"An
excessive stock of private capital in the economy, relative to flows of income
from production and work, also grinds down the capacity for social and personal
transformation. This is partly what theories of ‘financialisation’ point
towards: investor interests overwhelm the capacity for productivity
enhancements or innovation. Housing becomes treated as an asset to serve the
interests of its investor, rather than something with use value. Socially
valuable activity (such as education) becomes re-imagined as a source of future
earnings so as to capitalise it... One
thing that concerns Piketty is how the growth of private capital means that
“the past devours the future.” Previous inequalities dictate present ones, and
undermine the capacity for modernisation. Destroying capital, one way or
another, is therefore a modernising act..... As Piketty shows, as capitalism develops, it becomes more and more
plausible for some to live off inherited assets that one had no responsibility
for inventing or building and may have no interest in using"
- Will Davies, The Political Economy of David Bowie
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