Crony Capitalists vs. Value Makers: Q&A w Max Borders

"We have a huge problem in this country with the difference between makers and takers," says Max Borders, "between crony capitalists and actual value creators.... You've got people who have figured out how to game the system. They go down to the brothels of K Street and figure out how to change the rules to benefit them[selves], and we get massive transfers of wealth from middle class and poor people to rich people."

Borders is the director of content at the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) and editor of its flagship publication, The Freeman. His new book, Superwealth: Why we should stop worrying about the gap between rich and poor, argues that many conventional measures misrepresent large and contining gains in widespread well-being and material progress for virtually all Americans.

In an interview with Reason's Nick Gillespie, Borders says that focusing on the gap between rich and poor has become a "fetish" in which people are consumed with the idea that America is no longer an economically mobile society. Borders argues that mobility and income growth remain strong - and that the extent they've been dampened, it's due to policies that reward politically connected operators rather than businesses that generate truly popular and affordable goods and services.

About 6 minutes. Camera by Joshua Swain and Amanda Winkler. Edited by Winkler.

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