On US capitalism

Returning to a more innovative and competitive form of capitalism requires that we reverse the demonization of the state. We currently have a system in which the few prosper at the expense of the many. For two-thirds of Americans without a bachelor’s degree, life expectancy is falling, not least because pharmaceutical companies have been given a license (by paying off Congress) to addict and kill people for profit. Some of the world’s largest – and previously admired – corporations routinely avoid paying taxes, reneging on their obligations to the social, economic, and state institutions that nurtured them, and without which they could not exist.

We also need to decrease the influence of money in our politics: no system of checks and balances can be effective in a society with as much inequality as the US. And any system based on “one dollar, one vote” rather than “one person, one vote” will be vulnerable to populist demagogy. After all, how can such a system serve the interests of the country as a whole?

The problem is that this vision leaves little room for a democratic solution. A more optimistic approach to human nature might be as follows. For centuries, people from different ethno-racial backgrounds have lived with no contact with each other except through military and colonial domination. The fact that they have recently been living together in the same political communities is a major civilisational advance. But it continues to give rise to prejudice and political exploitation that can only be overcome by more democracy and equality. If the Democrats want to regain the socially disadvantaged vote, whatever its origin, then more needs to be done in terms of social justice and redistribution. The road ahead will be long and arduous. All the more reason to get started now.