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Slavery is the most extreme case of inequality. How close do you need to get to slavery before inequality is a problem?

• missedthecue 6y ago
  Slavery is a basic human rights violation... Jeff Bezos owning $100B in Amazon stock is not. Piketty is obviously not writing abolitionist literature
  • supercanuck 6y ago
    The problem in, and of itself, is not that Jeff Bozos has 100B, it is that by Jeff Bezos having 100M, he is able to bend the political environment to benefit him. creating more wealth and reducing the wealth of others. The tax code is a great example of that. Piketty's book, clearly demonstrates that. By the way, for every "Bezos", there is a Walmart Heiress who simply chose the right womb to come out of, and while Bezos may have "built" Amazon, he needed early investors, e.g. that Wal Mart Heiress for example, to start that instead of going to public markets.
    • missedthecue 6y ago
      Then the solution should not be to take Bezos share in this business. Like I said earlier, there is no clear point where someone's wealth stops giving them influence. The solution should be to increase the rigidity of government. But Piketty does not advocate that.
      • supercanuck 6y ago
        You don’t seem the type to be persuaded to a progressive tax system or a change to property rights. So unless you have a different proposal to fix the system, assuming you even recognize it as a problem, their really isn’t anywhere to go from here.