Just walked through Hudson yards. I don't hate it. It's interesting but not inspiring, which seems appropriate for a mall and some office buildings.

First place I go when considering a new car: iihs.org/iihs/topics/dr…

the rug designs of ernst ludwig kirchner (1880-1938)

[Dentist waiting room] Me: [chanting] teeth, teeth- Other patients: teeth, TEETH Secretary: [pounding her clipboard] TEETH, TEETH, TEETH!

The portion of household income devoted to savings/investment appears to stay the same regardless of investment return rate.

However, this only holds true if the supply of capital is inelastic. On a global scale, states must compete for businesses with their corporate tax rates. When investment can cross borders, capital supply becomes elastic as far as the state is concerned.

If corporate tax rates increase and investment returns go down, then global capital diverts to states with higher returns.

This makes it difficult to find the optimal corporate tax rate; i.e. if the capital supply was inelastic, it would be possible to efficiently redistribute wealth to labor through taxes.

More Piketty notes: 1/7

Capitalism and the price system, necessary? 2/7

The left has traditionally argued for Unions and wage increases not because they believe in the inelasticity in the substitution between capital and labor, which would favor direct redistribution (wage increases)... 3/7

...but because they do not have faith in the market economy and price system. Why not have labor own the capital, and have allocation of resources determined by a system other than the market? 4/7

Piketty seems to support that market economy and price system are good. Prices can signal supply/demand and the market is efficient at allocating resources. 5/7

Abandonment of the free market means that prices do not signal demand, thus a central authority that would allocate resources would not know what was going on and operate inefficiently. 6/7

I get the impression Piketty wishes the Left would argue about the elasticity of capital/labor substitution instead of the merits of the free market. If they could claim capital could not easily be substituted for labor they would have a good case for increased wages. 7/7

*Keanu whoa* This is the kind of stuff that waits for you if you poke around in mission data archives. It's well worth the effort. x.com/landru79/statu…

📷 garadinervi: From: Jorge Luis Borges, Ficciones, Silk-screens by Sol LeWitt, Signed, The Limited... tmblr.co/ZjdcYy2XMShQQ