French economist Thomas Piketty to Zack Polanski, "This neoliberal turn of the 80s has not been a huge success for the middle class and for average living standards" "The big promise that was made in the 80s by Reagan and Thatcher was, look, we are going to kill off progressive taxation, maybe inequality will rise, but the size of the pie is going to grow so fast like you've never seen." "Average wages, average income are going to grow like you've never seen. And so everybody will be happy." "30 years later, 40 years later. When I look at Brexit or when I look at the Trumpist United States, I don't see, very happy people." "And I think partly because of the failure of this promise and this is why right wing parties in these two countries, the Republican in the US and the Conservative and now Reform Party in Britain, have turned anti migrant toward identity politics because they have not delivered on the economic front and on living standards"