Thank you for joining me today in the first of our discussions of the contradictions between the common good and American capitalism. For the next 10 weeks, we’ll examine what’s really going on. If you want to understand where American capitalism is now and what you might do to help move it in a more humane direction, you need to look under the hood.
If any candidate for a federal office cannot pass a National Security Questionaire to obtain a Top Secret-SCI clearance, then why are they allowed to run, campaign, take campaign contributions and eat up so much news time? I was a military recruiter for 17 of my 23 years of military service. I couldn't send a new recruit to basic training if they has so much as an unpaid speeding ticket until it was adjudicated and had proof of case closed. Trump flunks the test on 100+ levels. He should never again have access to TS-SCI information or hold the nuclear football. Why is nobody talking about this? Why isn't this an issue? It needs to be. The media needs to address this issue.
Capitalism's best partner is socialism. Imagine two societies one which practices rank laissez-faire economics where it's dog-eat-dog and survival of the fittest and another which gives it's citizens free healthcare, education and makes sure no one is hungry or homeless and has a path to success, all of which is paid for by taxing the very rich. If that means no more luxury planes or boats and not owning ten mansions around the globe, tough shit lads, grow the fuck up.
Wow! Max Weber and Peter Blau were well ahead of their time! And your application of truth in the face of many well-hidden realties is powerful. As a sociologist, I stand in awe of your clarity. As a citizen, I stand, with fear, in the face of the enormity of the issues. Thank you, I think. I hope your final lesson has some reasonable suggestions for action.
This is the discussion that I want to have, that our country needs, to try to understand why we have a flawed system that breeds inequality. Thank you.
This is spot-on, but it isn't just about America. The same problems have arisen throughout the Western world. I live in the UK, but the exact same things are visible here, especially public services going to rack and ruin because they are starved of resources.
For example, we have had a round of strikes in the health services. Partly, pay is an issue - pay has fallen 25% in real terms under the present government (in power since 2010) - but it is more. Several family members are nurses or doctors, and they say the staff-patient ratios are now so bad that they do a night duty with double the patients they should have and half the support from nursing assistants. Inevitably, there will be mistakes, but when that happens the managerial response is to stand back from any responsibility and blame the individual. So, the "offender" may be up before a disciplinary tribunal and even lose their licence. So, staff leave for other jobs, or other countries, and things get worse.
This government claims to be in favour of market solutions, and there is a market solution to this problem - pay people more, to retain staff and improve staff ratios, and relieve the fear that staff endure. But no, we can't afford that, apparently. There are more tax cuts for the wealthy, paid for by the rest of us. We can afford those, it seems. But productivity and investment have stagnated for over 10 years. It is no longer a case of more productivity financng a better life for all of us. Yet the rich elite have doubled their wealth over that same 10 years. The rest haven't, though they still work just as hard. Hmm. As the saying goes, "If hard work were the key to wealth, every woman in Africa would be a millionaire".
Or maybe we could get rich by marrying an heiress from a wealthy family. Like our Prime Minister did.
American capitalism always has been a game played by grifters who start with the assumption that we're all suckers. This goes back a long time, and, as long as we play along, we can't win. The suckers need to get educated, think about where all of this is leading, and then reject the crap the grifters are selling. But Repug attacks on the public-education system are designed to keep the suckers in their place.
Please tell anyone, If you can't vote for Biden at least vote for democracy, or don't vote. Don't vote for the death, destruction and dictatorship party! The GOP deserves a new name!
Thanks again Bob. Hello from an old Florida man, living the past 35 years in Denmark. Unfettered capitalism is like a mad dog and needs a collar and a stern hand. We have a well functioning capitalistic economy here, with restraints and an attempt at a social balance (at least until the past few years where the financial gap is growing between the rich and poor) - there are no perfect systems, but keeping the resources spread as wide as possible is important.
The sustainable root of capitalism is competition which is being dismantled. Why does the public blame the Dems for all this? While no party's hands are sqeaking clean... we now have an entire party who've sold us out to the highest bidders. Why believe the liars?
