Mainstream liberals and their cherished "facts" simply haven’t been persuasive to a large and perhaps growing part of the population.

And the rest of us are suffering the consequences.

Inequality in the United States is now so obscene that it’s impossible, even for mainstream economists, to avoid the issue of surplus.

In a new book, Richard V Reeves worries that the top echelons of the U.S. middle class—those earning over $120,000—are separating from the rest of the country, and pulling up the drawbridge behind them. But Reeves needs to take another look at what’s going on: what about the people who produce but do not share in the surplus—or, for that matter, have any say in what happens to the surplus?

Large corporations and wealthy individuals pay far less than their fair share of taxes. Until we democratize the economy, the rest of us—who are not members of the boards of directors of large corporations or wealthy individuals—will continue to be forced to shoulder the burden of paying taxes to finance government services.

While Wall Street celebrates yet another stock market record—surpassing 20,000 on the Dow Jones industrial average—most Americans have little reason to cheer. That’s because they own very little stock and therefore aren’t sharing in the gains. A much better alternative for American workers would be to look toward a radically different model: enterprises that are owned and managed by their employees.