Knowledge Isn't Power

Mark Thoma excerpts from Paul Krugman's commentary that Knowledge Isn't Power.

So what is really going on? Corporate profits have soared as a share of national income, but there is no sign of a rise in the rate of return on investment…, it’s what you would expect if rising profits reflect monopoly power rather than returns to capital… — all the big gains are going to a tiny group of individuals holding strategic positions in corporate suites or astride the crossroads of finance. Rising inequality isn’t about who has the knowledge; it’s about who has the power.

Now, there’s a lot we could do to redress this inequality of power. We could levy higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy, and invest the proceeds in programs that help working families. We could raise the minimum wage and make it easier for workers to organize. It’s not hard to imagine a truly serious effort to make America less unequal.

But given the determination of one major party to move policy in exactly the opposite direction, advocating such an effort makes you sound partisan. Hence the desire to see the whole thing as an education problem instead. But we should recognize that popular evasion for what it is: a deeply unserious fantasy.

Emphasis Mine

Krugman is wrong to think that only one party is thrall of Wall Street: it is both parties.

As Michael Moore once said:

The Capitalists have two (2) political parties. It is time for the rest of us to get own political party.

Maybe after the success of SYRIZA in Greece, this could be a possibility.