"Second, emphasize a contrasting agenda that will reward growth, saving and investment, not punish these things, the way Piketty would. Support progressive consumption taxes not a tax on capital."<br /><br />Diversion. Taxing consumption won't do much to address the problem of large patrimonies which throw off more income than the owner needs even for a lavish life style.<br /><br />"Third, emphasize that the historically proven way to reduce inequality is lifting people from the bottom with human capital reform, not pushing down the top. In short, counter angry progressivism with unifying uplift."<br /><br />Give me that old time religion! Keep dreaming of when you too will live in the big plantation house instead of working in the cotton fields. But one can't expect affluent people to advocate revolutionary violence after all. We'd better keep hoping the lottery system -- the "So You Wanna Be A Millionaire?" Reality TV America -- to keep working people's noses to the grind stones.<br /><br />I don't expect a lot to come of this Piketty boomlet apart from maybe a little less dominance by tea party rhetoric in DC. And that only for a little while.Sethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16486234948199900568noreply@blogger.com