Political Economy of Disparities Re-expanded: Comments on Capital in the Twenty-First Century
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Beginning with a brief summary of Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century, this paper comments on its significance and problems from a Marxian perspective. Piketty clearly brought us back to a central issue in the long history of political economy on economic disparities in the distribution of wealth and income within capitalist economies. His statistical data work on the ratios (β) of capital stock to national income, and on the resultant trends of the ratios (α) of capital income in the national income is especially noteworthy. It demonstrates that in the interwar periods, economic disparities in wealth and income were widely reduced and remained relatively narrow in the high economic growth period after the World War II. However, they have re-expanded remarkably since the 1980s. While welcoming Piketty’s long term fact-finding, this paper presents several problems in his arguments and analyses which need to be considered from a Marxian perspective. In particular, we need to examine Piketty’s notions of capital, the average rate of return on capital, the analyses of the historical trajectory of the rate of return on capital, the capital/income ratio, and his treatment of financial instability. The historical significance of re-expanded economic disparities should not be regarded as a natural trend restored after the exceptional period between the World War I and the high economic growth period after the World War II, but needs to be criticized as a renewed historical trend promoted by the neoliberal globalization of capitalist economies in our age. His proposal of tax reforms also inspires us to reconsider wider alternative strategies for 21st century models of social democracy and socialism.
Abstract
Beginning with a brief summary of Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century, this paper comments on its significance and problems from a Marxian perspective. Piketty clearly brought us back to a central issue in the long history of political economy on economic disparities in the distribution of wealth and income within capitalist economies. His statistical data work on the ratios (β) of capital stock to national income, and on the resultant trends of the ratios (α) of capital income in the national income is especially noteworthy. It demonstrates that in the interwar periods, economic disparities in wealth and income were widely reduced and remained relatively narrow in the high economic growth period after the World War II. However, they have re-expanded remarkably since the 1980s. While welcoming Piketty’s long term fact-finding, this paper presents several problems in his arguments and analyses which need to be considered from a Marxian perspective. In particular, we need to examine Piketty’s notions of capital, the average rate of return on capital, the analyses of the historical trajectory of the rate of return on capital, the capital/income ratio, and his treatment of financial instability. The historical significance of re-expanded economic disparities should not be regarded as a natural trend restored after the exceptional period between the World War I and the high economic growth period after the World War II, but needs to be criticized as a renewed historical trend promoted by the neoliberal globalization of capitalist economies in our age. His proposal of tax reforms also inspires us to reconsider wider alternative strategies for 21st century models of social democracy and socialism.
참고문헌 (14)
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