Happy Birthday, Professor Reich! Thank you for giving us this gift. My husband and I did a showing of your very fine documentary in our home several years ago -- a couple dozen friends/neighbors came. (Professor Reich gave us permission to do that after buying and viewing the DVD.)
Anyone who wants to understand where the MAGA movement cam from should see this doc. It explains why many working people are so angry/became militant right wingers, and how Don the Con co-opted that anger, used it to get elected in 2016, and to launch an insurrection when he lost in 2020.
Happy Birthday to my favorite professor😊! Most hopeful part -- we, the people, not corporations (fake people) have the power of the vote. However, with this power comes the kuleana (privileged responsibility) to learn who the candidates are really working for.... Looking forward to the day you come and visit Hawai'i. See the grass roots, incredible indigenous aloha 'āina initiatives here.
It is my birthday today also! I contributed to the making of this film and have the cd.. I always have said that the only 2 men in politics/public life that I trust are Robert Reich and Bernie Sanders.
Feliz Cumpleanos, Robert. I'm looking forward to seeing the film later today. Wishing you well and safe always. Deeply appreciate all your hard work and sharing/teaching so much needed information to help "We the People" better understand current events, economics, and politics.
It seems, according to Your movie, that Unions can play a significant role in stabilizing and increasing middle class wealth. There needs to be a popular movement to bring back Unions into several businesses. --- Happy Birthday, Robert ! Much Thanks for ALL You have done, and continue to do ! ! !
"The world has enough for everyone's needs; but not enough for everyone's greed." Lust for money and power is immortal. So long as that lust exists, so long will exist inequality. Thank you for your dedication to financial equality and our democracy. We don't have to live this way, so why can't we change?
My further advice on dealing with Wealth and Poverty/Corporate profits and high inflation. Increasingly, I am choosing local businesses and services over big corporations and companies. This is not always possible as corporations engaged in successful plans to destroy a lot of small and middle-sized local businesses and Mom-n-Pops but I have eliminated doing business with AT&T, Macy*s (my former employer and a big wheeler-dealer if you ever saw one), amazon.com, Whole Foods Market, and--since I donated my old car to NPR/KQED, anything car-related (gas/auto care/insurance. etc. etc.) This has the effect of making life simpler and, ultimately, less expensive. You have to remember that large corporations are only concerned with profits and stock-options for shareholders (and big pay packages/lower taxes for the head honchos. Such corporations largely squeezed out American manufacturers by offering cheap stuff at initially lower prices; once they had cornered the market for whatever the product was, they still bought all their products from producers in other countries (to avoid paying decent wages and following environmental regs) but raised the prices as they had destroyed competition here. It is sheer nonsense that high wages in the US cause inflation...inflation is due to the fact that companies in the US have seen a way to increase profits by increasing prices on consumers....so that is what they do and they suffer no qualms or misgivings. They follow their Donald Trump leader and you know as well as I do that he is incapable of accepting responsibility for anything. I do not know where this will end but I'm fairly certain that, at some point, the greed that is driving this economy from the corporate top offices will falter and there will be an attempt to allow ordinary people a chance to try and live in what's left of the country.
Okay, Robert, I've seen it. It turns out I've seen it maybe twice before. Really interesting and well made. I love your jokes about your height.
I've said before that I'm a socialist and proud of it. It's the profit motive that you've actually demonstrated as the cause of people's trouble. The profit system SEEMS to do great things because it seems to offer opportunities to get ahead. But it's based on greed, the desire to make as much as possible. That's why wages went down in order to increase profits, as you said. CEOs will do everything to make even more billions and pay even lower taxes (because their politico buddies passed laws to make them that way) while workers make even less and pay higher taxes. ONE VERY GOOD SIGN IS THE INCREASED UNIONIZATION OF BIG-COMPANY BRANCHES--STARBUCKS, AMAZON (poor Amazon; Jeff Bezos had to come back down to earth to invest millions in anti-union drives, which are not as successful as he'd hoped), and more and more big companies are finding themselves fighting unions. Poor things. Every week or so I see another article about a successful union drive at some place that never even thought of a union before. They're catching the union bug. Yea! Hooray!
Love that Dolly Parton song.
So sorry about your friend Michael Schwerner. What an incredible coincidence. At least his death has not been in vain. Along with his two friends, he's inspired a lot of people, along with at least one movie.
This all makes me proud to be an activist. One of the things I'm fighting is the privatization of Medicare, which state and local governments are pushing (shame on them). Medicare in its traditional form is a great example of socialism; a lot of people who think they'd never be socialists don't want anybody touching their Medicare. They're saying, "Once the profit motive gets into healthcare, patient care suffers." They're saying it out loud.
Other examples of socialism in our lives are in the fact that in most places, fire companies and police stations are paid by taxes, not profit-making employers--that's socialism. And in places where they aren't and people have to have paid subscriptions for fire and police coverage, the service gets laughably poorer or even nonexistent. (Look up "When You Dial 911 and Wall Street Answers," in the New York Times some years ago.)
I respected the people who were interviewed in the film, including the thoughtful one-percenter.
Happy Birthday, Professor Reich! Thank you for giving us this gift. My husband and I did a showing of your very fine documentary in our home several years ago -- a couple dozen friends/neighbors came. (Professor Reich gave us permission to do that after buying and viewing the DVD.)
Anyone who wants to understand where the MAGA movement cam from should see this doc. It explains why many working people are so angry/became militant right wingers, and how Don the Con co-opted that anger, used it to get elected in 2016, and to launch an insurrection when he lost in 2020.
