In the United States, the richest 400 people own more collective wealth than the bottom 150 million. As historian and writer Gar Alperovitz puts it, this is quite literally medieval. 

America’s distribution of wealth is controlled by corporations and the extremely wealthy—if there is to be real social change, this gaping inequality needs to be addressed and radically altered. The people need to take the pain of the laborers affected by politicians such as Governor Scott Walker and unite around this as something to replace with progressive reforms. 

In this video by The Nation and On The Earth Productions from the Liberty Tree Foundation’s Democracy Convention, Alperovitz explains just how urgent the need for a radical redistribution of wealth really is. See his other interview from the 2011 Democracy Convention here. 

—Anna Lekas Miller