Economists have put themselves in a position where what they are doing is supposed to be impossible to understand for outsiders, so they don't even talk - sometimes not even with their girlfriend or boyfriend or friends - about what they are doing.
Interpretation
Economists often make their work complex and inaccessible, leading to a disconnect with the general public and even their personal relationships.
In this quote, Thomas Piketty reflects on the tendency of economists to create a barrier between their work and the understanding of outsiders. This complexity not only isolates them in their professional circles but also hinders meaningful communication with family and friends, suggesting that the language of economics can be so intricate that it becomes a challenge for even close relationships to engage in discussions about it.
In practice
Discussing this quote during a lecture on economic theories to highlight accessibility in education.
Contrary to a tenacious myth, France is not owned by California pension funds or the Bank of China, any more than the United States belongs to Japanese and German investors. The fear of getting into such a predicament is so strong today that fantasy often outstrips reality. The reality is that inequality with respect to capital is a far greater domestic issue than it is an international one.
The main force pushing toward reduction in inequality has always been the diffusion of knowledge and the diffusion of education.
Over a long period of time, the main force in favor of greater equality has been the diffusion of knowledge and skills.
There is one great advantage to being an academic economist in France: here, economists are not highly respected in the academic and intellectual world or by political and financial elites. Hence they must set aside their contempt for other disciplines and their absurd claim to greater scientific legitimacy, despite the fact that they know almost nothing about anything.
When the rate of return on capital exceeds the rate of growth of output and income, as it did in the nineteenth century and seems quite likely to do again in the twenty-first, capitalism automatically generates arbitrary and unsustainable inequalities that radically undermine the meritocratic values on which democratic societies are based.
Having a decent share of the national wealth for the middle class is not bad for growth. It is actually useful both for equity and efficiency reasons.
The supreme end of education is expert discernment in all things-the power to tell the good from the bad, the genuine from the counterfeit, and to prefer the good and the genuine to the bad and the counterfeit.
For a person whose sole burning ambition is to write - like myself - college is useless beyond the Sophomore year.
No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.
The thing I loved the most - and still love the most about teaching - is that you can connect with an individual or a group, and see that individual or group exceed their limits.
I believe we owe our young an education that captures the exhilarating drama of science.
Knowledge is taken from breath, not lives in a book
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