Review: Capital in the 21st century

Author: Thomas Piketty

After reading this book I read a quote that this was the book most likely to sit on a bookshelf unread, to make the owner look smart and intellectual.  People who do this are missing out.  This book changed my perspective of the world regarding Capital and Wealth.  I felt more aware and that I had actually learned something.  It is a long book and finishing it seemed like an achievement.

Piketty writing style dryly reflects the academic he is.  These are the facts, this is what they might mean and this is what they don’t mean.  I enjoyed the appreciation and repeated reference to art as a way of explaining the facts.  He repeatedly references the work of Jane Austin and others to show the sensibilities that people of the 19th century would have intuitively understood.

He suggests solutions to the problem of inequity, that before reading this I would have found abhorrent, but now that I would accept.  In this regard, if we do not change our societies, we are destined for an increasingly inequitable world.  I also understand how I can act now and do my best to keep my children and their children on the wealthy side of the divide (being poor sucks).

The knowledge and wisdom I have gained from this book has changed me forever.  Once a thing is known it cannot become unknown.  The book is wholly worthwhile reading and most highly recommended.