AOC: We’re seeing economies around the world — including in the United States — where extreme levels of income inequality lead to social instability and, in a sense, drive authoritarianism…
That is a direct outcome not just of income inequality, but of the failure of democracies over decades to deliver — the failure to deliver higher wages, the failure to rein in corporations.
The point was just made about antitrust. Antitrust in the United States is such a foundational bedrock value — not just because the ascent of monopolies creates abuses of corporate and market power, but because there is a level of market concentration and corporate consolidation where a massive company can become so large that its consolidated power rivals that of nation-states.
In democracies, we have elected leaders. But when massive corporations begin to consume the public sector and gobble up public spending, they start to call the shots. And we’re starting to see this with some members of the billionaire class throwing their weight around in domestic and global politics.
So it is of the utmost urgency that we get our economic houses in order and deliver material gains for the working class. Otherwise, we will fall into a more isolated world governed by authoritarians who also do not deliver for working people.