For the second Monday in a row, Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart used his time as host of The Daily Show to launch an attack against capitalism. While Stewart managed to keep his hand in one piece this time, he wondered to Princeton sociologist Matthew Desmond if capitalism requires poor people to function while Desmond urged the country to return to the economic policies of the 1960s.
Stewart began, “I mean, does America require poverty to function in the way that we do? Is it a requirement of our society?”
After Desmond said no, Stewart clarified, “I mean that, is the system we run, do they require, in the capitalist system, people in poverty to function at maximum profit?”
Desmond was not on to be a dissenting voice, “I think a lot of us do benefit from poverty in ways we don't realize, right?... the labor market, the housing market, we continue to have a government who gives the most to families that need the least by subsidizing affluence instead of fighting poverty. We continue to live in segregated lives, a lot of us are connected to that problem, but it also means we're connected to the solution. I don't think we have to live with all of this poverty in America.”
Later in the interview, Stewart asked, “Is there something to getting the government to value labor again and the way that they value capital? Capital being tax that, you know, gains that are much lower, there are a lot of rules that ease capital, stock buybacks, you’re only, you know, have to answer to shareholders. Is there a way to get workers in on that? Because that seems like we are the accumulation of wealth seems the greatest. How do we plug labor into that stream without necessarily killing the stream, but letting it really—getting them into the flow of it?”
Desmond began his reply, “Yeah, why don't we put workers on corporate boards, for example?”
Stewart loved the idea, “Easy! Why do they fight that? And would sectoral bargaining get that done?”
Desmond then replied with a terrible idea:
It could move us closer to something more like a capitalism we deserve. A capitalism that serves the people, not the other way around. And a lot of the time, I think the ideas we have about growth are just wrong. You know, if you rewind the clock, 1960s, we had a higher corporate tax rate, about 50 percent, about one and three of us were belonging to a union, and we were much more productive as an economy than we are now. And we're kind of fed this lie that we got to slash these unions, got to slash the corporate tax break, and we will get the economic growth, and we win in that bargain, and we got the inequality where we did not get the growth.
A 50 percent corporate tax rate would tie the U.S. with economic non-powerhouse Comoros for the highest in the world, where 45 percent of people live below the poverty line.
Here is a transcript for the March 3 show:
Comedy Central The Daily Show
3/3/2025
11:29 PM ET
JON STEWART: I mean, does America require poverty to function in the way that we do? Is it a requirement of our society?
MATTHEW DESMOND: Yeah, no, I don't think so.
STEWART: I mean that, is the system we run, do they require, in the capitalist system, people in poverty to function at maximum profit?
DESMOND: I think a lot of us do benefit from poverty in ways we don't realize, right?
STEWART: Right.
DESMOND: We soak the poor, the labor market, the housing market, we continue to have a government who gives the most to families that need the least by subsidizing affluence instead of fighting poverty.
STEWART: Right.
DESMOND: We continue to live in segregated lives, a lot of us are connected to that problem, but it also means we're connected to the solution. I don't think we have to live with all of this poverty in America.
…
STEWART: Is there something to getting the government to value labor again and the way that they value capital?
DESMOND: Right.
STEWART: Capital being tax that, you know, gains that are much lower—
DESMOND: Right.
STEWART: — there are a lot of rules that ease capital, stock buybacks, you’re only, you know, have to answer to shareholders. Is there a way to get workers in on that? Because that seems like we are the accumulation of wealth seems the greatest.
DESMOND: Right.
STEWART: How do we plug labor into that stream without necessarily killing the stream, but letting it really — getting them into the flow of it?
DESMOND: Yeah, why don't we put workers on corporate boards, for example?
STEWART: Easy! Why do they fight that? And would sectoral bargaining get that done?
DESMOND: It could move us closer to something more like a capitalism we deserve. A capitalism that serves the people, not the other way around. And a lot of the time, I think the ideas we have about growth are just wrong. You know, if you rewind the clock, 1960s, we had a higher corporate tax rate, about 50 percent, about one and three of us were belonging to a union, and we were much more productive as an economy than we are now. And we're kind of fed this lie that we got to slash these unions, got to slash the corporate tax break, and we will get the economic growth, and we win in that bargain, and we got the inequality where we did not get the growth.
