THE WASHINGTON UNION PAPERS: NO. 19

MIDDLE-CLASS PROSPERITY VS. CORPORATE GREED: HOW TO BALANCE CAPITALISM

To the People of the United States,

A nation that sacrifices its middle class on the altar of corporate greed is a nation that will soon find itself without an economy worth defending. A republic cannot survive when the workers who sustain it are reduced to mere cogs in a machine built for the enrichment of the few. It cannot call itself just when the hands that build its cities, grow its food, and sustain its industries are left to scrape by while wealth accumulates in the towers of the powerful. America’s greatness was never measured by the wealth of its richest men, but by the prosperity of its working families. And yet, in this modern age, we have allowed an economic order to flourish where that prosperity is no longer guaranteed, where opportunity is no longer a right but a privilege doled out at the discretion of corporate elites.

This is not the capitalism that built America. It is not the capitalism of competition, of innovation, of hard-earned reward. It is capitalism distorted, capitalism corrupted, capitalism in name only. It is a system where monopolies swallow competition, where wages stagnate while executive bonuses soar, where wealth is hoarded in the hands of financial empires that do not build but merely extract. It is a system that no longer seeks to create wealth through work but through financial manipulation, that no longer rewards productivity but the sheer accumulation of assets. And in this system, the middle class—the backbone of the republic—has been forced into servitude, condemned to toil for wages that no longer rise, while the cost of living climbs higher with every passing year.

If capitalism is to be preserved, if it is to remain the engine of prosperity that its architects envisioned, then it must be balanced. It must serve not merely as a system for wealth accumulation but as a structure that ensures the rewards of labor, innovation, and enterprise are shared among those who contribute to its success. A system designed for the many cannot be ruled by the few, for the very moment capitalism ceases to provide opportunity to the working class, it ceases to be capitalism at all—it becomes an oligarchy masquerading as a market economy. The strength of free enterprise lies in its ability to distribute opportunity, to foster competition, and to create an ecosystem where success is earned, not inherited. Without these principles, capitalism becomes a tool of economic servitude rather than a mechanism of upward mobility.

A free market ceases to be free when it is dominated by conglomerates that eliminate competition. It is no longer a marketplace of ideas, effort, and innovation, but a rigged system where the most powerful corporations dictate the rules, setting barriers so insurmountable that the next generation of entrepreneurs is suffocated before it can rise. Monopolies and oligopolies crush competition not by outperforming their rivals, but by acquiring them, absorbing them into their empires before they ever have the chance to challenge the status quo. They use their vast resources to manipulate regulations, to lobby policymakers into crafting laws that protect their interests at the expense of the broader economy. In this reality, success is not determined by ingenuity or effort but by consolidation and coercion, where those with the most capital dictate the fate of entire industries.

An economy dominated by financial interests that prioritize stock buybacks over wage increases is an economy that has lost its moral compass. The purpose of industry is to create value, not merely for shareholders, but for society as a whole. When companies direct their profits not toward reinvestment, not toward research and development, not toward fair wages and employee benefits, but toward inflating their own stock prices for the benefit of executives and institutional investors, they abandon the very purpose of commerce. They become engines of wealth extraction rather than wealth creation, rewarding those who already hold power while leaving behind the very workers whose productivity fuels their success. The marketplace was not meant to be a casino where financial elites gamble with the fate of the economy while the working class bears the consequences of their recklessness.

When the profits of labor flow only upward while the burdens of economic instability rest squarely on the shoulders of the working class, capitalism ceases to be a system of opportunity and instead becomes a mechanism of oppression. It is an undeniable truth that an economy built on exploitation cannot be sustained. A worker whose wages remain stagnant while the cost of living skyrockets is not a free participant in the market—he is a prisoner to it. A small business owner who struggles to compete against multinational giants that manipulate supply chains and labor markets is not an entrepreneur—he is a vassal to an economic order designed to ensure his failure. The wealth of a nation must not be confined to boardrooms, nor should it be hoarded in financial markets while the real economy is left to decay. Prosperity must be shared, not as an act of charity, but as an essential function of a thriving capitalist system.

