Thomas Piketty’s book Capital in the Twenty-First Century, which examines the long-term changes in the distribution of income, has become an unexpected best seller in the U.S. Piketty concludes that the rich have become wealthier at the expense of the poor, and he claims that basic forces in a capitalist economy are the cause. He advocates a global “wealth tax” to redress the inequalities that he asserts undermine all democracies.
