Town Hall Seattle: Civics Series
Town Hall’s Civics series highlights everything from local policies to world politics. These events offer perspectives on a range of topics as diverse as Seattle itself—a bustling forum for activism, discovery, and thought-provoking discussion.
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Dec 10, 2018
Many Americans envision capitalism as a driving ideal of our country, but some economists contend that a few digital monopolies have risen to restrict our nation’s capitalist ideals and act as gatekeepers to the free market. Economist author Jonathan Tepper and Business Development manager Denise Hearn took Town Hall’s stage to tackle issues of growing economic inequality. They presented perspectives from their book The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition, asserting that the U.S. has gone from an open, competitive marketplace to an economy where a few very powerful companies dominate key industries that affect our daily lives.
Tepper and Hearn were joined by panelists: Nick Hanauer, co-founder and partner in venture capital firm Second Avenue Partners; John Perkins, Chief Economist as a major international consulting firm and adviser to World Bank, the United Nations, the U.S. Treasury Department; Rachel Lauter, executive director of Working Washington and the Fair Work Center; and Nicole Vallestero Keenan-Lai, executive director of Puget Sound Sage.
Together they discussed solutions, suggesting vigorous anti-trust enforcement to return America to a period where competition created higher economic growth, more jobs, higher wages and a level playing field for all. Sit in for an essential conversation on all things capitalism in America—from anemic economic growth to declining start-up success rates—and why workers are losing out.
Recorded live at The Collective by Town Hall Seattle on Thursday, November 29, 2018.