Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few

Commentator, political economist, and former U.S. secretary of labor Reich (Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy, Richard and Rhoda Goldman Sch. of Public Policy, Univ. of California, Berkeley; Aftershock) delves into why capitalism currently isn't serving the majority of Americans. He examines the critical underpinnings of a free market such as contracts, private property, bankruptcy, monopoly restraints, and the ability to enforce rules. Reich shows that these structures have been warped to shift the balance of power in favor of large corporations and wealthy individuals. Correspondingly, financial and other rewards, he argues, have become based more on who has the superiority to get paid rather than on merit or societal contribution. To solve such inequities, says the author, Americans must reclaim political sovereignty so that government acts in the interests of the majority to create an even playing field. History, he warns, demonstrates that unfair systems with highly concentrated wealth can't endure.