306. The world’s most influential economist: Tax wealth and break up big tech

Liberal democracy faces an existential crisis driven by stagnant living standards and the failure of elites to build consensus in a post-industrial economy. Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu proposes "working-class liberalism" as a corrective, emphasizing that technological progress—including AI and automation—is a policy choice rather than an inevitable force. Current economic structures, characterized by excessive corporate power and tax systems that favor capital over labor, have broken the historical link between productivity gains and wage growth. To restore political stability, policymakers must prioritize shared prosperity by empowering the working class, enforcing robust antitrust measures to curb the influence of massive corporations, and shifting tax burdens away from payrolls. This approach requires a broad, inclusive political coalition that moves beyond divisive cultural politics to address the fundamental economic imbalances currently undermining democratic institutions.