well benjamin barber is the author of "jihad versus mcwor . mcworld." will, you quoted plato.irst source of equal is inequality. i take it you're siding with rick santorum over this. let's ask this. is capitalism the problem or the way we've been practicing capitalism the problem when it comes to inequality? >> capitalism is the problem when you have only capitalism and no balance with democratic institutions. you needed political institutions that balanced the deficiencies of capitalism. the fundamental deficiency of capitalism, its virtue is that it's productive, innovative, entrepreneurial. its deficiency is that it produces inequalities out of scale to what it requires. of course, some inequality is in the system. the question is the difference of 400 to 1 in salaries between ceos and the workers who work for those ceos adequate. you quoted plato a couple of weeks ago. i want to quote aristotle. you need a bell-shaped curve that looks like this, a lot of people in the middle, a few rich, maybe a few who are poor. if you invert that poor, some very rich and a lot of people

european and arab allies are committed to pushing president out of power but political analyst benjamin barber says forcing a regime change is a bad idea that's already plunged other arab countries into turmoil the case of libya the case of yemen and a number of other countries egypt also suggest that you have to be careful what you wish for the west is rather on critics of the recent insurgency is a good thing only to find that insurgency often means. fractionalization splintering various groups up against one another and the triumph over time of forces that are no more welcome to the west than the one for the displaced in libya we see a country that is unable to create any kind of see where militias are fighting one another where recently. towns like bond while he's back in the hands of gadhafi forces and the danger of libya look like somalia with rival militias and tribes or more so nobody i think did what will happen if assad is overthrown all the killed or steps down and no one really knows what the outcome is likely to be as the west is hoping it will be less supportive of hezbollah less

some arab states are committed to pushing president assad from power but political analyst dr benjamin barber says that forcing a regime change is a bad idea because it's a tactic that's already plunged other arab countries into turmoil the case of libya the case of yemen and a number of other countries egypt also suggest that you have to be careful what you wish for the west is rather critical of the recent insurgency is a good thing only to find that insurgency often means. fractionalization splintering various groups up against one and try and over time the forces that are no more welcome to the west than the one for the displaced nobody i think did what will happen if assad is overthrown molecules or steps down and no one really knows what the outcome is likely to be the west is hoping it will be less supportive of hezbollah less supportive of iran and less support of abbas and that could be the case but no one really knows what it's going to look like so the fact is would you support insurgencies you're basically taking a very difficult bet on uncertainty. and that was a political analys

working on the ground and started checking in that well for more on this i can now talk to dr benjamin barber from the think tank demos joining me now from new york well mostly refuses to back a weapons embargo on syria saying that opposition groups anyway despite some security council members refusing to admit these groups even exist but what do you make of russia's. well russia is reading history with some accuracy if we look back at what happened in libya because of a u.n. and arab league resolution led to what was supposed to be a mission to protect civilians but ended up as a mission that actually took the lives of civilians inadvertently on the way the way to supporting the insurgents and in time became an armed intervention on behalf of insurgents and the attempt to overthrow the government the background issue here that is a very real issues the issue of sovereignty and unfortunately it was probably applies to russia in other cases most nations seem to think when they talk about sovereignty sovereignty is good for our friends compliance is good for our enemies so enemies should be wil

political analyst dr benjamin barber there talking to us earlier from new york. now iran's nuclear ambitions and the euro zone's debt struggles topped the german chancellor's agenda on her trip to china and below merkel is calling on beijing the biggest buyer of iranian oil not to buy more after an e.u. embargo and to use its influence to persuade to iran to abandon any possible atomic weapons ambitions she also wants to offer reassurance that investing in the eurozone is still a safe bet let's not talk to a professor or goes to a sort of from the solder business school in barcelona about angela merkel's trip to beijing i thank you for coming on our team today let's start with the issue of iran beijing has been refusing to support the oil embargo that i just mentioned is there any incentive the chancellor merkel can offer to china to sway it not to increase oil purchases or even reduce than the u.s. treasury secretary certainly failed to do so. it's nice to be with you again i think the good is a very complex issue is not just a matter of asking china to the crea

dr benjamin barber from biffing time. throwing president assad is nobody solution to the crisis. the case of libya the case of yemen and a number of other countries egypt also suggest that you have to be careful what you wish for the west is rather uncritical be reasoned insurgency is a good thing only to find that insurgency often means anarchy fractionalization splintering various groups up against one another and the triumph over time of forces that are no more welcome to the west for the one for the displaced in libya we see a country that is unable to create any kind of place where the militias are fighting one another where recently. towns i bought a while back in fact hands are broken off and forces and the danger of libyan people look like some ali with a lot of little wishes of the tribes it was so nobody i think did what will happen if the saudis overthrown were killed or steps down and no one really knows what the outcome is likely to be as the west is hoping it will be less supportive of hezbollah less supportive of the iran and less support of hamas and that could be

it's worth asking where there is whether there's some lessons for the us along the way now dr benjamin barber has made a study out of democracy and capitalism his new book is called consumed how markets corrupt children infantilize adults and swallow citizens whole and he joins me live now from new york dr barbara thank you so much for speaking with us so is capitalism undergoing and identify the crisis right now. well it has been undergoing an identity crisis for about three hundred years to say in each century it's had a different set of problems and the fundamental issue it's always faced is the relationship between the free market and government and has a free market by definition is one that works entrepreneurially without government regulation on a market basis but the reality is from the very beginning that capitalism left to its own devices can be in our kick it can create monopolies instead of competition it can destroy jobs rather than creating jobs and has always actually achieved the greatest success in. working with governments then comes the question what your show is of today w