The wealth disparities of naked capitalism are indefensible, but so too is the welfare state; there must be a third way, writes the New Statesman. “Even ardent free-marketeers scarcely foresaw the astonishing increase in disparity of income, particularly in the US. In 1968, the chief executive of General Motors was paid 66 times as much as an average worker on his payroll; in 2005, the head of Wal-Mart made 900 times as much.”