Thomas Piketty: Bill Gates doesn't want to pay more tax

Thomas Piketty, whose 700-page economics book "Capital in the Twenty-First Century" became an unlikely bestseller last year, counts America's richest man as a fan.

At an economics conference in Boston, Piketty told an audience that he had spoken recently to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, according to Bloomberg News.

"He told me, 'I love everything that's in your book, but I don't want to pay more tax,'" Piketty recounted. "I understand his point. I think he sincerely believes he's more efficient than the government, and you know, maybe he is sometimes."

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation didn't immediately return a request for comment from CBS MoneyWatch.

Piketty's book, which analyzes centuries of data on wealth and economic growth, hit a nerve and climbed the bestseller lists thanks to its message about income inequality.

His analysis found that the rate of return on capital has far outpaced the rate of economic growth, and that the post-World War II period of widespread economic expansion was an anomaly. Because of the higher rate of return for capital, that's allowing the wealthiest to become even wealthier, the book argues.

One of Piketty's recommendations for addressing the world's growing economic inequality is to create a global tax on wealth, an idea that Foreign Affairs called "far-fetched."

That idea apparently also seems unpalatable to Gates, who is worth $86.6 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. About one-fifth of his wealth stems from his 4 percent stake in Microsoft, while the bulk of his money is tied up in Cascade Investment LLC, which has invested in assets ranging from a 490-acre Wyoming ranch once owned by Buffalo Bill to stakes in companies such as Deere & Co. and Canadian National Railway.

Gates and his wife, Melinda Gates, aren't planning to keep all their assets for themselves, however. The couple has joined financier Warren Buffett in his Giving Pledge, which asks the world's wealthiest people to dedicate a majority of their assets to philanthropy. Gates has given about $28 billion to his foundation, according to Bloomberg.