Richard Wolff, economist and author of Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It in the light of widening gaps in income inequality dares to ask whether capitalism is really working our for everyone. Wolff points out that in 1940 “…every dollar that individuals paid in income tax, corporations paid $1.50. If you compare that to today, here are the numbers. For every dollar that individuals pay to the federal government, corporations pay 25 cents.”

From Democracy Now

You know, again, it’s our history. For 50 years, it has been unacceptable politically in the United States to ask what is basically a straightforward question. We have a particular economic system. It’s called capitalism. We have every right as a society to ask of that system, is it working? Is it working for us? Do the benefits and the costs balance themselves out in a way that says we want to keep the system, or that says we want to change the system, or that says we ought to look for an alternative system?

These are questions we should all be asking. Does it really benefit the rest of us to invest millions in the welfare of a few companies like Roseburg Forest Products or Weyerhaueser? It hasn’t worked out so far and despite all the taxpayer funded incentives provided to private industry to create jobs they are, instead, laying people off and outsourcing jobs to other countries.