Nenhum livro de economia publicado nos últimos anos foi capaz de provocar o furor internacional causado por O capital no século XXI , do francês Thomas Piketty.

Seu estudo sobre a concentração de riqueza e a evolução da desigualdade ganhou manchetes nos principais jornais do mundo, gerou discussões nas redes sociais e colheu comentários e elogios de diversos ganhadores do Prêmio Nobel.

Fruto de quinze anos de pesquisas incansáveis, o livro se apoia em dados que remontam ao século XVIII, provenientes de mais de vinte países, para chegar a conclusões explosivas. O crescimento econômico e a difusão do conhecimento impediram que fosse concretizado o cenário apocalíptico previsto por Karl Marx no século XIX. Porém, os registros históricos demonstram que o capitalismo tende a criar um círculo vicioso de desigualdade, pois, no longo prazo, a taxa de retorno sobre os ativos é maior que o ritmo do crescimento econômico, o que se traduz numa concentração cada vez maior da riqueza. Uma situação de desigualdade extrema pode levar a um descontentamento geral e até ameaçar os valores democráticos. Mas Piketty lembra também que a intervenção política já foi capaz de reverter tal quadro no passado e poderá voltar a fazê-lo.

Essa obra, que já se tornou uma referência entre os estudos econômicos, contribui para renovar inteiramente nossa compreensão sobre a dinâmica do capitalismo ao colocar sua contradição fundamental na relação entre o crescimento econômico e o rendimento do capital. O capital no século XXI nos obriga a refletir profundamente sobre as questões mais prementes de nosso tempo.

“Piketty transformou nosso discurso econômico; jamais voltaremos a falar sobre renda e desigualdade da maneira que fazíamos.” - Paul Krugman (Prêmio Nobel de Economia), The New York Times

“Um livro seminal sobre a evolução econômico-social do planeta... Uma obra-prima.” - Emmanuel Todd, Marianne

First book I have read in a while that makes me feel I am really learning what is going on around me. I finished this book just a few days before my wife, my daughter and I embarked on a whirlwind tour of six countries in Western Europe. I had a fresh look at cities I'd visited before and thought about things in light of what Thomas Piketty had to say about the super rich, the growing disparity between the upper decile and everybody else, and the unlikelihood that things will change for the better anytime soon.

When you travel you inevitably eat out and when you eat out these days in the cities of London, Amsterdam, Paris, and even smaller centres like Interlaken, Switzerland, the first thing you discover is that your waiters, your busboys, and most of your food preparers come from somewhere other than where you are dining. And virtually all of these people commute to work. From my unscientific poll I learned that commute time vary anywhere from one to one and a half hours each way, each day.

Even professionals. One woman dining at the table next to us at a restaurant facing the Thames said her daily commute as a financial advisor consumed a good portion of her salary, and that if she missed her regular train to the Midlands could cost her 100 pounds sterling just to get home before her children got to bed. I translated that to Canadian dollars and that mounts to $202.65....for a one way ticket home!

For the people who earn a basic wage working in these restaurants it means sharing accomodation, taking costly transit to and from work, a eating what you can get. It means little if any money at the end of the day to save. Little if any money at the end of the day to send home. And few choices. The young Poles, the Lithuanians, the Slovaks, the Albanians I spoke to all seemed to have one objective: to get back to where they came from as soon as conditions improved in their homelands.

In Toronto, where thousands of migrant Phillipines work as nannies, caregivers for the aged, and in other low wage jobs, at least these people seem to be able to send home funds to support their distant families.

This is what capital provides in this day and age.

What it doesn't provide is any greater access to political or financial reform...because the individuals most affected by capital have no voice of dissent. Where they live they don't vote, and where they vote they don't live, and even if they did live where they vote...in Greece maybe?...the vote carries little value in the big scheme of things. ( )

While I cannot pretend to have understood most of this book, I can say this based on my own experience as a reader and a graduate student: it is a first rate piece of evidence-driven--exhaustively evidence-driven, including an extensive online scholarly technical apparatus--historical inquiry.

Piketty provides a long historical view of economic information to support his thesis about growing wealth inequality. Sustained disparities between economic growth and return on investments will quickly result in large and unevenly distributed private wealth. Data from the 18th to the 21st centuries reveal the 20th century, with its global wars and depressions, as the anomaly rather than the norm, and now inequality is accumulating as much as in the 19th century, with no real upper limit. Great wealth disparity is ultimately incompatible with democracy, so if the latter is of value -- and Piketty clearly believes it is -- the former should be tempered. Piketty's suggested way to do that is by means of a progressive wealth tax.

I really appreciate Piketty's use of historical documents; he doesn't draw artificial distinctions between history, economics, politics and sociology. His (and Arthur Goldhammer's translation) is clear and easy to follow. Insightful. ( )

if you want a detailed understanding of income inequality from an esteemed economist, this is for you. ( )