Progressive policy can save capitalism
Re The urgency to ‘civilize’ capitalism, Opinion Sept. 11 Robin Sears misleads readers when he states that Thomas Piketty, in his iconic book Capital, argued that the only reason for the narrowing of income inequality in the first three quarters of the 20th century throughout the industrialized world was successive rounds of asset destruction.
Readers familiar with the book in question will know that the emergence of progressive income taxes and the rise of the social welfare state along with strong labour unions played an equally important role in making the distribution of income more equal during this period.
Mr. Sears similarly confuses the issues by stating that the contents of a new basket of public policies to civilize capitalism “remains mostly baffling.” To whom?
For starters, one might suggest more progressive taxation, taming the powers of the global finance industry, the ending of austerity economics in Europe, labour market reforms such as higher minimum wages and making it easier for workers to unionize along with meaningful labour rights clauses in international trade agreements.
Such a progressive agenda would go a long way in bringing about a capitalism that benefits us all. Simon Rosenblum, Toronto Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull’s “bon mot,” as described by Robin Sears to “civilize capitalism,” is perhaps just that — a bon mot, an economics jest, an upside-down of trickle-down economics.
When, to use the U.S. as an example (and Canada may be on the same path), 2 per cent of the population own 98 per cent of the wealth, surely the notion of trickle-down economics has been a decades-long-in-the-making ruse, a magical semi diaphanous potion that is really a mask for greed. Greed cannot be nor ever was civilized. Civilizing greed is an oxymoron of the worst kind.
Truth is, capitalism, like democracy, is largely artifice masquerading as egalitarianism; neither really exist. Democracy and capitalism are moving us in the direction of feudalism; the U.S. is already there. The only things missing are the moat, drawbridge and the castle tower. Louis MacPherson, Bowmanville