This is not free enterprise; it is economic feudalism. It is a world where wealth is inherited, not earned; where economic power is concentrated in the hands of the few who dictate the fates of the many; where the forces of capital control not just commerce, but the very fabric of government, ensuring that policies serve their interests alone. It is a system where the modern-day lords sit atop financial empires, while the working class is left to toil in economic servitude with little hope of advancement. It is the return of a reality we once sought to leave behind, where monopolists wield the power once held by kings, where industries are ruled not by those who build but by those who acquire, where the economy itself has become a fortress, accessible only to those with the wealth to buy their way in.

And it cannot be tolerated. The American people did not build this nation to see their labor serve as the foundation of someone else’s fortune. They did not sacrifice, toil, and create merely to be locked out of the wealth they produce. The very essence of capitalism—true capitalism—demands that competition be restored, that opportunity be defended, that industry once again serves the interests of the people rather than the ambitions of the financial elite. The system must be brought back into balance, not through destruction, but through reform. Through policies that break the monopolies, that restore competition, that ensure a living wage, that return capitalism to its purpose as a vehicle for widespread prosperity rather than an instrument of concentrated power. Only then can capitalism endure. Only then can the economy thrive. Only then can the promise of opportunity be restored—not as a fleeting ideal, but as an unshakable reality for all who work, for all who create, for all who seek to build a future better than the one they inherited.

A nation that values economic justice does not destroy its middle class for the sake of corporate profits. It does not allow wealth to accumulate at the top while the foundation of its prosperity crumbles. It does not permit industries to offshore jobs in the name of efficiency while leaving workers behind. It does not stand idle while an elite class, disconnected from the struggles of ordinary citizens, dictates the terms of economic survival. And yet, this is precisely the system that we have allowed to take root. We have permitted corporations to grow so large that they dictate policy to the government rather than abide by it. We have allowed financial institutions to engage in speculation so reckless that entire economies have collapsed under the weight of their greed. We have stood by while wages have stagnated, while benefits have been stripped away, while entire industries have been restructured not to benefit workers but to maximize executive wealth.

This is not a natural consequence of economic evolution; it is the result of deliberate choices—choices made by policymakers who serve the interests of capital rather than the interests of the people. It is the product of tax codes written not to encourage reinvestment but to reward hoarding. It is the result of labor laws weakened to the point where they serve not to protect workers but to ensure their dependence. It is the inevitable outcome of a system in which corporate lobbying drowns out the voice of the citizen, where legislation is written not by those who seek to uplift the many but by those who seek to entrench the power of the few.

And so we must ask ourselves: what is the purpose of capitalism? Is it merely a system of wealth accumulation, a mechanism through which financial empires may grow unchecked, or is it a system that rewards ingenuity, hard work, and production? Is it a system meant to sustain only the wealthiest, or one that ensures broad prosperity, where those who contribute to economic growth share in its rewards? If we believe in the latter, then we must act. We must reclaim capitalism from those who have distorted it into a machine of unchecked greed. We must restore balance to an economic system that has become unrecognizable, where risk is socialized but reward is privatized, where the struggles of the middle class are ignored while the concerns of the wealthy dictate policy.

The solution is not to dismantle capitalism, but to repair it. To abandon capitalism would be to forsake the very foundation upon which prosperity is built. The true power of capitalism lies in its ability to reward innovation, to cultivate competition, to uplift those who strive and create. But when that system is hijacked by monopolists, when it is perverted into a mechanism for wealth consolidation rather than wealth creation, it ceases to function as a force for progress. It becomes a stagnant edifice, where only those already positioned at the summit may thrive, while the rest are condemned to an endless struggle for survival. It is not capitalism itself that has failed, but the willingness of its stewards to preserve its integrity. And so, the path forward is not destruction, but restoration.

To restore capitalism to its rightful function, we must first enforce antitrust laws with the same vigor that once kept monopolistic power in check. No single corporation should wield control over entire industries, dictating prices, wages, and the fate of competitors with unchecked authority. When conglomerates grow so vast that they swallow innovation rather than fostering it, they must be broken apart—not as an act of punishment, but as an act of necessity. The market cannot operate freely when a handful of firms dominate commerce, when small businesses are crushed before they can rise, when the dream of entrepreneurship is reduced to a fantasy rather than a legitimate path to success. True capitalism thrives on competition, on the dynamism of an economy where the best ideas succeed not because they are backed by the deepest pockets, but because they serve the needs of the people.