11-24-2023, AMERICAN CAPITALISM, LIKE MOST CAPITALISM, "IS TOTTEN THROUGH AND THROUGH FROM THE VERY TOP, ESPECIALLY WHEN DEALING WITH CORRUPT POLITICIANSM CLERGY (VATICAN), LAWYERS, USED-CAR-SALES-PERSONS, AND OTHERS!!! GET OUT OF ALL BUILDINGS IMMEDIATELY AND REGISTER QUICKLY/QUIETLY AT YOUR LOCAL "POLLING-SITE" AND BECOME FULLY PRREPARED TO CAST YOUR "MOST-PRECIOUS-AMERICAN-VOTE" THROUGHOUT 2023/2024, MOIST ESPECIALLY ON NOVEMBER 5, 2024, FOR THE U.S. DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE OF YOUR CHOICE; OR, FOREVER REGRET THE AUTHORITARIAN/FASCISTIC LUNATIC IN AMERICAN OFFICE. TEARS AND REGRETS WILL NOT CURE THIS ENDEMIC SCOURGE, VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!!! AOIFE
Thank you for all the effort you are putting to educate the masses. One thing I never understood is why in economy we need continuous growth when the laws of thermodynamics for a close system state that continuous growth brings to the collapse of the system. I am looking forward to the next sessions. 😀
"The first step toward changing the system is to understand it. If we cannot comprehend the truth we become entrapped in conventional falsehoods and false choices, unable to envision new possibilities. Seeing the system for what it is will empower you to join with others to change it for the better."
The quality of Bob's proposals for addressing our sick capitalism will depend upon how he defines human nature-how able he is to see that Hobbs- Hayet-Harden- Friedman worked off a premise that man is a selfish being not capable of managing the commons cooperatively and how much Bob sees that no man deserves that much more than any other man when we understand the economy as a circular web that has been distorted to become a pyramid-in fact a pyramid scheme.
I always got a kick of Americans fearing the word socialism when American wealth is based on a very distorted form socialism given to those that need it least and denied to those who need it most.
"Since the late 1970s, inflation-adjusted pay for most U.S. workers has largely stagnated, while pay for the country’s highest earners has skyrocketed.....Yet, the root causes of these trends have frequently been wrongly attributed....In fact, disappointing wage growth for most workers in the U.S. economy was not an unintended consequence—it was the intentional outcome of legislative, regulatory, and corporate policies deliberately implemented to constrain labor costs, decisions made on behalf of the rich and corporations and validated by many economists."
If any candidate for a federal office cannot pass a National Security Questionaire to obtain a Top Secret-SCI clearance, then why are they allowed to run, campaign, take campaign contributions and eat up so much news time? I was a military recruiter for 17 of my 23 years of military service. I couldn't send a new recruit to basic training if they has so much as an unpaid speeding ticket until it was adjudicated and had proof of case closed. Trump flunks the test on 100+ levels. He should never again have access to TS-SCI information or hold the nuclear football. Why is nobody talking about this? Why isn't this an issue? It needs to be. The media needs to address this issue.
Capitalism's best partner is socialism. Imagine two societies one which practices rank laissez-faire economics where it's dog-eat-dog and survival of the fittest and another which gives it's citizens free healthcare, education and makes sure no one is hungry or homeless and has a path to success, all of which is paid for by taxing the very rich. If that means no more luxury planes or boats and not owning ten mansions around the globe, tough shit lads, grow the fuck up.
I am SO grateful for YOU, Robert Reich!!!
Wow! Max Weber and Peter Blau were well ahead of their time! And your application of truth in the face of many well-hidden realties is powerful. As a sociologist, I stand in awe of your clarity. As a citizen, I stand, with fear, in the face of the enormity of the issues. Thank you, I think. I hope your final lesson has some reasonable suggestions for action.
This is the discussion that I want to have, that our country needs, to try to understand why we have a flawed system that breeds inequality. Thank you.
This is spot-on, but it isn't just about America. The same problems have arisen throughout the Western world. I live in the UK, but the exact same things are visible here, especially public services going to rack and ruin because they are starved of resources.
