Pelosi says capitalism needs to be made better

LONDON — For some, the economic philosophy of capitalism is synonymous with America.

But the concept is in urgent need of being improved and has not served the United States’ economy as well as it could have, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, DCalif., told an audience in London on Friday.

“In America, capitalism is our system, it is our economic system, but it has not served our economy as well as it should,” she told guests attending an event at Chatham House, an international affairs think tank. “So what we want to do is not depart from that, but to improve it and to make sure that it serves us.”

Pelosi praised traditional “stakeholder capitalism” in the U.S., which she said had historically allowed workers’ wages, as well as management’s, to rise alongside productivity. But she criticized the economic shift that had taken hold over the past few decades to favor “shareholder capitalism,” which she said often caused employee salaries to stagnate, “and that’s just not right.”

“You cannot have a system where the success of some springs from the exploitation of the workers and springs from the exploitation of the environment and the rest, and we have to correct that,” she said.

Nonetheless, Pelosi said things were changing.

“I do think there’s a growing awareness, even in the private sector, that we have to do better,” she told the audience.

The coronavirus pandemic has forced a number of countries, not just the U.S., to grapple with core issues such as rising inequality, the role of government and welfare for average citizens.

Pelosi said another glimmer of hope may be turning to a greener economy, with “environmental justice” leading to job creation in the U.S. Pelosi also championed the need for “new, fresh ideas” to make capitalism “work better for everyone because we really do have to improve that. We cannot have an exploitation of our workforce.”

But she did not go as far as to use the S-word, “socialism,” often seen as the flip side of capitalism and more explicitly championed by liberals such as Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. — who this week made international headlines when she wore a white gown with red letters on the back reading “TAX THE RICH” at New York’s Met Gala.