Capital and Ideology

by Thomas Piketty

On the Transcendence of Capitalism and Private Property What is just ownership? This is the most complex and central question we must try to answer if the goal is to define participatory socialism and imagine the transcendence of capitalism. For the purposes of this book, I have defined proprietarianism as a political ideology based on the absolute defense of private property; capitalism is the extension of proprietarianism to the age of large-scale industry, international finance, and more recently to the digital economy. At bottom capitalism rests on the concentration of economic power in the hands of the owners of capital. In principle, the owners of real estate capital can decide to whom they wish to rent and at what price while the owners of financial and professional capital govern corporations according to the principle of “one share, one vote,” which entitles them, among other things, to decide by themselves whom to hire and at what wage.

On the Transcendence of Capitalism and Private Property What is just ownership? This is the most complex and central question we must try to answer if the goal is to define participatory socialism and imagine the transcendence of capitalism. For the purposes of this book, I have defined proprietarianism as a political ideology based on the absolute defense of private property; capitalism is the extension of proprietarianism to the age of large-scale industry, international finance, and more recently to the digital economy. At bottom capitalism rests on the concentration of economic power in the hands of the owners of capital. In principle, the owners of real estate capital can decide to whom they wish to rent and at what price while the owners of financial and professional capital govern corporations according to the principle of “one share, one vote,” which entitles them, among other things, to decide by themselves whom to hire and at what wage.