{"id":107670,"date":"2019-12-20T13:39:50","date_gmt":"2019-12-20T12:39:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=107670"},"modified":"2026-01-16T17:04:27","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T16:04:27","slug":"rockstar-economist-piketty-at-eur-since-weve-had-tea-together-im-a-fan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2019\/12\/20\/rockstar-economist-piketty-at-eur-since-weve-had-tea-together-im-a-fan\/","title":{"rendered":"Rockstar economist Piketty at EUR: \u2018Since we\u2019ve had tea together, I\u2019m a fan\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cMy English might sound like French,\u201d warns Thomas Piketty, charming the aula as he \u2013 rightly \u2013 prepares the audience for his heavy French accent. He immediately follows this with a second apology about his second book: Capital & Ideology: \u201cApologies that it\u2019s so long. But I think it\u2019s very easy to read. It describes developments over the long term, so take your time.\u201d Despite the ironic tone, it is clear from the table of contents (and first slide) that this is a very serious promise. The first of seventeen chapters starts with the oldest form of legitimate inequality, in the pre-modern period.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAmber Leijen<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Piketty: \u201cMy new book is about long-term history and describes the system behind income inequality. If you read one of my two books, read this one. It\u2019s much better.\u201d A presentation then follows that provides an enormous amount of information. Several things are notable: income inequality fell in recent centuries. Since the 1980s, it has steadily risen again. He also explains in fairly simple terms that Communism did not prove the solution. \u201cIn Russia, tax for everyone is thirteen percent. Whether you earn a hundred or a million roubles.\u201d And: \u201cIf you ever want to spend your money somewhere, you\u2019d be better off going to Communist China than to the free market economies of Taiwan or Japan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twenty-six graphs and four tables later (the\u00a0short version<\/a>\u00a0of this presentation, according to his website), Bas Jacobs gives the sign that Piketty has one minute left. Piketty: \u201cFive will be enough.\u201d \u201cBut then we won\u2019t have time for questions,\u201d replies a slightly desperate Jacobs. Piketty: \u201cYes we will, we\u2019ve got another quarter of an hour. Be nice.\u201d The room sniggers. After a final appeal for transnational guidelines for tax and interest, progressive income tax and investments in education, he concludes with: \u201cSorry I\u2019ve been here so long.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flirt with socialism<\/h2>
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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAmber Leijen<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

The audience gives him a thunderous applause. Despite the streamlined organisation, the throwable microphone that you throw around the audience doesn\u2019t work. The students who were allowed to ask Piketty a question therefore have to do it as loudly as possible. This might explain why a question about the ideological aspect of his book is answered by a story about investments and education.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t spoil the fun, and after the third question and applause, students and other visitors make their way to the stage and Piketty. Alumnus Wouter Fontaine (IT-Auditing) has just had his book signed but has mixed feelings about the presentation. \u201cHe\u2019s got interesting ideas, but they won\u2019t work. There will always be tax havens where people can evade the system.\u201d He found some of his theories verging on socialist ideas. \u201cI\u2019m not keen on that flirting with socialism. Socialism delivers too many corpses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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\n\t\t\u2018He has interesting ideas, but they won\u2019t work\u2019\n\t<\/blockquote>\n\n\t<\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n

Piketty on the ceiling<\/h2>
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Fans crowd around Piketty.<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAmber Leijen<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Student Irving, who doesn\u2019t want his surname mentioned, had a different interpretation of Piketty\u2019s argument. \u201cYou don\u2019t need to agree with his political ideas, but his approach to the problem is interesting in itself.\u201d A student next to him adds: \u201cIt\u2019s interesting because he\u2019s a political economist. He looks at history and explains what happened.\u201d She points to Irving: \u201cHe even asked for a photo!\u201d Irving laughs: \u201cI\u2019m going to enlarge it and stick it on my ceiling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yanna in \u2019t Veld, board member of student association Aeclipse (which organised the debate with Erasmus School of Economics) wasn\u2019t a fan before today. \u201cBut having had the chance to have a cup of tea with him, I am now. He\u2019s a genuine and interested person.\u201d She was responsible for Piketty throughout the day. The highlight? \u201cIn C-hall, there\u2019s a poster of Nobel Prize Winner Esther Duflo, who\u2019s a good friend of his, so we took a selfie. He immediately sent it to her! Things like that are really life goals.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>But she has to leave. \u201cIt\u2019s time to collect Piketty and put him on the train.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t

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Een lijst van afbeeldingen<\/h2>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t
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