Can Increasing Inequality Be a Steady State? (2)

Take Responsibility

Thomas Piketty’s book, Capital In The Twenty – First Century is selling very well.

Is this because people are concerned about the growing inequality of wealth (and incomes), or is it because, as Piketty writes, the current state of capitalism could be a threat to democracy as we know it?

Piketty, in the closing paragraph of his analysis, calls upon us all to be concerned. He writes:

“Yet it seems to me that all social scientists, all journalists and commentators, all activists in the unions and in politics of whatever stripe, and especially all citizens should take an interest in money, its measurement, the facts surrounding it, and its history. Those who have a lot of it never fail to defend their interests. Refusing to deal with numbers rarely serves the interests of the least well-off.”

For Christians, who believe in a Gospel message of God’s preferential option for the poor, Piketty’s words are a call to prophetic action.

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