Thread by @axios

WATCH: Axios' @felixsalmon hosts a conversation on how people are working to change the status quo and start building a truly equal democratic society, featuring @RepJayapal, Harvard Professor @dsallentess and @johnhopebryant.
twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1…

@felixsalmon @RepJayapal @dsallentess @johnhopebryant .@RepJayapal on an economy that left 87 million Americans uninsured or underinsured and 40% w/o $400 in their bank account before COVID-19: "This is the result of a capitalistic system that has been far too unregulated, far too focused on greed and profit for a very wealthy few."

@felixsalmon @RepJayapal @dsallentess @johnhopebryant Rep. Jayapal: Germany is an example of how "there are some things that should not be left to a capitalist model, like health care."

@felixsalmon @RepJayapal @dsallentess @johnhopebryant .@OmidyarNetwork CEO @MikeKubzansky: "Markets are not laws of physics. They are actually built by political economy and interests and power and ideas, which means they can be also rebuilt in different ways and unbuilt in important ways as well."

@felixsalmon @RepJayapal @dsallentess @johnhopebryant @OmidyarNetwork @MikeKubzansky .@johnhopebryant on how economic inequality has impacted Black communities:

"Where have we succeeded? The arts and entertainment and sports. Why? Because the playing field is level and the rules are published. Free enterprise and capitalism, the rules aren't published."

@felixsalmon @RepJayapal @dsallentess @johnhopebryant @OmidyarNetwork @MikeKubzansky John Hope Bryant:

"How much wealth is sitting on the sidelines because Black people since slavery forward have been on the economic sidelines of America?"

@felixsalmon @RepJayapal @dsallentess @johnhopebryant @OmidyarNetwork @MikeKubzansky Harvard Professor @dsallentess: "Over the course of the 20th century, labor's bargaining power was substantially eroded. And that has been a real driver of income inequality."

@felixsalmon @RepJayapal @dsallentess @johnhopebryant @OmidyarNetwork @MikeKubzansky .@dsallentess: "We have a public health infrastructure that is something akin to a network of country roads. When the pandemic hit, we needed to convert that...into the equivalent of an interstate highway system. That's a big ask. It wasn't an impossible ask."