The following are quotes from Thomas Piketty’s seminal Capital in the Twenty-First Century. I have used italics to emphasize parts that I think are particularly important with respect to education.
“…Knowledge and skill diffusion is the key to overall productivity growth as well as the reduction of inequality…” (p. 21)
“…Do the dynamics of private capital accumulation inevitably lead to the concentration of wealth in ever fewer hands, as Karl Marx believed in the nineteenth century?…Modern economic growth and the diffusion of knowledge have made it possible to avoid the Marxist apocalypse…” (p. 1).
“…The technological convergence process…is fundamentally a process of the diffusion and sharing of knowledge— the public good par excellence— rather than a market mechanism…”(p. 21).
“…the principal force for convergence —the diffusion of knowledge—…also depends in large part on educational policies, access to training and to the acquisition of appropriate skills, and associated institutions…”(p. 22).
“…knowledge diffusion…is…closely associated with the achievement of legitimate and efficient government…”(p. 71).
“…the…growth of productivity…reflects the growth of knowledge and technological innovation…”(p. 375).
“…The diffusion of knowledge and productive technologies is a fundamentally equalizing process…”(p. 460).
“…The overall conclusion of this study is that a market economy based on private property, if left to itself, contains powerful forces of convergence, associated in particular with the diffusion of knowledge and skills; but it also contains powerful forces of divergence, which are potentially threatening to democratic societies and to the values of social justice on which they are based…”(p. 571).
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