World's Richest People Meet, Muse On How To Spread The Wealth

This unusual story caught my attention this week because it seems so at variance from the regular disparaging reports on the rich. Here we find hope. The slow but obvious and steady trend in the USA, moving from a democratic system of governance to an oligarchy of the rich, can be stopped. The erosion of the historically great driving force in the USA, its middle class, can be reversed.

The present socioeconomic system in the USA draws upon both socialism and capitalism. I like to think it utilizes some of the best aspects of both, while avoiding the worst. This carefully balanced system brought citizens of the USA a huge increase in living standards in the decades after WW II, making life – and, it should be noted, longer lives for most – better for everyone. But now that growth has stagnated. Over the last thirty or forty years, as has been frequently pointed out, the balance of power has shifted toward capitalism. And many (though by no means all) of the very rich are using their increasing percentage of the national wealth to corrupt the processes of democratic governance. Left to continue present practices, in the end they will rule the country, and votes and elections will mean very little.

I haven’t read Thomas Piketty’s book Capital in the Twenty-First Century, but the numerous reviews and criticisms (and his first short defense) indicate it lays out the best and most convincing case yet that most of the vastly increased national wealth of the past several decades has flowed directly to the very rich. Piketty’s book should be the final nail in the Reagan-era belief in “trickle-down economics”.

One of the more interesting aspects of this conference is that its founder makes no bones of the fact she believes making the needed changes will serve the interests of the very rich, as well as everyone else. She recognizes that unfettered capitalism will eventually lead to an unsustainable system, and the final result could be revolt, revolution, and quite possibly anarchy and chaos. The fact you are very rich means nothing if you are standing on a stool with a rope around your neck. ‘Spreading the wealth’, letting the middle class and poor in on the immense benefits provided by science and modern technology, will stabilize existing governmental and social systems.

Enlightened self-interest, as seen here (and of course acted upon), can bring the USA economic system back into balance. More long-term planning by USA businesses, with much less emphasis on the quarterly report and short-term profits, can return us to something approaching the tremendous growth of the post WW II years.

I hope the avaricious billionaires who are steadily asserting their control over this country will read the article, and take a hint.

Photo credit:  Patrice Green