I am dubious of the specific mechanism by which he thinks national sovereignty is screwing people over. Of course, he thinks that we need to transcend nationality in imposition of corporate taxes to stop corporations from fleeing countries for high taxes. First of all, the extent to which this happens (at least in the US) is somewhat oversold, and it’s still unclear exactly how corporate taxation is a good solution to inequality. Nonetheless, invoking national sovereignty to argue against Piketty’s global wealth tax is pretty fallacious; he’s asking for cooperation among nations, not coercion by them. All that makes for is a collective action problem of sorts: what incentives do Swiss politicians have to collude with American politicians on imposing a wealth tax if Switzerland can benefit from having America’s businesses flea there due to taxation?

Though this specific mechanism by which Piketty thinks national sovereignty helps corporations “screw us over” is wrong, I think Piketty is onto something here. To be sure, when it comes to many matters of economic policy national sovereignty is almost surely a myth. Take, for example, international trade policy. It is understood by economists that individuals trade, not countries. Yet the myth of national sovereignty makes people think of the industries in question as “our” industries, and it justifies in poor justification for protectionist policies. “We must keep this tariff to protect our American jobs in our American sugar industry.” Of course, these narratives predicated on naive economic nationalism come at the benefit of corporations at the expense of American consumers. National sovereignty makes trade seem like a zero-sum game played by governments, a misconception corporate interests take advantage of to peddle protectionism.

National sovereignty also helps corporate interests in cases of national defense. It is the concept that “we” must protect absolutely all of “our” interests abroad as a sovereign that erroneously justifies to so many unnecessary and obtrusive foreign interventions. These interventions, of course, help corporate interests in the defense contractor field “screw us over.”

In sum, national sovereignty helps promote flawed narratives that corporate interests can use to peddle bad foreign and protectionist policies in a situation similar to bootleggers and Baptists. In the main, Piketty’s right: the myth national sovereignty helps corporations exploit society at large.