Einstein was a pacifist, but that changed when the Nazis came to power. As one who had left Germany before things became really bad, he was aware of friends and colleagues who suffered tremendously under Hitler's Third Reich.
He was also a socialist, but with a wariness of centralized power, the abuse of which he saw in the Soviet Union. Despite that wariness, he knew in his heart the dangers of untrammelled, unfettered capitalism. Here is a paragraph from the book:
...unrestrained capitalism produced great disparities of wealth, cycles of boom and depression, and festering levels of unemployment. The system encouraged selfishness instead of cooperation, and acquiring wealth rather than serving others. People were educated for careers rather than love of work and creativity. And political parties became corrupted by political contributions from owners of great capital.
Looking at what our world has become, is there anyone who can disagree with that assessment?
