If Progressives Wanted to Win

Dean Baker:

In reality, the right uses government all the time to advance its interest by setting rules that redistribute income upward. As long as progressives ignore the rules that are designed to redistribute income upward, they will be left fighting over crumbs. There is no way that government interventions will reverse a rigged market. For some reason, most of the people in the national political debate who consider themselves progressive do not seem to understand this fact.

He focuses on the central bank & it’s efforts to keep inflation low at the expense of ordinary workers, exchange rate policy, and patent & copyright policy.

These three things, he writes, are used by the right to redistribute wealth upwards and yet are very rarely criticised by those on the left.