Bob Murphy reviews Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century

Bob Murphy reviews Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century.  Here’s Bob’s conclusion:

After all of the above, you might be tempted to excuse Piketty’s numerous, fatal errors because after all, his goal is to help poor people. Yet as I document elsewhere, the book is filled with shocking quotations making it perfectly clear that Piketty’s proposed taxes are not designed to raise revenue, but instead are designed to prevent people from creating large wealth and incomes in the first place.

I must admit, I learned a lot from reading Piketty’s book. Specifically, I learned how many self-styled progressives today are willing to sacrifice the standard of living of billions of poor people, in order to prevent a few people from becoming really rich.

Something to keep in mind: Every single piece of legislation is a restriction on someone’s or some businesses’ liberty – legislation cannot expand your rights, it can only restrict it.

Thus, yes, every law and regulation passed is a step toward “forc[ing] legal enterprises out of business” or to conform/do what the powers want done.