I read Piketty's book, and some of the critical response. In my semi-educated opinion (I only have a Bachelor's in Economics), the criticisms failed to poke a hole in his main argument: that capitalism as a system is unegalitarian because it allows wealth to grow faster than economic output, resulting in increasing amounts of income inequality over time.
>>But perhaps the greatest rebuke of Piketty to be found among academic economics is not contained in any of these overt or veiled attacks on his scholarship and interpretation, but rather in the deafening silence that greets it, as well as inequality in general, in broad swathes of the field—even to this day.
The reason for this deafening silence is simple: the truth revealed by Piketty is inconvenient, and there are no easy solutions.
>>But perhaps the greatest rebuke of Piketty to be found among academic economics is not contained in any of these overt or veiled attacks on his scholarship and interpretation, but rather in the deafening silence that greets it, as well as inequality in general, in broad swathes of the field—even to this day.
The reason for this deafening silence is simple: the truth revealed by Piketty is inconvenient, and there are no easy solutions.