
Occupy was right: capitalism has failed the world - selmnoo
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/13/occupy-right-capitalism-failed-world-french-economist-thomas-piketty
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selmnoo
I know the article title is kind of big and sensational'y, but I really
encourage everyone to look into Piketty's book, it's really a behemoth. A lot
of folks are calling it this age's 'Das Kapital". It's well-researched, and
very data-backed. Piketty was a professor at MIT until 1995, when he went back
to France. Here's Paul Krugman's review of the book (worth a submission of its
own, really):
[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/may/08/thomas-...](http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/may/08/thomas-
piketty-new-gilded-age/)

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atmosx
That's a very good reading. Thanks for the hint!

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contingencies
The real question is: what's next?

If regulators cannot face up to established capital even while social
temperature increases in response to well known global threats (environment,
food, energy, population, etc.) then will a bottom-up re-organization of
global economic paradigms through the adoption of new technologies for
decentralized commerce eventually occur?

One thing's for sure: the centralized paradigm of old is clearly showing its
warts. It also seems like most of the interesting changes are coming out of
the remnants of academia, already disenfranchised communities (Greece, etc.)
or the new possibilities offered by technology.

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gaius
_In other words, in global terms what he is saying is that those who have
capital and assets that generate wealth (such as a Saudi prince) will always
be richer than entrepreneurs who are trying to make capital._

Except if you look at "rich lists", you see plenty of self-made, first-
generation wealth. Who are the richest men in the world? Gates, Buffett,
Ellison, Slim... All businessmen.

More typical nonsense from the Graun (who by the way, are based offshore in
the Cayman's for tax purposes).

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praptak
_" She was the first female president of King County’s United Way, the first
woman to chair the national United Way’s executive committee where she served
most notably with IBM's CEO, John Opel, and the first woman on the First
Interstate Bank of Washington's board of directors. Mary's son Bill Gates is
the founder of Microsoft."_

Yeah, totally self-made, first-generation. And her connection to IBM didn't
help with this MS-IBM contract at all. Anybody could get this contract with
enough hard work and dedication.

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selmnoo
I like that. Let's keep this going.

 _Howard was a businessman, investor, and four-term Republican United States
Representative. He also served as the campaign manager for conservative
Senator Robert Taft in Taft 's 1952 presidential campaign. Howard's son is
Warren Buffet, CEO and largest shareholder of Berkshire Hathaway._

