From https://www.project-syndicate.org/o...y-daron-acemoglu-and-michael-j-sandel-2026-03
Title : Reclaiming Democracy From the Market , Mar 6, 2026
Michael J. Sandel (Professor of Government at Harvard University) interviewed by Daron Acemoglu (Professor of Economics at MIT)
Poster's Note : The following is only a part of the interview .
Meritocracy promised a fairer society, but instead it has deepened the divide between winners and losers and eroded the dignity of work. As AI reorders economies and concentrates power in fewer and fewer hands, the question is no longer whether democracy needs saving, but whether we can save it in time.
With widening inequality fueling populist anger, and AI threatening to displace human labor, .. how democracy can be revitalized before the damage becomes irreversible...
DA: .. your 2020 book The Tyranny of Merit, in which you argue that American society has organized itself around a meritocratic ideal, placing enormous emphasis on people .. rising to the top through talent, even though we know we don’t live in a fully meritocratic society.
MS: .. we usually think of merit as a good thing.. Compared to hereditary privilege, cronyism, and corruption, merit is certainly an improvement..
But over the past 5 decades, the divide between winners and losers has deepened, poisoning our politics and pulling us apart. This is due partly to widening income and wealth inequalities, and partly to the attitudes toward success that have accompanied them .. if chances are equal, the winners deserve their winnings. But .. we all know that chances are not truly equal. We don’t live in a perfect meritocracy .. Meritocracy has a dark side. Even a fully realized meritocracy would corrode the common good. It would lead the successful to take too much credit for their success, forgetting their good fortune and their indebtedness to those who made their achievements possible..
.. At a time when enormous rewards and prestige go to those who manage money rather than those who produce tangible goods, many working people feel that their contributions are undervalued (a casino mogul earns 5,000 times more than a nurse or a schoolteacher).
That hierarchy of honor undermines the dignity of work. Work is not only a way of making a living; it is also a way of contributing to the common good and earning social recognition and esteem for doing so...
.. If we believe in the dignity of work, can we justify taxing labor income at higher rates than capital gains and dividends? ..
.. The role of finance in capitalism, correct me if I’m wrong, is to allocate capital to socially useful and productive activities, like investments in factories, hospitals, schools, roads, and airports. But much of today’s financial activity consists of speculative bets on the future value of existing assets, some of which were created for that exact purpose.
.. (the) chair of the United Kingdom’s Financial Services Authority after the 2008 crash, once estimated that 85% of bank credit in advanced economies like the US and Britain is used to finance speculative rather than productive activities.
That suggests there’s a lot of room to tax and discourage non-productive and wasteful financial activities while protecting those who contribute to the real economy..
DA: It’s a difficult subject because things aren’t completely open and shut..
MS: Before we leave the question of productive versus unproductive finance, consider the recent explosion of prediction markets. We can now bet on whether, two days from now, the temperature in Boston will exceed 0° Celsius. Or consider the proliferation of sports betting. Is that productive?
DA: Obviously, inequality is both an economic problem and a philosophical one..
MS: There are three kinds of inequality. The first is economic inequality..
The second kind of inequality concerns political participation, as big money can crowd out citizens’ voices. With the campaign-finance system we have in the US, that is almost guaranteed to remain a persistent problem.
And the third kind of inequality is inequality of recognition and esteem...
Democracy does not require perfect equality, but it does require that people from different social backgrounds and classes encounter one another in their everyday lives. This is how we learn to negotiate and live with our differences, and how we come to care for the common good.
.. most Americans feel that their voice doesn’t matter, that politicians don’t listen to them or care what they think ..
.. I’m truly free only if I have a meaningful say in shaping the forces that govern our collective life .. A purely market-driven, consumerist conception of freedom lacks that.
..The concentration of power in the economy, especially in the tech industry, .. These firms wield immense political power, and they are shaping the direction of technology itself, with far-reaching implications for how we communicate, receive information, and engage with one another.
DA: Another aspect of disempowerment is the sense that technology is entirely out of our control and moving in a direction that will reshape our lives, eliminating work or changing its meaning ...
