Harvard Business School professor Rebecca Henderson said in an interview that aired Tuesday on Hill.TV’s “Rising” that capitalism has become unbalanced in the U.S. because it is not being properly controlled.
“The central idea is that capitalism is the best shot we have at solving the problems we face,” Henderson, who teaches a course called “Reimagining Capitalism,” told host Krystal Ball on Monday. “It’s an incredible source of prosperity, innovation, just really a great thing.”
“But at the moment, it’s become unbalanced,” she continued. “We no longer control capitalism in the way that it needs to be controlled.”
Henderson said that capitalism in its current form has negatively impacted the environment as well as the idea of equal opportunity in the U.S.
“The most obvious point is we don’t have a price for greenhouse gas emissions. We are not paying attention to freedom of opportunity,” she said. “The original story around capitalism was it’s going to generate incredible wealth and prosperity, and freedom of opportunity, but most of that wealth has gone to the top 1 percent, and we’re trashing the planet, and that’s not good.”
“We need to take a good, hard look at the rules that control capitalism,” she added.
The terms capitalism and socialism have been frequently mentioned on the 2020 presidential campaign trail, with many Democratic candidates facing questions over whether they identify as capitalists and Republicans branding many Democratic policies as “socialist.”
— Julia Manchester
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