Capital in the Twenty-First Century by
Thomas Piketty, 2014, Excerpts
Inequality on the eve of WWI
was as great as it had ever been. The two world wars played a central role in
reducing inequalities in the twentieth century. It was the chaos of war, with its
attendant economic and political shocks, that reduced inequality in the
twentieth century. There was no gradual, consensual, conflict free evolution
toward greater equality. In the twentieth century it was war, and not
harmonious democratic or economic rationality, that erased the past and enabled
society begin anew with a clean state.
The reduction of inequality
that took place between 1910 and 1950 was above all a consequence of war and of
policies adopted to cope with the shocks of war. A great wave of enthusiasm
swept over Europe in the period 1945-1975. People felt that inequality and
class society had been relegated to the past.
One major lesson is clear: it
was the wars of the twentieth century that wiped away and transformed the
structure of inequality. Today, in the second decade of the twenty-first century,
inequalities in wealth that had supposedly disappeared are close to regaining
or even surpassing their historical highs. The new global economy has brought
immense inequities. Can we imagine a twenty-first century in which capitalism
will be transcended in a more peaceful and more lasting way, or must we simply
await the next crisis or the next war?
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