I don't know why if somebody is worth $5 billion, they need to step on other people in order to earn another $5 billion. I think we should have a tax system which says, good, good luck to you. You've made hundreds of millions of dollars. I think that's enough to live on. But how rich do you have to be? Again, in my country, you've got three people who are on more wealth than the bottom half of American society. And those workers are being met with a tremendously vicious attack on the part of some of the largest corporations.
It’s Ok To Be Angry About Capitalism is the title of the new book by the US politician Bernie Sanders. In it he castigates a system that he argues is fuelled by uncontrolled greed and rigged against ordinary people. He tells Tom Sutcliffe it’s time to reject an economic order and a political system that continues to benefit the super-rich, and fight for a democracy that recognises that economic rights are human rights.
The Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times Martin Wolf looks more closely at how and why the relationship between capitalism and democracy appears to be unravelling. But despite the failings – slowing growth, growing inequality and widespread popular disillusion – he argues in The Crisis of Democratic Capitalism that the relationship remains the best system for human flourishing.
But the economist Kate Raworth believes that mainstream economics has had its day. Its failure to predict and prevent financial crises, while allowing extreme poverty, inequality and environment degradation to persist, means its contributing to, not solving, societal unrest. She argues that her theory – Doughnut Economics – offers a new model for a green, fair and thriving global economy.
Producer: Katy Hickman