Elizabeth Warren's project is to remake capitalism. What can British politicians learn from her?

[BlueMTexpat]

Both Labour and the Lib Dems would do well to study her crusading manifesto

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/03/elizabeth-warren-project-to-remake-capitalism-what-can-british-politicians-learn-from-her

...
Warren, champion of vigorous stakeholder capitalism and a recast US social contract, challenges the businesses that signed the declaration to back her, something Sanders, an outright socialist and enemy of business, cannot do. If Warren wins the nomination, she is projected by many pollsters to be able to beat Donald Trump.

It is true that for some years Sanders has won an astonishing degree of support in a US where socialism is seen as the credo of the antichrist. He is the US’s Jeremy Corbyn, a builder of a youthful social movement whose imagination is fired by his sweeping indictment of what unfettered capitalism is doing to US society and his championing of transformative, across-the-board, state-led change. He ran Hillary Clinton close in the Democratic primaries four years ago and, even at 78, just recovering from a minor heart attack, is doing well again.

But not well enough, as Warren is overtaking him. Capitalism certainly needs a reset and its worst proclivities prevented, she argues passionately; but equally, when it works as it can be made to, it is still the most impressive instrument we have to create wealth. “Markets are what make us rich,” she says. “They are what creates opportunity.”

The role of government is not to subsume markets. Rather, it is to set vigorous regulatory frameworks that attack monopoly, promote competition and outlaw noxious practices. It can also empower countervailing forces, notably trade unions and public agencies to support high-risk new technologies and create a social contract that as far as possible takes the sting and risk out of ordinary people’s lives – from healthcare to pensions.
...

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More at the link, including this great nugget: "Warren is today’s embodiment of the great reforming US tradition of the Roosevelts, the Kennedys and Lyndon Johnson."

This Guardian columnist "gets" it!

[BeyondGeography]

1. The days of "markets are always right" needs to end

That doesn’t mean doing away with markets. There are basic things we can do to fix a system that is absurdly skewed toward unfair and unproductive outcomes and that even the Business Roundtable admits needs an upgrade. Warren has the professional and political skills and the will to get it done. She is by far the best candidate to lead the way forward.

[BlueMTexpat]

2. This!

[crazytown]

4. Above all, climate change is an example of market failure.

Orthodox economics prescribes Government intervention.

[femmedem]

6. Yes, and out of many examples, it's the most critical because it's irreversible.

But the failure of our for-profit healthcare system is also critical for any family caught in its vise.

Tobacco addiction. Opioid addiction. Car manufacturers weighing how many accidents they can afford to litigate before it becomes more profitable to fix design flaws. And, of course, income inequality and the absurd notion that allowing the wealthy to horde evermore wealth will somehow benefit the poor and middle class, pushed by lobbyists.

Markets need to be highly, highly regulated and that is probably the biggest reason I am a Democrat. (Plenty of other reasons, too.)

[democratisphere]

3. Free Market Capitalism does not work as grossly exemplified

by the American Healthcare System. Many millionaires and billionaires need to become extinct; the insatiable greed MUST end. Wall Street needs a complete overhaul to stop the transfer of ALL the wealth to just a few. I question many of EW's ideas and her plans for paying for those ideas.

[Hoyt]

5. On other hand, if Warren expects the wealthy to pay for healthcare, childcare, "free" college, etc.,

she needs to make sure they keep making obscene money. That's going to be a tough trick.

[comradebillyboy]

7. Warren and Sanders will kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.

Then American workers can enjoy the same 50% income tax and 25% value added taxes that the social democracies of Europe now enjoy.

[BlueMTexpat]

9. ...

Gloom and doom, no less.

[BlueMTexpat]

8. Regulated capitalism

can work just fine.