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Writing in The New Republic’s latest issue, economist Dean Baker offers a prescription for a healthier post-pandemic economy.
As Dean Baker reminds us, “The idea that the wealthy in the United States are disciplined worshippers of an unfettered market is complete nonsense. The wealthy are the people who have structured the market to ensure that they get as much money as possible.” How would shareholders of airlines, restaurants, and hotel chains fare if we “let the market work its magic?” Baker notes that, “as a practical matter, we are not likely to see wealthy shareholders or big actors in the financial markets among the losers in this crisis, for a simple reason: They have the political power to protect themselves.”
Mainstream media has largely ignored the income shift from ordinary workers to CEOs, Wall Street, and other highly paid professionals over recent decades. Baker’s formula is to “learn from their playbook … structure the market so that income and wealth do not flow upward, and to ensure that the benefits of the economy are broadly shared.” If you’re looking for honest, fearless journalism, we have a special offer:
One major fix from Baker: “reducing the importance of patents, copyrights, and other forms of intellectual property. It is mind-boggling that our outmoded and regressive system of intellectual property has not featured more prominently in debates about inequality.”
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From better mass transit to health care sector reform, Baker thinks the bigger challenge “is to ensure that ‘normal’ translates into far more just economic outcomes for the vast majority of Americans.”
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