Understanding Modern Wealth Inequality: Thomas Piketty's 'Capital in the 21st Century'

This is the first in a sequence of book summaries on major works in the natural and social sciences. I provide a concise summary of French economist Thomas Piketty's 700 page book 'Capital in the 21st Century' into a 16 minute video covering ten key claims Piketty makes.

Introduction 0:00 - 2:04
Claim #1: Scarcity of Data on Wealth Inequality 2:05 - 2:58
Claim #2: Income Taxes Are Recent 2:59 - 4:07
Claim #3: 1st Law of Capitalism 4:08 - 5:56
Claim #4: Inflation Affects Public Debt 5:57 - 6:36
Claim #5: Wars Cause Inflation and Public, but Lower Inequality 6:37 - 7:16
Claim #6: 2nd Law of Capitalism = s/g 7:17 - 10:01
Claim #7: Slavery Drove Wealth Inequality 10:02 - 11:27
Claim #8: Rise of the Managerial Class 11:28 - 12:04
Claim #9: Inhertance Drives Inequality 12:05 - 13:57
Claim #10: Progressive Global Tax on Capital 13:58 - 15:57

[javierarturocalderon]

I believe the page numbers might be different in most recent editions. For instance, Thomas Jefferson slavery example is on page 197, super managers 420, inheritance 477, and marginal tax 597

[mere_cat]

Picketty’s books are a slog to get through but not as dull as Marx at least.