Capital in the 21st Century

Amazon Prime, free from Kanopy available via Public Libraries

​This film summarizes economist Thomas Piketty’s ideas from the titular book on the history of wealth and inequality. This entertaining primer is accompanied by testimonials, historical footage, and pop culture images. The story begins with feudal societies, moves through industrialization, slave labor, WW II, and America’s post-war middle-class boom, followed by Reagan’s “Make America Great Again” campaign that undermined unions. Greed became rampant. Trickle-down economics didn’t play out as promised, and the rich got a lot richer. In the 1990s, credit kept the system moving. Real wealth was driven by fewer restrictions on domestic and foreign capital, the rise of oligarchs, the use of off-shore accounts, and clever tax evasion strategies. Money had a corrupting influence on politics and the media. The film explains how wealth breeds arrogance and an innate sense of privilege. Today capital continues to circulate mainly among the moneyed classes.
Meanwhile, a younger generation is told, “Don’t worry about inequality; just keep on working.” In the 21st century, just as it did in the 19th, inheritance becomes the mechanism for perpetuating wealth, which leads to “unequal social hierarchies.” Tensions rise, and people lash out. Politicians exploit this anger. Piketty says: “We can’t regulate international capitalism, properly tax multinationals or billionaires, so we vent our anger on immigrants.” Under Trump, all this is magnified. Capital in the 21st Century is a sobering look at where we now find ourselves.