(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Thomas Piketty: A Brief History of Equality [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-12-23 In order to study advances toward equality, we must first examine the most vicious forms of inequality—a daunting task. Then we have to recognize that there can be no Big Bang Theory of equality. It comes in many stages, each viciously fought by the forces of inequality while we laboriously gather the data and political will to support them. According to a rather widespread fairy tale, legal equality has been definitively established in Western countries since the Enlightenment and the “Atlantic Revolutions”. Almost everywhere, the equality of rights proclaimed at the end of the 18th century is above all an equality of White men, and especially of property-owning White men. Piketty, A Brief History of Equality, p. 197 And Christians. In the US, this comes from the Declaration of Independence, which has, however, no legal force whatsoever. In France, it was the abolition of aristocratic privileges on August 4, 1789, which has, however, no legal force on private property “rights”. The outline of millennia of oppressions is well known, including the principle known as the Fool’s Gold Rule. He who has the gold makes the rules. Most of this book is about inequality, and in particular about the bogus political theories undergirding them, including putting property rights above human rights, Reaganomics, and insisting on unregulated “free” flow of capital. For each case, Piketty traces some of the history of efforts to overcome these abuses, and makes suggestions for the future based on collected data. x On this day in 1865, following the emancipation of Black people, South Carolina passed a law requiring labor contracts to refer to white people as "masters" and Black people as "servants." https://t.co/AQfQs2xY0V — Equal Justice Initiative (@eji_org) December 19, 2023 x French economist Thomas Piketty says France owes #Haiti billions. It's not just France, the USA also owes Haiti, for stealing all of its gold reserves in 1914 and depositing it in Citibank, orchestrating coups and electoral fraud, and much more. pic.twitter.com/ZeCTyWsP3B — Madame Boukman - Justice 4 Haiti 🇭🇹 (@madanboukman) January 22, 2020 x Six years ago, the GOP Tax Scam cut taxes for the wealthy, hurt middle-class families, and added $1.8 TRILLION to the national debt. When Republicans tried to blame older Americans for our growing national debt last month, I pulled out my whiteboard to do the math. https://t.co/96qDYGaHnF — Rep. Katie Porter (@RepKatiePorter) December 22, 2023 Suggestions I’m not just going to make a list out of the text in the book. People have been on this for centuries, and they are taking up some of Piketty’s new proposals in both public discourse and action. x War, recession, religion—every facet of human existence has its roots in inequality, Thomas Piketty tells us in his new book. https://t.co/mpFWTD2XEt — The New Yorker (@NewYorker) March 3, 2020 Of course, we have to talk about every kind of equality. Race Gender LGBTQ Nationality Education Religion Politics Law Privileges of wealth People power. x The massive protest in front of Argentina’s Congress against Javier Milei’s new austerity measures. They threatened to strip people’s social benefits if they participated in any protest that blocked a street but people turned out anyways 🇦🇷 pic.twitter.com/3YuL6CWPBf — Thomas Kennedy (@tomaskenn) December 22, 2023 x In his latest post, Thomas Piketty proposes basic income, a job guarantee, and inheritance for all distributed as a large one-time wealth grant of around $150,000 distributed to everyone at age 25, and that they should all be implemented, and in that order. https://t.co/ZxApq672jo — Scott Santens (@scottsantens) May 19, 2021 The inheritance can help buy a house or start a small business, or support the person in whatever education or training they like. Or even running for office. x Learning from Piketty that Tom Paine proposed a Universal Basic Income in... 1795. @botiojanco pic.twitter.com/lA2zbvlBNZ — Gautam Bhatia (@gautambhatia88) April 9, 2020 x Some #basicincome news via @basicincomeorg: India: Congress party gets serious about basic income and reaches out to Thomas Piketty for policy design support https://t.co/s1Xlw3YKMU — Scott Santens (@scottsantens) February 14, 2019 The politics of inequality: Atkinson, Piketty and Stiglitz at the LSE’s International Inequalities Institute The [London School of Economics]’s new International Inequalities Institute has hosted three major thinkers on inequality: Tony Atkinson, Thomas Piketty and Joseph Stiglitz. In this article, Mike Savage and John Hills discuss what emerged out of these events, writing that the politics of inequality will undoubtedly become increasingly central to public debate. Yet the results of the 2015 British general election revealed that the politics of inequality plays out in complex ways. On the one hand, the success of the Green Party and (especially) the SNP showed how a redistributionist politics could draw off a significant numbers of voters from a much more timorous Labour Party, and especially from the Liberal Democrats whose claims to a redistributionist politics have been tainted by their record in the coalition government. On the other hand, an absolute majority of voters supported either the Conservatives or UKIP who proposed relaxing taxation on the wealthy even further. This is a remarkably fertile time in which the economics of inequality is showing astonishing creativity and embracing increasingly wide audiences inside and outside academia. Atkinson is the doyen of the discipline – the mentor to whom Piketty pays court and Stiglitz reveres. Yet, whilst in many ways he is very much an economist’s economist, in his new book Inequality: what can be done?, he shows a steely determination to appeal to a wider public who want concrete policy suggestions to tackle escalating inequality. Atkinson brilliantly shows how certain specific proposals – ranging from introducing national pay policies through enhanced progressive taxation – might nonetheless make a tangible difference. x More than 500 academics including Thomas Piketty call for a science-based approach to policies on immigration and the creation on an International Panel on Migration and Asylumhttps://t.co/lqjS60M1XE — Katju Aro (@katjuaro) July 9, 2018 x Economist Thomas Piketty and Politician Elizabeth Warren agree that a marginal wealth tax may be our only way out of the current economic crisis. #Muslims have called it Zakat since the 7th century. pic.twitter.com/n4KImsJi7S — Muslims For Peace (@muslimsforpeace) July 21, 2020 x Thomas Piketty says wealth inequality is more harmful than income inequality. He calls for a wealth tax & much higher inheritance tax "In the U.S., 2% of total wealth is owned by the bottom 50%. The top 10% own over 70% of wealth in the U.S." https://t.co/gbuo9OPeq7@ezraklein — Steven Greenhouse (@greenhousenyt) June 18, 2022 [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/12/23/2212088/-Thomas-Piketty-A-Brief-History-of-Equality?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/