Happy Birthday to my favorite professor😊! Most hopeful part -- we, the people, not corporations (fake people) have the power of the vote. However, with this power comes the kuleana (privileged responsibility) to learn who the candidates are really working for.... Looking forward to the day you come and visit Hawai'i. See the grass roots, incredible indigenous aloha 'āina initiatives here.
It is my birthday today also! I contributed to the making of this film and have the cd.. I always have said that the only 2 men in politics/public life that I trust are Robert Reich and Bernie Sanders.
Both are careing, honest truth tellers .
Thank you for the birthday wishes !
Feliz Cumpleanos, Robert. I'm looking forward to seeing the film later today. Wishing you well and safe always. Deeply appreciate all your hard work and sharing/teaching so much needed information to help "We the People" better understand current events, economics, and politics.
Happy Birthday Robert Reich!
It seems, according to Your movie, that Unions can play a significant role in stabilizing and increasing middle class wealth. There needs to be a popular movement to bring back Unions into several businesses. --- Happy Birthday, Robert ! Much Thanks for ALL You have done, and continue to do ! ! !
That film often changes lives.
Thank you, Bob. I have seen it before, but I think now is a good time to revisit the film.
Tom j...Birmingham, AL
Happy Birthday, Robert!
You are a gift to the rational world.
Happy Birthday! Thank you for sharing and all the work and guidance you have given us. Wishes of health, joy, prosperity and peace.
"The world has enough for everyone's needs; but not enough for everyone's greed." Lust for money and power is immortal. So long as that lust exists, so long will exist inequality. Thank you for your dedication to financial equality and our democracy. We don't have to live this way, so why can't we change?
Wishing you a year ahead of everything that makes you happy Robert Reich.
I’m looking forward to watching it later, Robert. Happy Birthday. Thanks for your birthday gift to us.
Please note a hearty 'thank you!' for your generousness professor! (Seeing the movie on the outdoor screen at BAMPFA was an evening to remember!)
https://bampfa.org/event/free-outdoor-screening-inequality-all
PS: A must-see for one & all; not to be missed!
My further advice on dealing with Wealth and Poverty/Corporate profits and high inflation. Increasingly, I am choosing local businesses and services over big corporations and companies. This is not always possible as corporations engaged in successful plans to destroy a lot of small and middle-sized local businesses and Mom-n-Pops but I have eliminated doing business with AT&T, Macy*s (my former employer and a big wheeler-dealer if you ever saw one), amazon.com, Whole Foods Market, and--since I donated my old car to NPR/KQED, anything car-related (gas/auto care/insurance. etc. etc.) This has the effect of making life simpler and, ultimately, less expensive. You have to remember that large corporations are only concerned with profits and stock-options for shareholders (and big pay packages/lower taxes for the head honchos. Such corporations largely squeezed out American manufacturers by offering cheap stuff at initially lower prices; once they had cornered the market for whatever the product was, they still bought all their products from producers in other countries (to avoid paying decent wages and following environmental regs) but raised the prices as they had destroyed competition here. It is sheer nonsense that high wages in the US cause inflation...inflation is due to the fact that companies in the US have seen a way to increase profits by increasing prices on consumers....so that is what they do and they suffer no qualms or misgivings. They follow their Donald Trump leader and you know as well as I do that he is incapable of accepting responsibility for anything. I do not know where this will end but I'm fairly certain that, at some point, the greed that is driving this economy from the corporate top offices will falter and there will be an attempt to allow ordinary people a chance to try and live in what's left of the country.
Okay, Robert, I've seen it. It turns out I've seen it maybe twice before. Really interesting and well made. I love your jokes about your height.
I've said before that I'm a socialist and proud of it. It's the profit motive that you've actually demonstrated as the cause of people's trouble. The profit system SEEMS to do great things because it seems to offer opportunities to get ahead. But it's based on greed, the desire to make as much as possible. That's why wages went down in order to increase profits, as you said. CEOs will do everything to make even more billions and pay even lower taxes (because their politico buddies passed laws to make them that way) while workers make even less and pay higher taxes. ONE VERY GOOD SIGN IS THE INCREASED UNIONIZATION OF BIG-COMPANY BRANCHES--STARBUCKS, AMAZON (poor Amazon; Jeff Bezos had to come back down to earth to invest millions in anti-union drives, which are not as successful as he'd hoped), and more and more big companies are finding themselves fighting unions. Poor things. Every week or so I see another article about a successful union drive at some place that never even thought of a union before. They're catching the union bug. Yea! Hooray!
Love that Dolly Parton song.
So sorry about your friend Michael Schwerner. What an incredible coincidence. At least his death has not been in vain. Along with his two friends, he's inspired a lot of people, along with at least one movie.
This all makes me proud to be an activist. One of the things I'm fighting is the privatization of Medicare, which state and local governments are pushing (shame on them). Medicare in its traditional form is a great example of socialism; a lot of people who think they'd never be socialists don't want anybody touching their Medicare. They're saying, "Once the profit motive gets into healthcare, patient care suffers." They're saying it out loud.
Other examples of socialism in our lives are in the fact that in most places, fire companies and police stations are paid by taxes, not profit-making employers--that's socialism. And in places where they aren't and people have to have paid subscriptions for fire and police coverage, the service gets laughably poorer or even nonexistent. (Look up "When You Dial 911 and Wall Street Answers," in the New York Times some years ago.)
I respected the people who were interviewed in the film, including the thoughtful one-percenter.
The profit system will say bye-bye one day.