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The (F)Laws of Piketty’s Capitalism: A Fundamental Approach

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  • de la Fonteijne, Marcel R.

Abstract

The book 'Capital in the Twenty-First Century' by the French economist Piketty about the inequality of income and wealth distribution is already quite a while in the spotlights. Throughout his book he uses two formulas which he has named ‘the first fundamental law of capitalism’ and ‘the second fundamental law of capitalism’. With his reasoning he tries to show that, with these laws in place, he is capable to explain inequality phenomena with respect to the income and wealth distribution. Without going into the significance of his reasoning and conclusions, we will show that the use of the laws, the way he does, is fundamentally wrong. We suggest alternative formulas and a new approach. The inequality r>g is in our opinion not a meaningful equation with respect to inequality.

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  • de la Fonteijne, Marcel R., 2014. "The (F)Laws of Piketty’s Capitalism: A Fundamental Approach," MPRA Paper 72719, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:72719
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carmen M. Reinhart & Kenneth S. Rogoff, 2010. "Growth in a Time of Debt," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(2), pages 573-578, May.
    2. Thomas Piketty & Gabriel Zucman, 2014. "Capital is Back: Wealth-Income Ratios in Rich Countries 1700–2010," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 129(3), pages 1255-1310.
    3. de la Fonteijne, Marcel, 2013. "The Monetary Profit Paradox and a Sustainable Economy - A Fundamental Approach," MPRA Paper 55235, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 10 Apr 2014.
    4. de la Fonteijne, Marcel R., 2014. "An inconsistency in using stock flow consistency in modelling the monetary profit paradox," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 8, pages 1-7.
    5. de la Fonteijne, Marcel, 2014. "An inconsistency in using stock flow consistency in modelling the monetary profit paradox," Economics Discussion Papers 2014-3, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    sustainability; inequality; unemployment; GDP growth; income; wealth distribution;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E00 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - General
    • E10 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - General
    • E20 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - General (includes Measurement and Data)
    • E60 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - General
    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
    • H30 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - General
    • H60 - Public Economics - - National Budget, Deficit, and Debt - - - General

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