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It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism summary

Name: It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism
Rating: 3.9 (271 reviews)
Author: Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders

What it Would Take to Change the Status Quo That Enriches Billionaires and Holds the Working Class Down

3.9 (271 ratings)

12 mins

Topics

Socialism & Capitalist Critique Capitalism & The Free Market Class US Politics US Economics

Table of Contents

It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism
Summary of 6 key ideas

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What’s in it for me? Understand the idea of democratic socialism.

Bernie Sanders is a democratic socialist. He advocates for policies such as universal health care, taxing the rich to a higher degree, and supporting workers’ rights. Throughout his presidential campaigns in 2016 and 2020, opponents dismissed his views. They claimed his policies weren’t in line with the American value of freedom.

Democratic socialists disagree with such a statement. They argue that for the majority of Americans today, their freedom is effectively limited. If you have to work three jobs just to pay your rent and you can’t afford a doctor when you’re sick, you’re heavily constrained in your life choices.

In this Blink, which represents Bernie Sanders’s point of view, we’ll explore this idea in more detail. But first, let’s talk about presidential campaigns.

What Went Right, What Went Wrong

For both his presidential campaigns, Sanders ran on a platform of social democratic ideas such as free health care, making billionaires pay taxes, and protecting the climate. Surprisingly, in the 2016 Democratic primary, Sanders won 22 states. He was more popular with young Black and Latinx voters than any other candidate. He did this without relying on money from billionaires. Instead, his campaign was fueled by millions of small donations.

In the end, Hillary Clinton took the nomination and eventually lost to Donald Trump. But it’s hard to call Sanders’s campaign a failure. He and his team organized a big, diverse, progressive grassroots movement. They did so by holding local rallies, knocking on doors, and using social media.

When Sanders ran again in 2020, his team was able to build on this momentum. He won the first three Democratic states. But while the people seemed to want Sanders, the Democratic establishment didn’t. They rallied behind Democratic moderate Joe Biden. Other moderate candidates abruptly backed out of the race to secure more votes for Biden. Meanwhile, senator Elizabeth Warren stayed in the race despite poor results, dividing the progressive votes between her and Sanders. In this way, the Democratic establishment helped Biden win key states on Super Tuesday. Eventually, Sanders had to make the tough decision to suspend his campaign.

But while the campaign ended, the movement didn’t. To more and more people, his ideas – which had previously been dismissed as too radical in the media – now seemed necessary to build a fair America.

Why Democrats Need to Do Better

After he suspended his campaign in 2020, Sanders endorsed Biden. He used his grassroots network to canvas for him and significantly shaped his progressive platform. His main goal was simple: get rid of Trump.

They succeeded. Biden won the 2020 election. But it was hardly a victory for Sanders because he knew that the Democrats had no real intention of sticking to the progressive promises made on the campaign trail.

Putting People over Billionaires

During the pandemic, America’s 725 billionaires increased their wealth by 73 percent. Meanwhile, millions of average Americans struggled to survive. Health-care workers put their life on the line to take care of the sick. And tens of thousands of people actually died because they were forced to go to work despite the risk of infection.

This is just the latest example of the injustice unfettered capitalism produces. Politics has failed to put guide rails on the greed of billionaires and big corporations. As a result, the US now has more wealth and income inequality than ever. Right now, the top 1 percent of society owns more wealth than the bottom 92 percent.

Getting Greed out of the Health Care System

Health care in the US is expensive, inaccessible, and overly bureaucratic. That’s because the US health-care system is designed to make money. In 2021, it made a record $100 billion profit.

Meanwhile, the infant and maternal death rates in the US rival those of the developing world, especially for minorities. Forty-four percent of Americans struggle to pay for their health insurance. Twenty-nine percent say they couldn’t afford appropriate medical care if they needed it right now.

Empowering Citizens to Think for Themselves

Ninety percent of US media today is owned by just eight big media conglomerates – companies like Comcast, Disney, and Netflix. These companies own big news channels like CNN but also smaller local TV and radio channels. In 2012, Jeff Bezos cut the middleman and bought the Washington Post – and with it, a lot of social influence.

It’s no surprise that many people today don’t trust the media. Trump harnessed this distrust when he started complaining about “fake news” during his presidential campaign. But the problem isn’t that journalists are lying.

Final Summary

Bernie Sanders believes that It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism. To him, real politics starts with organizing at a local level: getting working-class candidates into city councils, school boards, and state legislative seats; standing with workers and unions; showing those Americans who feel hopeless and abandoned that change is possible.

Sanders believes that mass movement politics can overcome unfettered capitalism. His ideas include policies that would get money out of politics, make the voting process more democratic, revitalize the media, treat health care as a human right, support workers, make billionaires pay taxes, and protect the environment.

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What is It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism about?

It’s OK to be Angry About Capitalism (2023) is a critique of the economic and political system in the US. It offers a blueprint on how to move past unbridled capitalism onto a fairer and freer future.

Who should read It’s OK to Be Angry About Capitalism?

Everyone interested in the idea of democratic socialism
Those who’d like to understand Bernie Sanders’s political agenda
Anyone concerned about inequality

About the Author

Bernie Sanders is a US politician who served as the US senator for Vermont from 2007 to 2022. For his 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns, he organized a successful grassroots movement. He advocates for universal healthcare, raising the minimum wage, and combating climate change.

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