Our modern democratic ideal is based on the hope that inequalities will be based on merit more than inheritance or luck.
Thomas PikettyWe want capitalism and market forces to be the slave of democracy rather than the opposite.
Thomas PikettyDas Kapital, I think, is very difficult to read, and for me, it was not very influential.
Thomas PikettyWhat was the good of industrial development, what was the good of all the technological innovations, toil, and population movements if, after half a century of industrial growth, the condition of the masses was still just as miserable as before, and all lawmakers could do was prohibit factory labor by children under the age of eight?
Thomas PikettyThere is one great advantage to being an academic economist in France: here, economists are not highly respected in the academic and intellectual world or by political and financial elites. Hence they must set aside their contempt for other disciplines and their absurd claim to greater scientific legitimacy, despite the fact that they know almost nothing about anything.
Thomas Piketty