It's OK to be Angry about Capitalism review: Bernie Sanders, by the book

[Uncle Joe]

The Vermont senator Bernie Sanders has a predictably unsparing view of the effects of “unfettered capitalism”: it “destroys anything that gets in its way in the pursuit of profits. It destroys the environment. It destroys our democracy. It discards human beings without a second thought. It will never provide workers with the fulfillment that Americans have a right to expect from their careers. [And it is] propelled by uncontrollable greed and contempt for human decency.”

The two-time presidential candidate makes his case with the usual horrifying numbers about the acceleration of inequality in America: 90% of our wealth is owned by one-tenth of 1% of the population; the wealth of 725 US billionaires increased 70% during the pandemic to more than $5tn; BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street now control assets of $20tn and are major shareholders in 96% of S&P 500 companies.

Sanders recites these statistics with religious fervor, and poses fundamental questions for our time: “Do we believe in the Golden Rule? [or] do we accept … that gold rules – and that lying, cheating, and stealing are OK if you’re powerful enough to get away with it?”

Bernie believes (and I strongly agree) that it’s long past the time when we should be paying at least as much attention to American oligarchs as we do to those surrounding Vladimir Putin. Our homegrown plutocrats “own” our democracy.

(snip)

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/mar/12/bernie-sanders-new-book-review

[orthoclad]

1. Jimmy Carter called the US an oligarchy

in 2015, even before Trump and the covid robber barons.

The US is a LOT like Russia. The wealth created by our labor has been stolen and redistributed upwards ever since Reagan trickled on us.

After the crash of 2009ish one of the financial magazines ran an article on the record number of new billionaires (around 400 total back then, iirc). I didn't save it. Next time I looked, it was gone. I guess they were a little too obvious. Oops!