Tax policy must be restructured to encourage reinvestment in labor rather than the hoarding of wealth. The present system rewards those who accumulate without contributing, who sit upon vast financial reserves while refusing to put them to productive use. This is not the capitalism of invention, of industry, of progress. It is the capitalism of stagnation, where profits are extracted not to fuel expansion, but to be locked away in the vaults of those who see no obligation beyond their own enrichment. A system that incentivizes reinvestment—one that ensures corporations put capital to work through higher wages, through research and development, through infrastructure and job creation—is a system that flourishes. A system that instead allows wealth to pool in idle accounts, to be funneled into speculative financial instruments rather than into the workforce that sustains it, is a system that condemns itself to slow decay. If capitalism is to thrive, it must be an engine that drives forward, not a machine that exists solely to preserve the fortunes of the few.

Wages must rise in proportion to productivity, and workers must share in the profits of the industries they sustain. It is an absurdity, an insult to the very principles of free enterprise, that corporate revenues can skyrocket while the wages of those who generate that wealth remain frozen in time. Productivity has soared in the past half-century, but the fruits of that labor have been seized by executives and shareholders, while the workers who produce value are expected to accept stagnation. This is not the promise of capitalism; it is a violation of it. A just economy does not demand that those who toil the hardest receive the least, nor does it justify an ever-expanding gulf between those who own capital and those who generate it. A market that fails to reward work, that fails to recognize the dignity of labor, is not a market at all—it is a system of economic feudalism masquerading as enterprise. The economy cannot endure if the workers who sustain it are denied the benefits of its success. A fair share of profits must be returned to those who make prosperity possible, not as a handout, but as the rightful reward of their contribution.

Corporations must not be permitted to abandon their obligations to employees in pursuit of ever-higher margins. The endless pursuit of profit at any cost has led to the erosion of stable employment, the outsourcing of entire industries, the reduction of workers to disposable commodities. Companies that thrive on the labor of American workers must not be allowed to discard them the moment a cheaper alternative presents itself overseas. The free market does not mean a lawless market, one where corporations owe nothing to the very people who built them. It means a system of fair play, where business thrives but does not exploit, where firms can grow without reducing their employees to expendable assets. No worker should be treated as a temporary convenience, cast aside when short-term gains can be found elsewhere. The rights of workers must be restored, their ability to collectively bargain protected, their role in shaping the economic future of this nation reestablished.

For too long, we have accepted the myth that corporate profits alone determine economic health. We have watched as GDP numbers soared while the middle class shrank, as stock markets reached record highs while wages remained stagnant. But these are not the true measures of a nation’s prosperity. A nation is not wealthy if its people are struggling. A nation is not strong if its economy benefits only those who sit at the pinnacle of the financial order. A market that is not free for the worker, for the small business owner, for the aspiring entrepreneur, is not a free market at all. It is a closed system, controlled by a privileged few, designed to ensure their continued dominance rather than the prosperity of all. This is not capitalism as it was intended—it is capitalism in chains, shackled by its own corruption, unable to fulfill its highest purpose.

We must reassert the fundamental truth that an economy serves its people, not the other way around. This is not a call for government control, nor is it a rejection of enterprise. It is a demand for balance, for justice, for a return to the principles that once made capitalism a force of boundless opportunity rather than a tool for consolidation and exclusion. It is a recognition that a system built upon inequality, upon exploitation, upon the ceaseless enrichment of the powerful at the expense of the working class, is not a system that can endure. It is a call to act—not tomorrow, not in some distant future, but now, before the last embers of economic mobility are extinguished, before the American Dream is reduced to a relic of the past.

