>> The capital investment, while necessary, was among the least important factors in this generation of wealth.
Capital is arguably the most important factor especially since an operation does NOT require extraordinary creativity to flourish. Furthermore, capital often plays an ongoing role in the operational life cycle for companies large and small. A company’s retained capital also plays an important role in growth and survival. Even distributed capital is often reinjected for sustainability and growth.
Piketty’s article is about the relative return on invested capital vs. increase in wages/salaries.
My contention is that the return on capital is mixed in with the return for creative ideas, and that the really big returns are for the ideas, not the capital. This distorts the issue, and makes it look like merely having capital to invest ensures a great return. And it just doesn’t.
"Capital is arguably the most important factor."
I really doubt you mean that. You seriously think the most important factor in the success of Google, Facebook and Apple is that somebody invested capital?