Capitalism is dead, Munk debate hears. Long live more capitalism, audience decides
When four ideological foes took to the stage at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto Wednesday night for a Munk Debate on capitalism, they found more common ground than you might expect.
They were asked to debate the following motion: “The capitalist system is broken. It’s time to try something different.”
Both sides agreed that capitalism helped build Western societies, and that there’s something wrong with the current system. The question remaining was whether reforms could go far enough to restore capitalism, or whether something entirely new is needed.
Arguing in favour of the motion was Yanis Varoufakis, a leftist politician and former Greek finance minister, and Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation magazine. Arguing that the answer to society’s ills is more capitalism, more economic freedom and more free markets were Arthur Brooks, former head of the American Enterprise Institute, and his brother David Brooks, a columnist with The New York Times.
