Mar 7, 2023
About a month ago I watched a
documentary entitled Capital in the 21st Century. It
was pretty riveting, describing much of what, and how, I've been
thinking over the past few years about the American take-over
of Canada, and the belief that the country "developed" largely
because the very rich were too lazy, risk-averse and unpatriotic to
invest in their own country, preferring instead to let the more
adventurous Americans do the heavy lifting in exchange for a
commission - collected by bankers, accountants and lawyers - which
was then sent offshore, where returns were better, and taxes lower
or non-existent.
The documentary, based on French
economist Thomas Piketty's best-selling book of the same name
(Harvard University Press, 2014) - a copy of which I've just bought
for the second time - tells the story of how fights over capital
resulted in two world wars, followed by a mid-century golden period
during which the wild beast was tamed and the promise of a
merit-based economic system, among other things, was briefly
realized, until the animal was unleashed again thanks to Ronald
Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. Today inequality is at the same
frightful extremes experienced prior to the world wars. Will we
repeat the same devastating mistakes, knowing what we now
know?
The film is a warning; and director
Justin
Pemberton delivers it with all the power of his medium. I talk
with the New Zealander (!) about how he went about converting
Piketty's startling 800-page narrative of capitalism's past,
present and future, into a fast-paced, thrilling, persuasive,
on-screen polemic.