This isn't Karl Marx' Capital

​I just finished reading Thomas Piketty's Capital for the 21st Century and have been recommending it highly to all my acquaintances. It's not short (600 pages) but don't let that stop you. The subject is not light (economics) but don't let that scare you. It was written in French but the English translation is smooth, comprehensible, enjoyable so no need to balk there. The math is simple (two equations: β = s / g; α = r * 

β

​),​

​​

 the graphs are there to provide silhouettes not narrow percentage points of difference

​ and he keeps on quoting Balzac and Austen, and even the Aristocats.

 And then I came across this quote from M. Piketty in adbusters:

There is a lot of ideology in the economic profession. I think that many economists have a view of markets which is not only idealistic and naive, but they are defending the views that markets are working efficiently. For ideological reasons, economists spend a lot of time doing complicated mathematical models, trying to pretend that markets are efficient - they do that also to try to impress others in other disciplines to look more scientific. I'm not sure this is working but this is certainly part of their strategy. I think we should be very modest. I view myself more as a social scientist than as an economist. I think the frontiers between economics, history, sociology, are not as clear as what economists try to pretend. Economists try to pretend sometimes that they have developed a science so sophisticated that the rest of the world cannot understand. I think this is a joke.

​If that doesn't encourage you that he thinks like ordinary people, I don't know what will.