Thread by @fawfulfan

There is probably no statement that is simultaneously so obvious and so anathema in American politics.

The creation of a superclass of people so wealthy they can do whatever they want with no threat of destruction by market forces is an inherent problem for capitalism.

https://twitter.com/cmclymer/status/1133343800997425152

For god's sake, if one thing should drive that point home, it should be Trump's taxes.

We don't know yet how he made his money or who he is in debt to, but we've seen enough to know he's lost more money than entire governments, and it hasn't affected his power or status at all.

A society that allows someone to lose a billion dollars through sheer incompetence, but still have enough money to manipulate the skyline of cities and run enough ads to trick people into giving him the most powerful job in the world, is utterly broken.

The first rule of capitalism is supposed to be that the person who is the most skilled at making deals, wins.

Trump isn't that. And it's increasingly obvious, capitalism isn't that either. At least not as it's practiced in the United States.

The thing is, we've actually known this for over a century. Most of the Vanderbilts weren't geniuses. Many of them were stumbling, Trump-like buffoons. Reginald Vanderbilt was a staggering drunk who repeatedly killed people in carriage accidents in NYC, and was never charged.

We realized this as a society in the early 20th century and enacted reforms to end the Gilded Age. Now we've again, created an economic oligarchy that exploits people with no consequence.

The question is, will Trump be the wake-up call we need for a second round of reforms?