Currently Reading Thomas Piketty's Capital In The Twenty-First Century

image: theguardian.com

I am currently reading Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-first Century having completed reading Michael Lewis' Liar's Poker.

I am barely past the intro and I already find the book a great read. It has opened my eyes greatly to how income, wealth and politics have co-mingled from as far back as the 18th century. He explained how many economists have tried to predict the future of inequality for the past 200 years and got it wrong. That technology and human creativity, which are unpredictable, keep changing everything.

Though I am yet to read enough to conclude on what points he made but from the reviews from those who have read the entire book, his main conclusion is that in the capitalist system, which we all now live in, people who make all their money from labor (just their salaries and side hustles) will never catch up or even reduce the financial gap between them and those who make a large chunk of their money from capital (real estate, financial assets and businesses).

The part I have read, however, has taught me that it is a poor use of one's time and energy to try to predict the economic and political future of any country. Especially, Nigeria. That rather than me complaining and projecting into the future the sorry state of things in our dear country, I am better off positioning myself for any major shift in income and power (re)distribution. And that history has consistently shown that national economies change in unpredictable ways and when people least expect. The same way the land owning politically connected high class in the world economies of Britian and France during the pre-18th century never imagined that there would be an industrial revolution that would shift wealth from them to the hardworking and creative technologists (industrialists); and the 20th century industrialists never expected that there would be a rise of software/internet companies with little physical assets and built by straight out of school young chaps disrupting their century old businesses.

No one knows what will disrupt the Google and Facebook billionaires in the future, and again redistribute wealth. But one thing seems certain -- very little comes to those who don't position themselves for any value creation (and receipt).