SAVING CAPITALISM FROM ITSELF

CAPITALISM IS IN CRISIS. THE UNITED STATES—AND OUR democratic values, discourse, and institutions—is suffering from unprecedented levels of inequality. Today, the three richest Americans collectively own about as much wealth as the bottom half of the population combined.¶Worse, extreme levels of economic inequity are only one of the many forms of inequality that plague our nation: We also face rampant discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, and ability. Looming over all of this is the threat of a global environmental catastrophe, which will make every one of these disparities more extreme through droughts, food shortages, and refugee crises.

When I was a child, I had the distinct sense that America was rooting for my success. Despite living in a small rural town in East Texas—and despite the prejudices I faced growing up black and gay in the South—I