Before one can tell whether something is working right, we have to ask what it's supposed to do. I maintain capitalism is doing exactly what it was designed to do and is doing it well. One mistake we make on the left is not understanding what we, the people, have designed as our economic model of choice. I suggest capitalism is following a logical progression that was built into the system from the get-go and our bitching is the result of that misunderstanding.
If, in reading this diary, you can find logical misstatements or illogical leaps, I wish you would point them out.
First, nobody I know who owns stock in a corporation bought it primarily in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, or secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. They bought the stock to make money. Sure, some of the stocks might help, say, an arms industry in helping with the common defense by building better drones and there even may be some that say they're trying to improve the justice system by building better prisons, but most of them say right in their mission statement that their goal is making money for the stockholders.
They also are constructed so that, if the corporation makes money, the CEO does, too. That's the job of the Board of Directors - to lure investors, partly by paying the CEO vast sums of money to make the company investor-friendly. The guy who puts in the money for the stock expects the CEO and the Board to make his money grow, and, if it doesn't grow fast enough, he might make enough noise to cause the CEO to look for other employment. Some are really good at their job - like Dick Cheney.
However, in capitlaism, there is no such word as "enough." Corporations are supposed to keep getting bigger, CEO salaries are supposed to get larger and investors are supposed to get richer. If laws are impeding growth, legislators can be persuaded to ease the restrictions. If taxes are burdensome, jobs can be moved overseas. If safety is an issue, regulations can be eliminated. The object of the game is to increase stockholder value. It's the way it was designed to work - without a leash.
So, to paraphrase John Donne, never send to find whose fault it is that America is becoming a second-rate country with one percent owning forty percent of its assets and a rising poverty rate and a shrinking middle class.
We're doing it.