Short Takes #34: Here Lies The Way Out
Jia Lynn Yang | The Decline of Capitalism | How Corporations Play | A Duopoly of Wheelchairs
When your life feels horribly constrained by forces beyond your control, when it feels as if every possible avenue has been exhausted, socialism arrives with a vision of another way: Here, it says. Here lies the way out.
| Jia Lynn Yang, How American Socialism Changed, and Stormed the Democratic Party1
The Decline of Capitalism
We may have reached a turning point in the US, and it comes under guise of a growing dissatisfaction with unfettered capitalism and the Democratic Party. I will again quote Jia Lynn Yang:
Some Democrats argue that in the face of the rising tide of D.S.A. [the Democratic Socialists of America], the party should affirm its support for capitalism. This may be a tough sell in a time when capitalism is falling in popularity. Under half of Americans say capitalism is working very well or even somewhat well, down from 60 percent a decade ago, according to a new Wall Street Journal-NORC survey. Whatever you want to call the status quo, many Americans say they simply don’t want it.
I plan to focus over the next few months — leading up to the mid-term elections in November, and beyond — on the implications of growing acceptance of a ‘social democracy’ agenda. Which is not communism, as some pig-headed detractors claim. American socialists today are not advocating for a revolutionary overturning of capitalism and generally advocate an ethics-based — not class-oriented — gradualist approach with the goals of reducing inequality and nationalizing aspects of society that should be universal: health care, child care, access to housing, and a living wage for all.
I will not take on the hair-splitting task of dissecting the literal agenda of the Democratic Socialists of America. But I will be digging in on the clearest voices on a socialist-driven reformation of the economy, government, and, in particular, the growing power of oligarchic corporations, which is the US, are run as ‘private governments’ as Elizabeth Anderson styles it (see The Right To Have Rights, The Unfreedom Of Work, The Struggle For Meaningful Work).
Stay tuned.
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How Corporations Play
Michael Sainato reports on how large corporations game the system, relying on governments to provide public assistance to their workers:
Many workers at some of the largest US corporations have no choice but to rely on healthcare and food assistance because of low wages, even as CEO compensation continues to grow, according to a new report released Wednesday [2026-03-04].
The report, published by the Institute of Policy Studies, focuses on 20 of the S&P 500 corporations that have primarily US-based workforces and report the lowest median wages of the group.
Collectively, this “Low-Wage 20” employs 6.7 million people in the US. The median pay at a majority (75%) of the companies is lower than the income minimum for a family of three to be eligible for Medicaid in most states. At 13 of the companies, median pay was also lower than the Supplemental Nutrition Assistant Program income threshold for a family of three.
Nearly a quarter of Walmart employees (29.3%) and half of Amazon workers (48.4%) in Nevada – which collects Medicaid enrollment numbers among employees at large companies – were on Medicaid in 2024, according to the report.Among the four states that disclose Snap data related to large companies – Colorado, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Michigan – 10,920 Walmart workers and 9,633 Amazon workers were enrolled in Snap in 2024.
The report noted Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” is expected to result in some 7.5 million Americans losing Medicaid and 4 million losing some or all of their Snap benefits after budget cuts.
First, corporations underpay front-line workers, who will, of necessity, turn to government assistance to survive, and then the federal government reduces the funds available for programs supporting the powerless. And neither the corporations nor the Feds step up to cover the shortfalls.
A Duopoly of Wheelchairs
Leila Fadel of NPR reports on private equity-backed wheelchair manufacturers that, in recent years, have acquired dozens of smaller competitors, leading to a classic example of corporatocracy: two competitors acting in concert to steer wheelchair users toward buying new wheelchairs by slowing repairs.
Fadel interviewed Megan Smith of Boston’s WGBH, following a local protest by wheelchair users:
SMITH: So the wheelchair users I’ve talked to say that 10, 15 years ago, there were a lot more options - a lot of mom-and-pop shops that they could go to where technicians got to know them personally. But that’s not the case anymore. The wheelchair repair market is now dominated by two companies - Numotion and National Seating & Mobility. Both companies are owned by private equity investment firms, and each has bought up dozens of companies and competitors.
Critics say the business model prioritizes profits and cost-cutting and that these companies take forever to fix people’s chairs. They’re investing more in the part of the company that brings in more revenue, which is selling new chairs rather than fixing old chairs. For example, critics say they don’t hire enough technicians to keep up with repair work. So I hear stories about people waiting three, five, nine months or more for a part. And the wheelchair users I talked with said the problem gets so frustrating at times that they sometimes order parts online or from a hardware store or even just go to their local bike shop for a fix.
There’s a bill pending at the Massachusetts legislature to require wheelchair repairs to take no more than 10 days, and Representative Ayanna Pressley, a Massachusetts Democrat, introduced a national bill in the US House.
So, another example of large corporations — that in this case should have been blocked from forming highly concentrated monopolies that only benefit their financial backers, and disadvantage the public — exerting their economic force to coerce customers to cough up money unnecessarily. And, even worse, these folks are blocked from living their lives, going to work, going to school, caring for loved ones, while their wheelchairs are sidelined for weeks or months.
Rather than just calling for regulation of the timeframe for repairs, we should be calling for these companies to be broken up on anti-trust grounds.
