Capital and Ideology

Capital and Ideology (French: Capital et Idéologie) is a 2019 book by French economist Thomas Piketty. Capital and Ideology follows Piketty's 2013 book Capital in the Twenty-First Century, which focused on wealth and income inequality in Europe and the United States.

Described by Piketty as "in large part a sequel" to its predecessor, Capital and Ideology has a wider scope, and Piketty has expressed his preference for the 2019 book. In the book, Piketty outlines potential means of redistributing wealth, and explores historical and contemporary justifications for inequality. Paul Krugman wrote of the book, "In Marxian dogma, a society's class structure is determined by underlying, impersonal forces, technology and the modes of production that technology dictates. Piketty, however, sees inequality as a social phenomenon, driven by human institutions. Institutional change, in turn, reflects the ideology that dominates society: "Inequality is neither economic nor technological; it is ideological and political." Methods for redistributing wealth proposed in the book include the "inheritance for all", a payment distributed to citizens by their country at the age of 25.