well written. clearly, there is an overwhelming perception that fund managers, bankers, and other financial industry parasites receive disproportionate gains relative to their contributions, plus immunity from criminal justice, which has bred anger and resentment. Association with the financial industry is the only parameter that can explain the outcome of the last two presidential elections. in 2012 a fund manager sleaze (Romney) was running against a clean candidate (Obama). in 2016 a Wall Str tainted candidate (Clinton) was running against a champion for the physical economy (Trump), i.e. building, manufacturing, mining etc. too much electronic ink is spent on non-consequential factors, such as race, elitism, etc. Remember, many of the voters who preferred an arugula-eating black metrosexual in 2012 switched to Trump 4 years later. there is a severe unerappreciation of how much America HATES! HATES! HATES! the financial industry.

"Capitalism quickly degenerates into crony capitalism or corporatism because capitalists buy political influence." Disagree! Crony capitalism/corporatism is a direct byproduct of ownership dilution in the corporation. Once it was thought of as a needed advancement to give management more active control, and have shareholders be passive owners, in order to achieve more unitary management structure, while maintaining a broad capital base. Alas, this ended up severing the feedback mechanisms that make the free markets work (that is, if I _own_ a pizza place and make bad pizza I end up being poor. If I _manage_ a pizza place that makes bad pizza, but. I play golf every weekend with the Board of Directors , I still keep my job and get a bonus). The incestrous network of empty suit execs who sit on each other's boards, fiercely protect their power, and give themselves raises and bonuses is not much different than the party elites in the former communist countries, which failed so miserably economically. So, no. Give more power and protections to shareholders against parasite executive elites - this would make the markets work better. Marx-inspired experiments where ownership instincts and interests are extinguished to empower bureaucracies - be it Communist party hierarchies or MBA corporate elites - simply do not work.

That's such BS! There are many life forms that have evolved for survival in varied conditions... And then, bringing up the financial crisis: that was not survival of the fittest, rather it was the financial management class rigging the process to maximize bonuses and compensation at the expense of the survival ability of their corresponding firms. The problem is that the system survived, through a massive government bailout, not that it got destroyed. It didn't.

Hahaha. Nice. " F-ing magnets, how do they work?"...

Excellent read. I don't think Marxism is relevant today, for the source of social discontent is not with the capital-owning class per se, but with the financial intermediary class, I.e. the financial management industry. The way capitalism evolved, with its demographic changes, many workers got to participate in the capitalist class, through easy access to the stock market, pension funds, 401(k) etc... Unfortunately their assets got looted by the financial management industry, leaving them in some cases destitute.

WSJ: increasing executive compensation results in executives behaving meanly toward those lower down the hierarchy