As a friend, Will Patten, has written in a forthcoming book, the concentration of power that has cycled up and down throughout U.S, history is not about the intrinsic evil of capitalism. Capitalism is simply an economic tool to either enrich us all or just the few. That depends on whether or not we’re willing to regulate our capitalist system and tax it appropriately.

In The Age of Enlightenment, starting in the late 17th century, capitalism became the way out of poverty and dependence for peasants who were otherwise in thrall to the king who owned everything, and the Church which controlled all knowledge.

Capitalism gave succeeding generations the opportunity to earn income by adding value through manual labor and making possible independent businesses. This ultimately gave rise to a middle class and also a series of bloody revolutions against oligarchy.

Our failure today to slow the ascent of monopolies through regulation and to tax business appropriately is creating a new era of economic aggression that may well make our children and grandchildren a new generation of peasants.