If capitalism is to be preserved, it must be saved from those who have corrupted it. If the free market is to thrive, it must be made free for all, not just for those who have already secured their fortunes. The time for delay has passed. The time for reform has arrived. The people must reclaim the economy from those who seek only to control it, and in doing so, restore not only capitalism but the promise of a nation where success is earned, where opportunity is real, and where prosperity is shared by all who contribute to it.

Those who defend the status quo will call such measures radical. They will say that the market must remain unfettered, that government intervention is an affront to the principles of capitalism. But what they call free enterprise is in truth a system of control—a system where corporate monopolies dictate wages, where financial institutions control access to capital, where a select few wield economic power so absolute that the working class is left with no real freedom at all. This is not the capitalism of Adam Smith, nor of Alexander Hamilton, nor of any thinker who ever envisioned a system in which wealth was created through enterprise and labor rather than through speculation and exploitation.

If the middle class is to thrive, if capitalism is to remain a force of prosperity rather than a weapon of greed, then we must act now. We must ensure that no company grows so large that it holds dominion over an entire industry. We must ensure that no worker toils for wages that cannot sustain a family while his employer records record profits. We must ensure that financial institutions exist to serve industry rather than to manipulate it, that capital is allocated toward production rather than toward the endless accumulation of wealth for its own sake. We must restore capitalism to its rightful purpose—to be the engine of innovation, of opportunity, of shared prosperity.

For too long, we have allowed ourselves to believe that an economy can be judged by its stock market alone. But a booming stock market means nothing if the workers who sustain the economy are struggling to survive. Economic strength is not measured by corporate profits but by the well-being of the citizens who power the nation. No republic can endure if its middle class is allowed to erode, if the few control all while the many struggle to scrape by. The choice before us is not whether we embrace capitalism, but whether we allow it to remain what it was intended to be—a system that rewards work, that fosters competition, that lifts up those who strive and labor rather than merely those who inherit and hoard.

We must reject the false notion that corporate greed is an inevitable feature of capitalism. We must stand against the idea that prosperity for the middle class and unchecked wealth for the elite cannot coexist. We must recognize that an economy built on fairness, on balance, on true free enterprise, is the only economy worth defending. And we must act—not in some distant future, not in another generation, but now, before the last vestiges of economic opportunity are consumed by those who see the wealth of the nation not as something to be shared, but as something to be controlled.

Let it be known that in this era, we did not cower in the shadows while the middle class was bled dry. Let it be known that we did not bow before the false gods of corporate greed, nor did we avert our gaze as the architects of economic ruin built their golden fortresses atop the ruins of working-class struggle. Let it be etched into the stone of history that when the crossroads of destiny demanded a choice—between servitude and sovereignty, between submission and defiance—we did not waver, we did not yield, we did not beg for permission. We took our place as the authors of a new chapter in the American story.

We chose justice. We chose a future where prosperity is not the birthright of the privileged few, but the shared inheritance of all who labor, who dream, who build. We chose an economy that lifts, not one that crushes; an economy that rewards, not one that extracts; an economy where the sweat of the worker is valued as highly as the schemes of the financier. We chose to tear down the walls of economic feudalism, to shatter the monopolies that strangle competition, to break the chains that have bound the working man to a life of toil while others reap the harvest of his labor. We chose to fight—not with timidity, not with hesitation, but with the unyielding certainty that no system of greed, no empire of wealth hoarders, no regime of corporate overlords can withstand the righteous will of a people who refuse to be ruled by moneyed masters.

Let the world remember that when the dawn of renewal arrived, we did not sleep through its rising. Let it be spoken in every city, in every town, in every home where families once struggled under the weight of exploitation, that we did not falter when the moment of reckoning came. Let it be known that capitalism was not left to rot in the hands of the few, but was seized, reforged, and restored to its rightful purpose—not as a weapon for the powerful, but as an instrument of shared success, of unshackled ambition, of competition that drives progress rather than strangles it.

And let us vow—before the pages of history are sealed—that we shall not rest until this vision is made real. We shall not rest until the halls of power answer not to the wealthiest, but to the many. We shall not rest until the economy serves its people, and not the other way around. We shall not rest until opportunity is no longer a privilege, but a promise.

For this is our time. This is our fight. And we will not stop until justice is done.