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bub_9's review against another edition
4.0
Rigorous, thoughtful, wide-ranging in scope, but also obviously excessively in length to the point of repetitiveness. Also, I continue to enjoy Piketty the economist, and especially Piketty the data-gatherer, but Piketty the activist can be a bit wearying. Much as the devices of Austen and Honore de Balzac became a bit tired in his previous work, the tirades against capitalism can often feel tiresome and excessively emotional here, and clearly the same level of rigour is not applied to some of these arguments (e.g. just because high taxes didn't stop growth, does that mean they weren't inimical to growth nonetheless?).
Nonetheless, the book is just peppered with insight; here are a few examples. The idea of the Church as the first proprietarian, capitalist organisation; tackling myths about inherent cultural characteristics (for example, the idea of the Indian caste system being as lazy a myth as, say, Malays in Singapore being lazier than other races); Eastern European economies losing two to three times what they gain in EU transfers in capital profits accruing to Western investors.
Definitely worth reading, but while remaining mindful of other perspectives.
Nonetheless, the book is just peppered with insight; here are a few examples. The idea of the Church as the first proprietarian, capitalist organisation; tackling myths about inherent cultural characteristics (for example, the idea of the Indian caste system being as lazy a myth as, say, Malays in Singapore being lazier than other races); Eastern European economies losing two to three times what they gain in EU transfers in capital profits accruing to Western investors.
Definitely worth reading, but while remaining mindful of other perspectives.
alex_rothschilds's review against another edition
slow-paced
4.25
Incredibly interesting read that explores relationships with society, capital, ownership and inequalities in our world, worth the read
dgk53's review against another edition
5.0
This is simply a fantastic book if you are interested in the political and economic history of the world. I am interested in how we got here, i.e. why are we a capitalist society and why in the world do we correlate that with democracy? Here is a book that attempts to answer by giving a very lucid and interesting account of political economy and economic history over the last 500 years. From trifunctional (noble, ecclesiastical, common people) societies, to ownership (proprietarian) societies, to capitalism is described in great detail. How nothing is etched in stone, nothing is deterministic, and how we could use the knowledge of how all these inequality regimes came to be and then how we can fix it. We the living are faced with huge problems in this world. If we care at all for our posterity, our grandchildren and the generations to come we must first strive to understand our origins and the extent of the inequity our systems engender and then begin to think in terms of how this can be fixed. Great thinkers like Thomas Piketty are paving the way as they have always done through history. It is for us to take heed and take action. I recommend this book to everyone.
catbooking's review against another edition
5.0
This book made me feel both smart and dumb at the same time. I think that means my brain was getting a workout. I *hope* that means my brain was getting a workout and it was not a symptom of my brain cells giving up and taking themselves out.
About the book specifically. I enjoyed the first section, the how we got to this problem, much more than the last section, how to get ourselves out. With the first section it felt like I was learning things and seeing things in a new perspective, which is useful. The second section, however, felt unrealistically optimistic and thus depressing. I mean, we cannot get people to agree and follow some simple actions to mitigate an ongoing pandemic, how are we supposed to get them to agree on a complex system of taxes and distribution? When we cannot get people to agree that germs exist and the Earth is not flat, how are we supposed to discuss the benefits and necessity of redistribution?
Our depressing reality aside, I think this book may also have ruined future fantasy books for me. I was reading another book in tandem with listening to this one and my mind kept wondering off to the topic of classes and taxes those classes are paying. How many authors are going to go to such lengths in their world-building? And would I, as a reader, want them to?
In conclusion, this book ruined everything and I cannot wait to read something new from the author. :)
About the book specifically. I enjoyed the first section, the how we got to this problem, much more than the last section, how to get ourselves out. With the first section it felt like I was learning things and seeing things in a new perspective, which is useful. The second section, however, felt unrealistically optimistic and thus depressing. I mean, we cannot get people to agree and follow some simple actions to mitigate an ongoing pandemic, how are we supposed to get them to agree on a complex system of taxes and distribution? When we cannot get people to agree that germs exist and the Earth is not flat, how are we supposed to discuss the benefits and necessity of redistribution?
Our depressing reality aside, I think this book may also have ruined future fantasy books for me. I was reading another book in tandem with listening to this one and my mind kept wondering off to the topic of classes and taxes those classes are paying. How many authors are going to go to such lengths in their world-building? And would I, as a reader, want them to?
In conclusion, this book ruined everything and I cannot wait to read something new from the author. :)
darthflauschi's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
slow-paced
4.0
Wer die Probleme des 21. Jahrhunderts verstehen will, kommt nicht um diese hervorragende Analyse herum. Piketty macht es möglich eine Diskussion um die Verbesserung unserer Gesellschaft zu beginnen.
leoberenson's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
slow-paced
5.0
Capital and Ideology is a brilliant work of political literature. Written years after (and in my opinion definitely exceeding the quality of) Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty’s colossal analysis of ideological conflict and development throughout human history has officially made him one of my favourite global leftist thinkers of the modern day. Expanding his scope of analysis from Capital in the Twenty-First Century in an attempt to provide stronger backing to his claims by decentering a Western perspective (there is a fascinating section covering India and its quota system that would almost make the book worth it on its own), Piketty demonstrates the faults of a deterministic view of history, using it to provide hope that a more just, egalitarian system is possible both nationally and inter/transnationally. While his final section discussing solutions is weaker than the rest of the book, just as it was in Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Piketty proposes some truly bold and data-driven ideas that still gave me much to think about. I’d strongly recommend this book to anyone looking for an in-depth vision of a democratic socialist future without much of the economic jargon that makes Capital in the Twenty-First Century not very approachable.
the_tridentarii's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
3.5
An ambitious overview of the way inequality over the last few centuries has been caused by factors ultimately down to ideological choices, particularly that capitalism is fundamentally about unlimited defence of private property. The book is long and relatively formal, sometimes more repetitive than it needs to be, and some of his proposed solutions to inequality are debatable (namely his overemphasis on wealth taxes), but still full of incredibly important insights, from the way that the rise of capitalism reinforced medieval inequalities to the way that the post-WW2 and post-colonial world from 1950 to 1980 has shown that massive reduction of inequality and massive economic growth can go hand-in-hand to the idea that, maybe, we need to start asking ourselves whether we want to build a society that moves beyond the idea of private property. Definitely worth a read!