Wow. Talk about "when all you have is a hammer."
"That is not an argument."
Thomas Piketty: Clamping down with law and order will not be enough
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Re: Thomas Piketty: Clamping down with law and order will not be enough
#12I don't really see the controversy, it's just a reframing of well-known issues about the conflict, using different terminology.
For instance, there's obviously an economic element to the conflict between the richer, more urban Shia Alawites who live principally in the Western part of Syria, and the poorer, more rural Sunni population. I have read that part of the destabilization is down to mass movements of the urban poor into the cities in the years running up to the conflict.
And Saudi Arabia and other wealthy oil rich states clearly provide religious and armaments funding to support hardline interpretations of Islam, which means that the conflict between Shia and Sunni takes on a much more fundamentalist tone. That power arises from their wealth relative to other regions in the area.
As I say, I don't think either of these things are particularly controversial. If we were talking about the rural poor moving into the cities in China, we wouldn't have a problem talking about it as an issue of income inequality. It seems quite obvious that this is a major issue in a lot of the developing world (where income inequality tends to be far higher than in the West, particularly in resource rich countries).
I wouldn't say this has much relevance to policy in the developed world. It would be dubious if Piketty tried to use this to draw conclusions about the West, but I can't see he has done that.
Re: Thomas Piketty: Clamping down with law and order will not be enough
#13Wow. Talk about "when all you have is a hammer."
What if instead I said that the rise of the Islamic State can be traced back to dictators allowing a small elite to get rich off of oil, while oppressing and impoverishing the masses, who finally revolted? I'm guessing you might find that less objectionable even though it's just a specific rendering of "income inequality."
Re: Thomas Piketty: Clamping down with law and order will not be enough
#14While inequality may be ONE factor, it is definitely not THE factor. Much more important are the factors of American imperialism, Islamic extremist ideology, destabilization of Iraq, and so on. What Piketty is right about, however, is that it is the policies of the West is in part to blame for the extreme rise of inequality in the Arab world. That said, I am not too certain Arabs would have fared better on their own.
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Re: Thomas Piketty: Clamping down with law and order will not be enough
#15While inequality may be ONE factor, it is definitely not THE factor. Much more important are the factors of American imperialism, Islamic extremist ideology, destabilization of Iraq, and so on. What Piketty is right about, however, is that it is the policies of the West is in part to blame for the extreme rise of inequality in the Arab world. That said, I am not too certain Arabs would have fared better on their own.
No reasonable person would expect there to be a single factor. But some straw did break the camel's back.
Re: Thomas Piketty: Clamping down with law and order will not be enough
#16Wow. Talk about "when all you have is a hammer."
While I agree, there is one point that must be considered: the Arab Spring directly sprang, if you will pardon the pun, from an extreme rise in the prices of basic staples, and the population of the Middle East didn't have the income buffer to compensate. Not being able to afford bread tends to lead to a lot of revolutions, or at least the breakdown of society. Just ask France.
Re: Thomas Piketty: Clamping down with law and order will not be enough
#17Let's call it a contributing factor and make the headline less insane.
Re: Thomas Piketty: Clamping down with law and order will not be enough
#18While inequality may be ONE factor, it is definitely not THE factor. Much more important are the factors of American imperialism, Islamic extremist ideology, destabilization of Iraq, and so on. What Piketty is right about, however, is that it is the policies of the West is in part to blame for the extreme rise of inequality in the Arab world. That said, I am not too certain Arabs would have fared better on their own.
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Re: Thomas Piketty: Clamping down with law and order will not be enough
#19Wow. Talk about "when all you have is a hammer."
You didn't address his argument at all. Just an ad hominem. Is that because you can't address it? Because his thesis seems quite reasonable to me. And historically, we certainly know that societies with extreme income inequality are less stable than those with more equality.
I'll address the argument.
Lots of countries with high income inequality do not have a terrorism problem.
When is the last time Brazilians terrorists attacked New York and/or Paris?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_eq...
Re: Thomas Piketty: Clamping down with law and order will not be enough
#20Islamic State is about religion; not economics.