Richard D. Wolff

In the current crisis of capitalism, an FDR-type solution has not emerged, for several reasons. First, the fifty-year decline and consequent weakness of the labor union movement and the extreme decline of socialist and communist movements removed them as effective agents for such a solution.

Second, the majority of businesses and the rich see little need—yet—for any compromise solution that would increase their taxes.

Second, the majority of businesses and the rich see little need—yet—for any compromise solution that would increase their taxes. Third, no actually existing socialism (such as the Soviet Union represented during the 1930s) poses an alternative today that might attract significant working-class support and thereby frighten conservatives into FDR-type political partnerships.