Scott Alexander shares and comments on key passages from Piketty's 'Capital in the Twenty-First Century', discussing historical economic trends and their modern implications. Longer summary

This post is a collection of passages highlighted by Scott Alexander in his reading of Thomas Piketty's 'Capital in the Twenty-First Century'. Scott provides commentary on various economic and historical insights from the book, including the failure of past economic predictions, the role of inheritance in society, the history of taxation and public debt, and how wealth inequality has changed over time. He draws parallels between Piketty's observations and rationalist thinking, and reflects on how these historical economic trends relate to modern society and politics. Shorter summary

Scott analyzes DW-NOMINATE data which unexpectedly shows no leftward drift in US politics over 120 years, despite historical evidence suggesting otherwise. Longer summary

Scott Alexander examines the claim that society is drifting to the Left by looking at DW-NOMINATE, a statistical system that analyzes legislators' voting patterns over time. The system shows that while Congress has become more polarized and Republicans have shifted right since 1980, there has been no significant liberal drift in either party over the past 120 years. This result contradicts the expected leftward shift given historical developments like the expansion of the welfare state and civil rights movement. Scott finds this counterintuitive and struggles to explain it, noting that the system is well-regarded and its developers defend its use for intertemporal comparisons. Shorter summary