By John Lawrence
Thomas Piketty's new book Capital in the Twenty-First Century begs comparison with Karl Marx' Das Kapital written in 1867. The two books are alike in the sense that they both point out the incredible centralization and concentration of wealth in fewer and fewer hands. They are unlike in the sense that Marx' book is more exhortatory while Piketty's is more of a massive collection of historical data presented in the form of numerous graphs and charts.
While Marx was more of a "workers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains" kind of guy, Piketty is a Dragnet's Sergeant Joe Friday's "The facts, ma'am, just the facts" kind of guy. While Marx's solution to the dilemma of inegalitarianism was revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat, Piketty's is a global tax on wealth, something that even he concedes is unlikely to happen.
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