Quotessence
Home / Authors / Thomas Piketty
Thomas Piketty

Thomas Piketty Quotes

Economist

Filter quotes by topic

AllInequalityEconomicsWealthPoliticsCapitalDemocracyIncomeCapitalismEconomistGrowthCenturyDemocraticDistributionDistribution Of WealthEqualityFinancialGreaterGreedIncome InequalityInternational

Famous Thomas Piketty Quotes

“Because [Jeff Bezos] and [Mark Zuckerberg] own $100 billion in the current state of the legal system, the current state of the fiscal system, the current way the international economy is organised, people say, ‘OK, $100 billion, exactly the right level.’ But with a different legal system, different international taxation, it could be 200, it could be 50. So what would be the story? Any level that they will attain, it will be the best? This kind of sacralisation of special individuals is a form of religious thought. People who use this kind of argument: ‘He's great, therefore –‘ therefore what? Therefore we should subsidize him so that he's even richer?”

WealthMoneyEconomicsGreedOligarchyIncome InequalityPlutocracyWealth Inequality
Author:Thomas Piketty
Create image

“Superior abilities... are the source of everything that is great and useful. Reduce everything to equality and you will bring everything to a standstill. One sometimes hears the same argument expressed today in the idea that the new information economy will allow the most talented individuals to increase their productivity many times over. The plain fact is that this argument is often used to justify extreme inequalities and to defend the privileges of the winners without much consideration for the losers, much less for the facts, and without any real effort to verify whether this very convenient principle can actually explain the changes we observe.”

EconomicsIncome Inequality
Book:Capital in the Twenty First Century
Create image