Perhaps one of the most important conclusions Piketty draws is the exact same conclusion Left economists and thinkers have been drawing since Steinbeck: this whole "land of opportunity" thing is bunk.

Coolidge, Hoover and Roosevelt pushed real hard to make the United States look egalitarian because the Communist observation that nowhere is a meritocracy was getting dangerous traction. Doesn't mean it wasn't true, though.

My economic studies have emphasized one thing: If you aren't focusing on getting rich, you're going to end up poor... because every force in the economy erodes the middle class. Aiming to preserve the status quo guarantees that you will eventually fall into poverty.