Piketty's new book

Discussion in 'Economics & Trade' started by LafayetteBis, Sep 11, 2019.

  1. LafayetteBis

    LafayetteBis Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    From the Guardian, here: Thomas Piketty's new War and Peace

    Excerpt:
    The above proposition will be favored by Social Democrats (like me) around the world. But when you have to "say it all" in more than twelve-hundred pages, then reading any such book can be very, very boring.

    Still, it's a time in the US when - after such a gross figure like Donald Dork has invested the White House - we should be really thinking about where we (and this planet) are going. We in the US are smart enough to do some inward thinking - and that applies to the European Union as well. But, such introspection is not always wise. Whyzzat?

    Because what happens in the world around us ultimately comes home to roost as well. Get this:
    *The US used to be THE major player in world markets, its exports by and large bettering other nations by huge multiples. But,
    *Like all things historic, "them were the good-ole times" - and if Donald Dork thinks he is going to change things by tweaking Chinese noses, he's (yet again) dead wrong.
    *Because China (and southeast Asia) is the place that is making the products that both American and European consumers still want very much - and they cannot make for a decent price. But which the southeast of Asia can do.

    Those low-end products are not exactly the latest state-of-the-art - but sometimes they can be. As Huawei has shown with its smartphones. (Or Apple has shown by manufacturing smart iPhones as cheaply as possible and selling them to Yanks at astronomically high-prices.)

    Whichever the market-model, it aint-goin'-away tomorrow. The Cheaper-Labor of southeast Asia - as long as it continues to meet good quality-standards - is here to stay. So, what does that mean for developed nations like the US and the EU?

    It means something I've said a thousand times on this forum and will bore you to read for the Nth-time. As a nation, we need to go up-market widely and economically! And that means not only in industries but in services as well.

    Going "up-market" also means a higher level of learning-and-capabilities that only a postsecondary degree can obtain. Which is why obtaining such a degree should be free, gratis and for nothing. Just like a primary- or secondary-school degree at any public institution.

    Either that or the Poverty Threshold ($25K annually) simply grows-'n-grows-'n-grows ...
     
  2. james M

    james M Banned

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    God or nature justify inequality by making people and all living things inequal. This is the basis for evolution. Without it evolution stops and we all die.
     

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