The power of the 1%

Leo Panitch was interviewed at TRNN about inequality and its effect on society: 

makes inequality important, and how does it affect society? 

you don't have a society at all. What you have is a class system, where, if anything, you have two societies, or sometimes more, rather than anything you can properly call a society. 

Why is this [mitigation of inequality] not happening?

it was about the power of the 1%, which makes doing anything about this inequality almost impossible, unless you remove their power

So far as I know, this is the first media account that attributes the economic and political inequality to the imbalance of power. It's worth listening to. My comment:

Economic inequality is “… about the power of the 1%, which makes doing anything about this inequality almost impossible, unless you remove their power.” 

There are two possible solutions: (1) Minimize information control [intellectual property] and maximize institutional transparency [all information]. Concentration of power is only possible when information is tightly controlled, often with the full engagement of public policy. (2) Power concentration goes hand-in-hand with concentration of capital. Capital in the form of currency and real estate is readily regulated. Small capital – small goods and personal services – are easier to shield. An informal barter economy of small capital may be able to compete against corporate capital. This is more a tax argument than solution – Corporations have lots of tax loopholes which workers can’t use. In a barter economy, workers pay taxes on what they report; if workers don’t report income, they don’t pay taxes. The lack of government income (in taxes) should/may force the government to correct the imbalance of financial & political power. 

Solution 1 is the better choice because is completely alters the status quo and opens more opportunities to more people. Solution 2 maintains current institutions and allows the power imbalance to be re-established at some future date.