Looking Askance at Picketty’s Inequality from the Third World

Abstract

Inequality in the rich countries is inextricably bound to the continuing impoverishment and polarization in the Third World. Picketty’s focus on conditions within the richer countries deflects attention from the mechanisms that exacerbate the process within the Global South. By not considering the structural and class-based nature of economic processes, his analysis cannot contribute to an understanding of the nature and dynamics of inequality in Mexico or its terrible impacts on society and the environment. The significant mobilizations by indigenous peoples and peasants are ineffective in halting the advance of international capital in its drive to control the economy in alliance with domestic elites.