Nick Hanauer, founder of Civic Ventures, wrote an opinion piece arguing that the neoliberal form of capitalism that has dominated U.S. policy since the mid-1970s is failing to deliver for workers and eroding democratic legitimacy. Since 1975, the U.S. has pursued a policy that prioritizes shareholder returns over wages, a shift championed by thinkers such as Milton Friedman and executives like Jack Welch. The result has been a steady transfer of wealth from the bottom 90% to the top 10%, with the median household earning $75,000 today instead of the $120,000 it would have earned had productivity and wages remained linked. Hanauer notes that roughly $79 trillion has been redistributed upward from the bottom 90% to the top 10% since 1975. He points out that a median American worker now spends 62 weeks of work to afford a middle-class life, up from 39.7 weeks in 1985. He also notes that American life expectancy is declining, marking the first sustained drop in a developed nation in a century. Hanauer said that the only question that has ever mattered is which capitalism, designed how, for whose benefit. He added that the system is a specific ideological distortion of capitalism most of the developed world never adopted. He also noted that the 45 of the top 100 companies that did not exist 50 years ago—such as Amazon, Google, the iPhone, and Moderna—were built on publicly funded research. To move forward, Hanauer calls for a reform of the current model that restores a balance between capital and labor, strengthens social safety nets, and re-establishes democratic accountability. He argues that only by redefining capitalism can the U.S. protect workers, preserve democracy, and sustain long-term growth.