Capitalism in crisis: U.S. billionaires worry about the survival of the system that made them rich

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

Capitalism in crisis: U.S. billionaires worry about the survival of the system that made them rich

By Greg Jaffe April 20

PALO ALTO, Calif. — A perfect California day. The sun was shining, a gentle breeze was blowing and, at a Silicon Valley coffee shop, Rep. Ro Khanna was sitting across from one of his many billionaire constituents discussing an uncomfortable subject: the growing unpopularity of billionaires and their giant tech companies.

-snip-

For decades, Democrats and Republicans have hailed America’s business elite, especially in Silicon Valley, as the country’s salvation. The government might be gridlocked, the electorate angry and divided, but America’s innovators seemed to promise a relatively pain-free way out of the mess. Their companies produced an endless series of products that kept the U.S. economy churning and its gross domestic product climbing. Their philanthropic efforts were aimed at fixing some of the country’s most vexing problems. Government’s role was to stay out of the way.

Now that consensus is shattering. For the first time in decades, capitalism’s future is a subject of debate among presidential hopefuls and a source of growing angst for America’s business elite. In places such as Silicon Valley, the slopes of Davos, Switzerland, and the halls of Harvard Business School, there is a sense that the kind of capitalism that once made America an economic envy is responsible for the growing inequality and anger that is tearing the country apart.

-snip-

Part of Khanna’s solution was to sign on as co-chairman of the presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the democratic socialist who rose to the national stage by railing against “the handful of billionaires” who “control the economic and political life of this nation,” and who disproportionately live in Khanna’s district.

The other part of Khanna’s solution was to do what he was doing now, talking to billionaire tech executives like Larsen who worried that the current path for both capitalism and Silicon Valley was unsustainable. Boosted by a cryptocurrency spike last year, Larsen’s net worth had briefly hit $59 billion, making him the fifth-richest person in the world before the currency’s value fell.

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/capitalism-in-crisis-us-billionaires-worry-about-the-survival-of-the-system-that-made-them-rich/2019/04/20/3e06ef90-5ed8-11e9-bfad-36a7eb36cb60_story.html

[DBoon]

1. They are advised to worry

So they don't end up like these people:

https://thumbs-prod.si-cdn.com/l8jzDeVutJlA6WuLNvjF-xPu5Yc=/800x600/filters:no_upscale()/

[defacto7]

2. An interesting analogy but very ironic.

Most people don't realize that "These people" were in the process of setting up a democratic form of government before their demise. The bolcheviks didn't want a government by the people, they just wanted control. The ironic thing is that when we think of the overthrow of an aristocracy, we automatically think it's the angst of the poor when actually the poor may be manipulated by another form of authoritarian control.

I hope we keep watching in both directions when the shit hits the fan.

[artislife]

5. Bwah!! nt

[SWBTATTReg]

3. 48% of Canadians are 1 paycheck away from having to borrow more just simply to ...

continue their means of existence. I suspect that the same % is for US Citizens too. When you have such gross distortion of income distribution (the top tier grabs over 83% of the last tax cut bill (the 2017 tax cut and jobs bill)), no wonder you have people that are angry at this whole process and the unfairness of it all. Explain to me this one point, how does one person such as Bill Gates and others like him get so much of a percentage of a company and all of their workers that helped also in this whole process (to make Microsoft so popular etc.) get so little? I used Bill Gates as an example here, to his credit, he has (or will) donate a major part of his wealth, along with others like Warren Buffet, etc.

Repeat this whole process time and time again, and you have a pretty good picture of how Americans and others in the world got so little whereas a few got so much? Why such a discrepancy? Why have so many billionaires and millionaires have been created, while the middle class has shrunk, as a percentage of the population, over the last 30 years?

[SharonAnn]

4. THen they should stop doing what they're doing, even undo what they've done.

It's what the billionaires have done that is breaking the system. I know they'll deny it, but it's true.

[EarthFirst]

6. At some point; something's got to give...

...and I’ll be god-damned if it’s going to be the working class poor that pays to fix it!