Credit: Michael Lionstar

For most of Western history, Ganesh Sitaraman argues, economic inequality was inevitable--that is, until the United States created its Constitution. Compared to Europe and the ancient world, America was a society of almost unprecedented economic equality, and the founding generation saw this equality as essential for the preservation of the American republic.

Sitaraman has served as a policy director and senior counsel to Elizabeth Warren and is an associate professor of law at Vanderbilt Law School. His most recent focus has been on America's shrinking middle class. For Sitaraman, we have a simple choice, either to accept the growing inequality in America and risk oligarchy or to rebuild the middle class and reclaim the republic.

Joe Green is a serial social entrepreneur and investor who has been a pioneer in the intersection between technology and social/political activism. Joe was an advisor to Facebook at its founding at Harvard in 2004 and in 2013, he founded FWD.us along with Mark Zuckerberg and over 50 other leaders in the tech community which mobilizes the tech community around critical political issues, starting with immigration reform. 

FWD.us brought unprecedented funding to the political fight and played a key role in supporting President Obama's work on immigration.