We start with Charles Dickens and Jane Austen, where Columbia University’s Suresh Naidu explains that, in the 18th century, capital was mostly about moneylending and land-owning. But it leaves one wishing for a longer-form project that would bolster arguments for harnessing the “wild horse” of unrestrained capitalism and explore ways redistribution of wealth might be sold to citizens trained by the rich to fear any hint of socialism.Īs the doc’s tremendous fondness for clips from old movies reminds us, novels and films have been teaching us much this history all our lives. The film’s timing is fortuitous, as a worldwide calamity might conceivably make governments more receptive to Piketty’s proposals for redistribution and reform. One or two episodes make especially good use of this medium, and smart interviewees often condense insights into especially sharp soundbites. For the rest of us, Capital is mostly a tour down memory lane, a reminder of how one system of wealth-accumulation evolved into another and so on over the years.
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