Thomas Piketty, the world-famous economist and author of “Capital in the 21st Century,” has a new 1,200 page tome outlining ways to reform capitalism and end the reign of billionaires around the world.
“The time has come to exit this phase of making property sacred, to go beyond capitalism.”
Thursday marked the release of the French edition of Piketty’s newest work titled “Capital and Ideology,” but the English edition of the book is not set for release until March 10, 2020, according to Amazon. It’s a follow-up to the hugely popular “Capital in the 21st Century,” which sold two million copies when it released in 2013, according to The Guardian.
“The time has come to exit this phase of making property sacred, to go beyond capitalism,” Piketty said in an interview with the French magazine L’Obs.
Piketty’s new book builds on the ideas found in “Capital in the 21st Century,” which explored wealth and income inequality in the United States and Europe since the 18th century. He introduces ideas to help combat growing inequality including an extreme wealth tax of up to 90% that puts Elizabeth Warren’s wealth taxes to shame, according to Business Insider.
“The system I propose makes it possible to own several million euros, or even tens of millions, at least for a while,” Piketty said to L’Obs. “But those with several hundred million euros, or several billion, will have to share power.”
In the corporate realm, Piketty argues for 10% caps on shareholders’ voting power in an effort to spread some of the power around. He also believes 50% of a company’s seats on the board should be owned by employees.
These all seem a little extreme and hard to implement, but the idea that may take the crackpot cake is what Piketty calls “inheritance for all.” It’s his take on universal basic income, and it would give every French citizen 120,000 euros ($132,000) when they turn 25.
Who needs fiscal responsibility?