Inequality

The Economist Who Wants To Make the World Poorer

Thomas Piketty's plan is a comprehensive program for global managed decline dressed up in the language of climate justice and equality.

Veronique de Rugy | 6.11.2026 11:20 AM

Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL Add Reason to Google

Media Contact & Reprint Requests

(Prezat Denis/Avenir Pictures/ABACA/Newscom)

Writer and philosopher Ayn Rand was often accused of inventing cartoonish villains. Rogues like Ellsworth Toohey in The Fountainhead would scheme to seize the global economy's commanding heights in pursuit of a distorted sense of justice. But the people who hold such ideas don't just appear in cartoons or in Rand's novels.

Enter Thomas Piketty and company.

In early June, Piketty—the French economist whose work on inequality has made him something of a rock star even while being serially challenged for methodological errors, data imputations, and cherry-picked baselines—and his large team unveiled what can only be described as a villainous plan. It's a comprehensive program for global managed decline dressed up in the language of climate justice and equality.

The plan is far too ambitious for most nations to accept. But given the influence of Piketty and his circle of economists on U.S. wealth taxes and prominent global policy proposals, we should take its underlying ideas seriously.

Piketty's plan would cap gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in wealthy countries at roughly $69,000, far less than America's current $94,430. The plan would........

© Reason.com