Saving Capitalism: For The Many, Not The Few

by Robert B. Reich

An alternative would be to provide every citizen a tiny share of all intellectual property awarded by the patent office and protected by the government. As the worth of the nation’s stock of intellectual capital grew, all citizens would reap the dividends. Another alternative would be to give every child at birth a basic minimum endowment of stocks and bonds—a “share” in the future economy, which, as the economy grew and the value of the endowment compounded, would become a nest egg capable of producing a minimum basic income.

The coming challenge is not to technology or to economics. It is a challenge to democracy. The critical debate for the future is not about the size of government; it is about whom government is for. The central choice is not between the “free market” and government; it is between a market organized for broadly based prosperity and one designed to deliver almost all the gains to a few at the top. The pertinent issue is not how much is to be taxed away from the wealthy and redistributed to those who are not; it is how to design the rules of the market so that the economy generates what most people would consider a fair distribution on its own, without necessitating large redistributions after the fact.