A plan for saving democratic capitalism from itself Economic systems must balance efficiency with resilience in order to survive and flourish. Photograph by Dilok Klaisataporn The marriage of democracy and capitalism has been arguably the greatest force for good in history, giving the creativity and enterprise of talented individuals the freedom to generate value in which all of us can share. History also shows, however, that this system’s continued survival cannot be guaranteed. Machines that process inputs into outputs are judged and compared according to the efficiency with which they convert the one into the other. A car that travels farther on the same amount of fuel than another car is, other factors being equal (road conditions, for instance, or weather), more efficient and therefore better by that measure than the other car. If we assume that the economy is a machine, then the same cause-and-effect sequence must apply. Greater efficiency drives growth.