[justincarter]

I still like to read pg but he keeps writing about things outside of his domain. Here for example I trust him to talk about growth rates and how startups work. But I don’t trust him to talk about wealth inequality and how political leaders respond to it.

[smallmancontrov]

Growth rates are central to wealth inequality: the r>g observation (due to Piketty, Capital in the 21st Century) is that both historically and recently the returns to capital exceed the growth rate of the economy. Trusting someone whose fortune was built on "r" and is staked on "r" to do anything other than cheer-lead his own balance sheet would be nuts. Hear him out, but please hear what Piketty (& fiends) have to say as well.

[kingofmen]

> the r>g observation (due to Piketty, Capital in the 21st Century) is that both historically and recently the returns to capital exceed the growth rate of the economy.

They do if you cherry-pick your economies, starting points, definitions of "capital" and "growth", and cutoff points, yes.

[smallmancontrov]

You have to cherry-pick a lot harder to make r>g go away.

Plotting it vs time makes this clear because you can clearly see what caused what.

[justincarter]

Yes, I agree. The combination of minimal inflation and extremely low interest rates is not something pg created, but something he did benefit from, and he doesn't seem to realize that.

[alvah]

> (& fiends)

Freudian slip?

[smallmancontrov]

Ha! Red suits them.

[atulatul]

I also read what he writes. But some other things he writes/ tweets about actually interest me more- like art, writing-as-thinking, some interactions with his kids- than his startup related stuff. Some content seems repetitive or maybe I have moved on- for better or for worse- from such content: people in twenties, money-vs-wealth, airbnb, stripe (Collisons), Jessica, users, unrealistic sounding growth can be real, etc.

[guywithahat]

He's not talking about politics, he's talking about statups and growth rates, both of which are square in his domain, in fact one would argue that's the basis for his entire career. This article is a response to a politician making an incorrect statement to a topic he's an expert on

[kj4211cash]

The politician wasn't making a statement about startups or growth rates. She was making a statement about what it means to "earn" money.