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2016 Rutgers U. L. Rev. Comments. 12 (2016)

handle is hein.journals/rgsusty2016 and id is 1 raw text is: A PLEA FOR CONSTITUTIONAL BALANCE Stephen M. Feldman* We live in the age of Democracy, Inc.1 Political advertisements package candidates in twenty second sound bites. Corporations and billionaires wield herculean political power. Although citizens still vote- at least once in a while-corporate muscle largely steers elections and government policy to increase profits. Income inequality, consequently, has skyrocketed.2 In the late-1980s, CEO pay stood at thirty times the average pay for workers, while today CEO pay is nearly 300 times that of workers.3 Yet, conservatives warn that any government efforts to alleviate wealth or income inequality will only worsen matters. How often is Ronald Reagan's first inaugural address echoed? [G]overnment is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.4 In fact, a 2014 Gallup poll revealed that far more Americans view government, and not inequality, as the greatest problem facing the nation today.5 Conservatives, moreover, have a ready response to complaints about rising inequality. Unstoppable market forces, they argue, cause * Jerry W. Housel/Carl F. Arnold Distinguished Professor of Law and Adjunct Professor of Political Science, University of Wyoming. 1. Democracy Incorporated is the title of a book by Sheldon S. Wolin, SHELDON S. WOLIN, DEMOCRACY INCORPORATED: MANAGED DEMOCRACY AND THE SPECTER OF INVERTED TOTALITARIANISM (2008), while Democracy, Inc. is the title of a book by David S. Allen, DAVID S. ALLEN, DEMOCRACY, INC.: THE PRESS AND LAW IN THE CORPORATE RATIONALIZATION OF THE PUBLIC SPHERE (2005). 2. THOMAS PIKETTY, CAPITAL IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY 23-26, 298, 571 (Arthur Goldhammer trans., 2014). 3. Lawrence Mishel & Alyssa Davis, CEO Pay Continues to Rise as Typical Workers Are Paid Less, ECON. POLY INST., June 12, 2014, at 1, 3, http://www.epi.org/files/2014/ceo- pay-continues-to-rise.pdf. 4. Ronald Reagan, President of the U.S., Inaugural Address (Jan. 20, 1981). 5. See Frank Newport, Few Americans Want More Gov't Regulation of Business, GALLOP (Sept. 15, 2014), http://www.gallup.com/poll/176015/few-americans-gov-regulation- business.aspx. 12