Welcome back to the Ten Blocks podcast. This is Brian Anderson, the editor of City

Journal. Join me today is John

McGinnis. He's the George C. Dix professor in constitutional law at Northwestern, and he's been a

longtime contributor for Citigern. He has a new book coming out next month from Encounter,

and it's called Why Democracy Needs the Rich, the hidden

benefits of wealth in a free society. The book grew out of a 2021 city journal essay, but it

arrives at a moment when hostility to wealth has moved, one can say, from rhetoric to governance.

John, thanks very much for joining us. Delighted to be here. And thanks for giving this book its start, Brian.

Now, it's probably fair to say that it's always been fashionable to complain about the rich

in democracies. But the attack on the wealthy in our political discourse, I think,

has intensified recently and not just symbolically. The

progressive left has pursued substantive policies animated by hostility to wealth accumulation

and inequality. A socialist, or at least quasi-socialist agenda, has propelled some politicians

to national prominence. AOC, for sure, and now most recently,

of course, New York City's brand new mayor, Zoran Mamdani. So as you see it today, John,

what's driving this resentment of wealth? Is it simply old-fashioned envy? Is it concern,

legitimate concern over too extensive inequality? You know,

what's going on exactly? And does the current moment differ in any meaningful way from earlier bouts

of anti-elite politics, we could call it? I think you're right. There's always been envy of

the rich, and that is part of the background of all of these attacks. What's driven

this is the sense on the left that the rich are creating a structure in which the left doesn't

control as it has all of the heights of the media, the academics, even the entertainment world.

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