Yes the establishment economists have vested interests. But, Vested interests are what allowed Silicon Valley to flourish. The east coast financial center large

Yes the establishment economists have vested interests. But, Vested interests are what allowed Silicon Valley to flourish. The east coast financial center largely ignored the pc space until Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Bill Joy and numerous others built the pc hardware and networking stack to allow everyone to have a'voice' and to hear all those voices. Although Piketty's arguments hold water, he has not shown a synthesis that will allow us to unwind smoothly from the concentration of wealth. I once had a heated discussion with an economist about this very topic. Financial wealth grows now largely through speculation. Although stocks and options were once based in fundamentals, their prices now fluctuate wildly based on their own supply and demand which is often decoupled from reality. I suggested having two currencies, one money derived from human labor and another derived from the work that financial instruments generate. One could establish an exchange rate between one and the other based on wealth disparity. Or another way to deal with these currencies would be to restrict income and capital gains from financial money to only be spent on non-financial products (goods, services, upgrade factories, upgrade roads, etc.) As this economist was working in the financial sector in NY, he thought the idea was ludicrous. He felt that money from the financial sector was equally valued as money from human labor. Or even more valued ! He wanted to control his money and not have to invest in the messy world of humanity directly.