Thanks to decades of Republican tax cuts, taxes on the wealthy are historically low while the gap between the lower and higher income brackets is historically high. This is bad for American democratic capitalism. It’s bad for democracy because money is power, and it puts immense power in the hands of increasingly fewer people. Witness the Koch brothers’ funding of “science” against the reality of global warming. It so totally controlled the Republican party that for a Republican to even mention the word became political suicide. Efforts to confront global warming were thwarted for decades due to this misguided influence.

Witness also the huge influence wealthy donors have in our main political parties. It’s safe to say I’ll never be sitting at the table with the thousand-dollars-a-head people. No rubbing elbows with the rich and powerful for me. Popular sovereignty, the idea of one person, one vote, has been supplanted by one dollar, one vote. The concentration of wealth is also one of the serious negatives of capitalism built on social Darwinism. Winner-take-all tendencies result in oligarchies and monopolies that thwart competition and innovation, and it needs to be modified by progressive tax policies and anti-monopoly legislation.

What is good for the concentration of wealth is not what is good for we the people. It places greed in a position of power that is detrimental to the overall good of society. Keeping this in check is why democracy must shape our capitalism. Capitalism over democracy gives too much power the super rich. It may help them launch themselves into space but it leaves the rest of us with less resources to confront societal problems. Finding the proper balance here is what democracy needs to be about. It is good for America and the world.

 

Roy Estabrook

North Monmouth

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