Document Type
Essay
Abstract
[First paragraph]
I had the rare experience of meeting an actual member of the industrial bourgeoisie recently. He is the owner of a furniture-manufacturing firm in Columbia -- the father of a friend, he had come to help her move into a new apartment. He patiently explained the quality and historical stage of development of each piece of furniture we moved, the kind of manufacturing process it requires, even the region from which the wood was grown. When I asked him if his furniture sold in the U.S. he smiled and said in broken English, "oh no; I could never compete. I sell only Latin America." After finishing Capital in the 21st Century, it occurred to me I met someone much like Piketty's interpretation of Pere Goriot: reactionary, Catholic, pragmatic and skilled, this CEO, who owns his own firm and has a master's degree in engineering, is an anachronism. And will likely never move beyond his regional market.
Repository Citation
Balthaser, Benjamin. "Of Rents and Apocalypse: How Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century Is Bleaker Than We Think." Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture vol. 14, no. 4, 2014, pp. 1–5. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/reconstruction/vol14/iss4/3