A very good question asked by Michael Tomasky: Michael Tomasky: What Are Capitalists Thinking?: "Every once in a while in history, cause and effect smack us in the face.... The kind of capitalism that has been practiced in this country over the last few decades has made socialism look far more appealing.... If you’re 28 like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez... what have you seen during your sentient life?...
...You’ve seen the United States go from being a country that your parents—or if you’re 28, more likely your grandparents—described as a place where life got better for every succeeding generation to a place where for millions of people, quite possibly including you, that’s no longer true. As that happened, you’ve seen the rich get richer, and you’ve perhaps noticed that the government’s main response to this has been to keep cutting their taxes (in fairness, President Barack Obama did raise the highest rate in 2013 to 39.6 percent from 35 percent, although for single filers, that rate didn’t kick in until earned income went above $400,000). You witnessed the financial meltdown of 2008.... Capitalists might want to consider how all that looked to a young person who came from a working-class family and who probably knows someone who lost a job or even his house, while some of the bankers who helped create the mess walked away with golden parachutes, like that of Countrywide Financial’s Angelo Mozilo, which The Times valued at $88 million. You’ve watched corporations hoard profits, buy back their stock and not reinvest in their workers the way they once did....
Our 28-year-old. She was born in 1990. She will probably remember, in the late ’90s, her parents feeling pretty good about things—median household income did go up under Bill Clinton more than they had under any president in a long time, even more than under Ronald Reagan. But ever since, the median income picture has been much spottier, hardly increasing at all in inflation-adjusted dollars over 18 long years. And those incomes at the top have shot to the heavens. So if you were a person of modest or even middle-class means, how would you feel about capitalism? The kind of capitalism this country has been practicing for all these years has failed most people.... I have mixed feelings about this socialism boomlet.... But I understand completely why it’s happening. Given what’s been going on in this country, it couldn’t not have happened. And if you’re a capitalist, you’d better try to understand it, too—and do something to address the very legitimate grievances that propelled it...
#shouldread
