History of Inequality and Its Transcendence: Analysis and Commentary on Thomas Piketty's Capital and Ideology

The French left-wing economist Thomas Piketty's new book <i>Capital and Ideology</i> is a monumental work which integrates history, economics and socialist theories. It analyzes in detail various inequality systems such as the slave society, the "three-class society", the traditional capitalist society, social democracy, "super capitalism", and puts forward an ideal society scheme based on the core value of equality: 21st-Century "Participatory Socialism ". This book is very critical for the inequality of human society and especially for "super Capitalism", which sounds the alarm for the Capitalist world with explicit materials, clear data and his international influences, and reminds the world people again that Socialism should be the alternative and tendency of Capitalism. However, Piketty's method is not historical materialism and he has not transcended the reformism of social democracy. Piketty starts from the idea of an ideal society rather than the realistic contradictions of Capitalism, so his Socialist scheme is a fantasy to a large extent. We must adhere to the Marxist method and Scientific Socialist theories, inherit the experience and results of the development of Socialism, find out the solution to transcend Capitalism worldwide on the base of the practice of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics in the New Era, so that we can not only dialectically learn from Piketty but also transcend Piketty.