Individuals in a market economy act voluntarily because they are the best judges of their own interests. In pursuing self-interest, they are driven to seek efficient means that promote national prosperity. But they strongly oppose government interventions in the market to redress economic inequality. Such inequality, elite democrats contend, provides incentives for talent and effort and rewards the most productive and worthy members of society. To elite democrats, the market system is rooted in a realistic view of human nature.
Popular democrats agree with elite democrats about the importance of markets and private property.
But the supposed virtues of free markets are often undermined, they argue, in the real world of modern corporate capitalism. In the corporate economy, supposedly neutral rules favor the Maxxam-type corporations that care only about profit, while making it hard for workers and citizens to retain any say over the economic forces that shape their lives. It is not average individuals who can take advantage of these rules, but large organizations and affluent individuals who exercise economic and political power. Corporate capitalism in America, popular democrats point out, is producing increasing inequalities that are not justified by talent and effort and that are eroding social trust and communal bonds. It is producing a remarkable array of luxury goods and services for those who can afford to purchase them, while it neglects many of the needs of the ailing and the poor.