Bill Gates sees flaws in Thomas Piketty’s best-selling economic doctrine “Capital in the Twenty-First Century.”
Gates published a critical blog post on Piketty’s work Monday night, arguing that the French economist’s didn’t get his equations right on income inequality.
“He does not give a full picture of how wealth is created and how it decays,” Gates, the world’s richest man, wrote on his blog.
Piketty’s 700-page book has made him a celebrity and authority on income inequality and tax policy. Gates agrees with Piketty that income inequality is a big problem and that government can play a constructive role to fix it.
But Gates says Piketty’s idea that old money accumulated over centuries is causing inequality is false. He points towards the Fortune 400 list, which has many entrepreneurs who garnered billions in their own lifetimes. Gates adds that Piketty’s research is missing important data too.
“I am also disappointed that Piketty focused heavily on data on wealth and income while neglecting consumption altogether,” Gates wrote. “Particularly in rich societies, the income lens really doesn’t give you the sense of what needs to be fixed.”
