Image: French Economist Thomas Piketty, author of Capital in the Twenty-First century. Credit: FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Image
One of the hardest things about learning a new language is trying to learn the slang, but even harder is trying to translate your own slang to a new language. When I moved to New York from Israel, one of the words that I battled the most with was ‘fraier.’ Google Translate translates ‘fraier’ to ‘sucker’, but that doesn’t do the term full justice. So what is a fraier? A fraier is someone who, even if he got something good, could have gotten something a little bit better. Not uncommonly, on a flight to Israel from New York, a fellow Israeli passenger will ask me how much I paid for my ticket. “I got a really good discount,” I say, and proudly share the price. “Fraier, for that price I could have gotten you an upgrade to business class.” You see, I wasn’t a sucker, and I didn’t take a bad deal; I just didn’t get the best deal out there. Fraier culture is everywhere in Israel — we even have a hit song named “We are not Fraiers,” and our Prime Minister uses the term to explain the political moves.
Over the past month, the publication of Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century sparked a discussion about income inequality. The book presents a very large study of inequality and analyzes historical data from different countries. Piketty argues that within capitalism there is an inherent nature for inequality, and that the rate at which incomes rise is lower than the rate at which the return on capital rises. So basically, the rich get richer faster then the poor, or middle class, can hope to catch up. Getting a salary is good, but if you aren’t already rich you are not getting the best bargain you can, fraier.
Nobel laureate economists, such as Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman, praised Piketty’s work, putting his research on par with some of the most influential books in economics. Because I am not a Nobel laureate economist, I am not going to try and review Piketty’s work. I will say, though, that what the book says matters less than the fact that Piketty sparked a debate that became a phenomenon. The 700-page book describing an economic study is a bestseller on Amazon, my mother and cousin (both of whom don’t know anything about economics) each sent me a link to articles in Hebrew about Piketty’s work, and the name Piketty seems to be everywhere in social media.
Some argue that although many economics scholars are debating income equality, the American people don’t really care. Yes, most Americans would rather live in a more equal society, and some think the government has a role to play in wealth distribution, but many Americans often care much more about the government creating jobs than policies that address inequality. From the Israeli perspective, Americans don’t care because they have yet to translate the word ‘fraier’ to English.
Many times while debating fellow students, or even while watching political TV shows, the typical American argument comes up: “America isn’t perfect, but where else in the world can you can make a living, criticize your government, and attend a top-notch university?” Yes, that is all true, but is that the best deal you can get? Maybe if the typical American lived with the same fear that Israelis live with — that the guy on the plane will prove that he got a better deal — the entire debate about inequality would be different. Imagine that you earn minimum wage, $7.25 an hour. Now imagine that every time you are at work, once an hour, the guy that sat next to me on the plane comes over and says, “Earned another $7.25? Not bad, but I could have got you $10.10”, and leaves.
Hopefully the debate that Piketty sparked will indeed change the way that our economists and academics think about income inequality. But even more importantly, hopefully the idea that battling inequality will trickle-down from being an academic ideal to becoming public policy as soon as possible. Americans, you have truly an amazing country, in which I am grateful and blessed to live in at this time of my life. It is fair to argue that the U.S. has one of the best living standards in the world, and even if Norway seems to look better on the tables of macroeconomics analysis, some people just don’t like the cold. But winning the competition against other countries doesn’t mean that there isn’t one more competition to win. America is definitely a good deal, but is it the best that it can be? Come on Americans, don’t be fraiers.