Surviving Capitalism (Not) : The World’s Richest Man Tries to Defend Income Inequality

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, October 18, 2014

The World’s Richest Man Tries to Defend Income Inequality

Click here to access article by Dean Baker from CounterPunch. (You will need to scroll down to the article.)

This popular liberal economist takes aim at the ultra-rich, as exemplified by Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft. He reveals how they "gamed" the capitalist system to become rich, that is, "by hook or by crook". However, by resisting the epiphany that capitalist rule inevitably produces people like Bill Gates and a ruling class whose power extends throughout every institution--most of all, to the government and it judicial system--he essentially defends the system that has created the monster that we, the vast majority, are oppressed by today. He does this by inducing in us the inference that we can tinker with the system to make it perform right.