Title : Reclaiming Democracy From the Market , Mar 6, 2026
Michael J. Sandel (Professor of Government at Harvard University) interviewed by Daron Acemoglu (Professor of Economics at MIT)
Poster's Note : The following is only a part of the interview .
Meritocracy promised a fairer society, but instead it has deepened the divide between winners and losers and eroded the dignity of work. As AI reorders economies and concentrates power in fewer and fewer hands, the question is no longer whether democracy needs saving, but whether we can save it in time.
With widening inequality fueling populist anger, and AI threatening to displace human labor, .. how democracy can be revitalized before the damage becomes irreversible...
DA: .. your 2020 book The Tyranny of Merit, in which you argue that American society has organized itself around a meritocratic ideal, placing enormous emphasis on people .. rising to the top through talent, even though we know we don’t live in a fully meritocratic society.
MS: .. we usually think of merit as a good thing.. Compared to hereditary privilege, cronyism, and corruption, merit is certainly an improvement..
But over the past 5 decades, the divide between winners and losers has deepened, poisoning our politics and pulling us apart. This is due partly to widening income and wealth inequalities, and partly to the attitudes toward success that have accompanied them .. if chances are equal, the winners deserve their winnings. But .. we all know that chances are not truly equal. We don’t live in a perfect meritocracy .. Meritocracy has a dark side. Even a fully realized meritocracy would corrode the common good. It would lead the successful to take too much credit for their success, forgetting their good fortune and their indebtedness to those who made their achievements possible..
.. At a time when enormous rewards and prestige go to those who manage money rather than those who produce tangible goods, many working people feel that their contributions are undervalued (a casino mogul earns 5,000 times more than a nurse or a schoolteacher).
That hierarchy of honor undermines the dignity of work. Work is not only a way of making a living; it is also a way of contributing to the common good and earning social recognition and esteem for doing so...
.. If we believe in the dignity of work, can we justify taxing labor income at higher rates than capital gains and dividends? ..
.. The role of finance in capitalism, correct me if I’m wrong, is to allocate capital to socially useful and productive activities, like investments in factories, hospitals, schools, roads, and airports. But much of today’s financial activity consists of speculative bets on the future value of existing assets, some of which were created for that exact purpose.
.. (the) chair of the United Kingdom’s Financial Services Authority after the 2008 crash, once estimated that 85% of bank credit in advanced economies like the US and Britain is used to finance speculative rather than productive activities.
That suggests there’s a lot of room to tax and discourage non-productive and wasteful financial activities while protecting those who contribute to the real economy..
DA: It’s a difficult subject because things aren’t completely open and shut..
MS: Before we leave the question of productive versus unproductive finance, consider the recent explosion of prediction markets. We can now bet on whether, two days from now, the temperature in Boston will exceed 0° Celsius. Or consider the proliferation of sports betting. Is that productive?
DA: Obviously, inequality is both an economic problem and a philosophical one..
MS: There are three kinds of inequality. The first is economic inequality..
The second kind of inequality concerns political participation, as big money can crowd out citizens’ voices. With the campaign-finance system we have in the US, that is almost guaranteed to remain a persistent problem.
And the third kind of inequality is inequality of recognition and esteem...
Democracy does not require perfect equality, but it does require that people from different social backgrounds and classes encounter one another in their everyday lives. This is how we learn to negotiate and live with our differences, and how we come to care for the common good.
.. most Americans feel that their voice doesn’t matter, that politicians don’t listen to them or care what they think ..
.. I’m truly free only if I have a meaningful say in shaping the forces that govern our collective life .. A purely market-driven, consumerist conception of freedom lacks that.
..The concentration of power in the economy, especially in the tech industry, .. These firms wield immense political power, and they are shaping the direction of technology itself, with far-reaching implications for how we communicate, receive information, and engage with one another.
DA: Another aspect of disempowerment is the sense that technology is entirely out of our control and moving in a direction that will reshape our lives, eliminating work or changing its meaning ...
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