“I can now present the first fundamental law of capitalism, which links the capital stock to the flow of income from capital. The capital/income ratio β is related in a simple way to the share of income from capital in national income, denoted α. The formula is
α = r × β
Where r is the rate of return on capital.
For example, if β=600% and r = 5%, then α = r × β = 30%.
In other words, if national wealth represents the equivalent of six years of national income, and the rate of return on capital is 5 percent per year, then capital’s share in national income is 30 percent.”

Source: Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2013), p. 52.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I can now present the first fundamental law of capitalism, which links the capital stock to the flow of income from cap…" by Thomas Piketty?
Thomas Piketty photo
Thomas Piketty 24
French economist 1971

Related quotes

“Some argue that an income tax is unfair because it taxes capital income twice: once when the original income is earned, and again when the investment produces a return.”

Harvey S. Rosen (1949) American economist

Source: Public Finance - International Edition - Sixth Edition, Chapter 19, Taxes on Consumption and Wealth, p. 453

Thomas Piketty photo
Vladimir Lenin photo
Thomas Piketty photo
Arsène Houssaye photo

“Friendship lives on its income, love devours its capital.”

Arsène Houssaye (1814–1896) French writer

Source: James O'Donnell Bennett (1908) When Good Fellows Get Together, p. 147

Milton Friedman photo

“I am a libertarian with a small "l" and a Republican with a capital "R".”

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer

Charlie Rose Show (November 2005) http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-921891628093252478&q=tvshow%3ACharlie_Rose
Context: I am a libertarian with a small "l" and a Republican with a capital "R". And I am a Republican with a capital "R" on grounds of expediency, not on principle.

Bill Richardson photo

“Make no mistake, the point of cutting the personal income tax and the capital gains cut is to send an unmistakable message to business.”

Bill Richardson (1947) politician and governor from the United States

upon passage of supply side tax cuts
[Phil, Magers, http://www.upi.com/archive/view.php?archive=1&StoryID=20030219-071745-7704r, "New Mexico cuts taxes to stimulate economy", United Press International, 2003-02-19, 2006-08-21]

John Hicks photo
Kalle Lasn photo
Kalle Lasn photo

“We got rich by violating one of the central tenets of economics: thou shall not sell off your capital and call it income.”

Kalle Lasn (1942) Estonian-Canadian film maker, author, magazine editor and activist

And yet over the past 40 years we have clear-cut the forests, fished rivers and oceans to the brink of extinction and siphoned oil from the earth as if it possessed an infinite supply. We've sold off our planet's natural capital and called it income. And now the earth, like the economy, is stripped.
Hey President Obama http://www.adbusters.org/magazine/82/obama_economics.html/. Adbusters (March 24, 2009).

Related topics