John Nichols is the national affairs correspondent for the Nation and a widely read political blogger, regularly appearing in the Progressive, The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and other outlets. Robert W. McChesney is the Gutgsell Endowed Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is the author or editor of 23 books.
Many of America's hardcore problems are not being addressed by this country's two political parties. According to McChesney and Nichols, "We're back to the Gilded Age, back to the age before the Gilded Age, back to a future of plutocrats and peasants, of masters and servants."
The politicians on both sides of the aisle are at the beck and call of billionaires, corporate wheeler-dealers, and campaign donors. And while ordinary citizens sleep as spectators (many have given up on voting), technological change is enriching the few and consigning blue-collar and middle-class jobs to the scrap heap. As automation increases, fewer jobs are available and those that remain tend to pay less. The result of this unchecked capitalism is more power and wealth to the already very rich.
The authors quote Google chairman Eric Schmidt who agrees with them that loss of jobs to computers and robots is the defining issue of the next two to three decades. We are grateful to Nichols and McChesney for bringing our attention to the very real challenge of democratizing our digital destiny before influential technological wizards control everything.
