Obviously going to be lots of "tl;dr" here, so I'll summarize:
Piketty's capitalism is all about numbers, Marx's was about social relations. Author preferred Marx. Author believes they have to be about the same thing because they have the same title.
I agree with the author in his critique, but like most critiques, they're more about the way the critic would have done it (but didn't) than about what is valuable within the work. Still, it's important to remember that beyond all the statistics, the social relations mean something.
Re:Why Piketty isn’t Marx
by bobberb on Monday July 06, 2015 @03:50AM
(#9837485)
The critique is well put, the author notes the Piketty ignores the workers movements that shaped capital.
The author is obviously of the Marxist left, the same Marx the predicted ever and ever more impoverished workers while today the capitalism Marx so reviled obviously has uplifted so many. This should not take away from this correct analysis of Piketty's ignorance of social movements and change.
Piketty's capitalism is all about numbers, Marx's was about social relations. Author preferred Marx. Author believes they have to be about the same thing because they have the same title.
I agree with the author in his critique, but like most critiques, they're more about the way the critic would have done it (but didn't) than about what is valuable within the work. Still, it's important to remember that beyond all the statistics, the social relations mean something.
The author is obviously of the Marxist left, the same Marx the predicted ever and ever more impoverished workers while today the capitalism Marx so reviled obviously has uplifted so many. This should not take away from this correct analysis of Piketty's ignorance of social movements and change.