Every now and again, you’ll hear someone argue that a fundamental transformation of the American economy is necessary because we are in the throes of something called “late-stage capitalism.”  Wealth inequality has reached an unacceptable tipping point, they typically argue, so the only logical solution to this “problem” is to allow the government to disproportionately seize wealth and income from the wealthiest and highest-earning Americans, and then redistribute that wealth to other Americans who need it more. “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs,” as the policy prescription popularized by Karl Marx goes. But what I find most curious about this is that Karl Marx might not necessarily see it this way.  Given what we’ve seen in America for the last hundred years or so, he might more aptly suggest that we are in “early-stage communism,” simply waiting for a revolutionary event to...(Read Full Article)