Thomas Piketty: “Capital” destroys right-wing lies, but there’s one solution it forgets

[xchrom]

http://www.salon.com/2014/05/11/the_problem_with_thomas_piketty_capital_destroys_right_wing_lies_but_theres_one_solution_it_forgets/

The problem with Thomas Piketty: “Capital” destroys right-wing lies, but there’s one solution it forgets



***SNIP

Thomas Piketty, for his part, understands the danger of restricting the great inequality debate to economists only, and he is also oddly well-informed about the history of the estate tax in the United States. But when he turns his attention to solutions, the best he can do is propose a “global wealth tax” that would probably ring the big-government alarm bell of even the staunchest liberals, and that Piketty himself admits to be a “utopian ideal” that will never happen.

This simply will not do. There are countless other options available to us before we have to turn to some unaccountable international IRS. As Gustavus Myers told us back in 1939, bringing the aristocracy to heel is entirely within our power and our tradition, and American statesmen from Jefferson to FDR (the man on the nickel, the man on the dime) have taken enthusiastic part in the business of leveling. There is nothing utopian about it at all. It is not an opium dream to imagine that Grover Norquist and company might one day be defeated or that the estate tax might be brought back in full Rooseveltian force; both are eminently possible, if only the Democrats would pull their heads out of their butts.

Turning to the problem of income inequality here in the United States, there is an even simpler solution, by which I mean a more realistic solution, a solution that builds on familiar American traditions,that works by empowering average people, that requires few economists or experts, that would involve a minimum of government interference, and that proceeds by expanding democracy and participation rather than by building some kind of distant and unapproachable global tax authority: Allow workers to organize. Let people have a say on the basic issues affecting their lives.

Piketty’s biggest blind spot is that he has virtually nothing to say about labor unions. He starts Chapter 1 of “Capital” with an anecdote about a bloody strike in South Africa and he returns to that same tragic episode at the very end of the book, but in between he addresses the matter almost not at all. Piketty talks a good game about democracy, but like other economists who have made inequality their subject, he prefers solutions that are handed down from the lofty heights of expertise.

[abelenkpe]

1. "if only the Democrats would pull their heads out of their butts"

They're too busy scrambling for donations.

Allow workers to organize? I think we are allowed. Workers are too frightened. And even if they did organize would politicians listen to their concerns?

We need global unions, or a global workers movement to guarantee safe working environment and stable employment around the globe so corporations can't pit workers in one area against another driving down labor costs and skirting safety regulations.

[MannyGoldstein]

2. Strong unions and strong tariffs.

Without them we are sunk. With them we win.

I think it's that simple.

[bvar22]

3. "ring the big-government alarm bell of even the staunchest liberals"

ring the Big Government alarm bell ?? WTF

That "Big Government" crap came from Reagan... and then Clinton & The NeoLiberals (Conservatives).
All the Liberals I know BELIEVE that properly run "Big Government" is necessary to protect the rights of individuals
and consumers, oversee Trade, Safety, Corporate Predation, The Commons, provide Watch Dog services over Wall Street, International Trade, Interstate Trade, rein in the Too Big to Fails, Keep the Playing Field Level, and provide 1000 other services that make life good for the average American.

In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be[font size=3] established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.[/font]

Among these are:

*The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;

*The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

*The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;

*The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;

*The right of every family to a decent home;

*The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

*The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;

*The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.

[font size=3]America's own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for all our citizens.[/font]

Please note that the above are stipulated as Basic Human RIGHTS to be protected by our government,
and NOT as COMMODITIES to be SOLD to Americans by For Profit Corporations.



I do NOT have a Big Government Alarm Bell,
but I DO have an alarm bell that starts ringing every time I hear someone bitch about Big Government.
We are a BIG nation...and a Wealthy nation.
We NEED a "Big Government" to ensure and protect, and provide when necessary, the rights of every citizen, and a big watchdog and accountability wing of the Big Government to ensure that it is done properly and efficiently.

[eppur_se_muova]

4. How big should government be ? Big enough to do the job, thank you.

Among his other sins, Clinton started repeating the right-wing frame re "the size of government" as if that weren't really code for reducing regulation, pushed by those on one side of the argument, and not really needing to be considered as a remote possibility by the other.

[bvar22]

5. Defunding and cutting staff at the Watchdog Agencies like the SEC, EPA, BLM,

...the IRS (and many others) is the same as taking the police off the streets
and telling the criminals that they can do what they want.