Bad News for Capitalism

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed published Sunday, presidential candidate John Hickenlooper declared that he was “running to save capitalism.”

Wow. Bad news for capitalism!

Here’s his lead:

American capitalism is at risk.

Dramatic income inequality has driven voters to support influential leaders in both political parties who advocate changes to our economic system that would ultimately destroy capitalism. Some on the right argue for an increasingly deregulated market, while the far left calls for massive government growth and even socialism.

Neither approach recognizes the realities of our situation. Capitalism is the only economic system that can support a strong middle class, a growing economy, and innovative entrepreneurs leading global technological advancements. Yet for too many Americans, capitalism simply isn’t working.

One might argue… that the second sentence… invalidates the first… but. Who am I to say? Not John Hickenlooper, that’s for sure. The rest of the piece is pretty standard: arguing to save capitalism from itself by introducing more regulation, a public option for healthcare, and doing a whole bunch of other decidedly not capitalist things to put a bandaid on the hideous wound the system has caused on millions of people but not actually… fixing the problem, because that would be socialism.

Anyway, Hickenlooper is polling somewhere less than 1 percent in most national polls. Unfortunately, capitalism has many other defenders, but Hickenlooper’s fealty is nonetheless noted.