Ray Dalio worries capitalism could go extinct
The founder of the world’s biggest hedge fund thinks capitalism could be in trouble.
“We can’t take the existence of capitalism for granted,” Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates, told FOX Business' Gerry Baker during a Friday interview on “WSJ at Large”. “I think you could easily have a movement to an opposite extreme.”
Dalio, a billionaire ranked by Forbes as the 57th richest person in the world last year, points to inequalities in capitalism as the reason for the recent pushback against it -- and why it’s in potential danger.
“There’s a risk of one form or another of some kind of a big change," he said. "I’m careful about using the term ‘revolution’-- but a revolutionary change that could be detrimental."
Despite his success in the financial world, Dalio has also been critical of capitalism because of those inequalities.
“I’m a capitalist, right,” he said. “I believe in it. I study it. I’m a professional capitalist. And at the same time I think that many of the outcomes, if it’s not working for the majority of people, it’s not successful.”
His solution?
“The key is you have to both increase the size of the pie through productivity and effective economic policies and divide the pie well,” he said.
So does that mean he feels the country needs higher taxes and increased government spending?
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“I think there's the ‘where do you get the money from’ and knowing how well you spend it on delivering it,” he said.
But Dalio’s strongest belief is that the U.S. needs to level the playing field for everyone.
“Can we try for equal opportunity?” he said. “Can we measure how well we’re doing on that, and can we realize that the system is in jeopardy…unless we do that?”