Conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks forced me to rewind my recording app several times to make sure I heard what he said correctly. He is coming to the realization of something real Progressives knew for decades.
Conservative David Brooks slowly sees the light?
Had any Progressive expressed the reality that David Brooks pointed out about Capitalism in this segment on Meet the Press, the Right Wing would have exploded. But Brooks hit the nail on the head on this one.
“I would just say that the Republicans are at a historical pivot where we use to have this old argument, the government vs. the state, ” said Brooks. “Or the market vs. the state. And it was ‘pro-government’ for small government. Now the social fabric is decaying. Capitalism isn’t working for a lot of people. So, if you want to be pro=market, you have to give people the security so they can compete in the market. And you have to use the state to give them that security. And therefore, if you want to be pro-market, you’ve got to be pro-government at least in some form. And Republicans are caught in that historical pivot.”
It is not at all difficult to apply empirical numbers to the state of Capitalism today. If the entire economy is growing at a 2% rate, but the wealth is expanding by over 2%, then it is clear that those with wealth are taking out more than their share of the economy strictly by the numbers. Many Progressives fear using the word redistribution. The reality the aberration within our economic system dictates some form of redistribution, at least one that encourages working for a living wage. One should remember that being wealthy has little to do with one’s value to society. It has much more to do with the ability to earn large incomes on arbitrarily selected professions that garner them.
A teacher is far more valuable to society than a stockbroker. We’ve allowed those who define the rules of the game to corrupt our worth.