I think the truth is somewhere in between- Doctorow does seem to have overstated what Piketty said, but not by a huge margin. I don't think this error dilutes

I think the truth is somewhere in between- Doctorow does seem to have overstated what Piketty said, but not by a huge margin. I don't think this error dilutes Doctorow's argument very much. From wikipedia (the article on Capital in the 21 Century): "The book's central thesis is that when the rate of return on capital (r) is greater than the rate of economic growth (g) over the long term, the result is concentration of wealth, and this unequal distribution of wealth causes social and economic instability." Doctorow got a little hyperbolic and replaced "instability" with "some kind of collapse", and "capital" with "capitalism" which is, as you point out, misrepresenting what Piketty said. But not tremendously.