For example, we have had a round of strikes in the health services. Partly, pay is an issue - pay has fallen 25% in real terms under the present government (in power since 2010) - but it is more. Several family members are nurses or doctors, and they say the staff-patient ratios are now so bad that they do a night duty with double the patients they should have and half the support from nursing assistants. Inevitably, there will be mistakes, but when that happens the managerial response is to stand back from any responsibility and blame the individual. So, the "offender" may be up before a disciplinary tribunal and even lose their licence. So, staff leave for other jobs, or other countries, and things get worse.
This government claims to be in favour of market solutions, and there is a market solution to this problem - pay people more, to retain staff and improve staff ratios, and relieve the fear that staff endure. But no, we can't afford that, apparently. There are more tax cuts for the wealthy, paid for by the rest of us. We can afford those, it seems. But productivity and investment have stagnated for over 10 years. It is no longer a case of more productivity financng a better life for all of us. Yet the rich elite have doubled their wealth over that same 10 years. The rest haven't, though they still work just as hard. Hmm. As the saying goes, "If hard work were the key to wealth, every woman in Africa would be a millionaire".
Or maybe we could get rich by marrying an heiress from a wealthy family. Like our Prime Minister did.
American capitalism always has been a game played by grifters who start with the assumption that we're all suckers. This goes back a long time, and, as long as we play along, we can't win. The suckers need to get educated, think about where all of this is leading, and then reject the crap the grifters are selling. But Repug attacks on the public-education system are designed to keep the suckers in their place.
Please tell anyone, If you can't vote for Biden at least vote for democracy, or don't vote. Don't vote for the death, destruction and dictatorship party! The GOP deserves a new name!
Thanks again Bob. Hello from an old Florida man, living the past 35 years in Denmark. Unfettered capitalism is like a mad dog and needs a collar and a stern hand. We have a well functioning capitalistic economy here, with restraints and an attempt at a social balance (at least until the past few years where the financial gap is growing between the rich and poor) - there are no perfect systems, but keeping the resources spread as wide as possible is important.
Superb intro. This needs to be taught to all highschool and college students.
The sustainable root of capitalism is competition which is being dismantled. Why does the public blame the Dems for all this? While no party's hands are sqeaking clean... we now have an entire party who've sold us out to the highest bidders. Why believe the liars?
11-24-2023, AMERICAN CAPITALISM, LIKE MOST CAPITALISM, "IS TOTTEN THROUGH AND THROUGH FROM THE VERY TOP, ESPECIALLY WHEN DEALING WITH CORRUPT POLITICIANSM CLERGY (VATICAN), LAWYERS, USED-CAR-SALES-PERSONS, AND OTHERS!!! GET OUT OF ALL BUILDINGS IMMEDIATELY AND REGISTER QUICKLY/QUIETLY AT YOUR LOCAL "POLLING-SITE" AND BECOME FULLY PRREPARED TO CAST YOUR "MOST-PRECIOUS-AMERICAN-VOTE" THROUGHOUT 2023/2024, MOIST ESPECIALLY ON NOVEMBER 5, 2024, FOR THE U.S. DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE OF YOUR CHOICE; OR, FOREVER REGRET THE AUTHORITARIAN/FASCISTIC LUNATIC IN AMERICAN OFFICE. TEARS AND REGRETS WILL NOT CURE THIS ENDEMIC SCOURGE, VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!!! AOIFE
I am constantly amazed at how easily the corporations can convince people to oppose what is good for them and support what is destructive for them.
Thank you for all the effort you are putting to educate the masses. One thing I never understood is why in economy we need continuous growth when the laws of thermodynamics for a close system state that continuous growth brings to the collapse of the system. I am looking forward to the next sessions. 😀
"The first step toward changing the system is to understand it. If we cannot comprehend the truth we become entrapped in conventional falsehoods and false choices, unable to envision new possibilities. Seeing the system for what it is will empower you to join with others to change it for the better."
The quality of Bob's proposals for addressing our sick capitalism will depend upon how he defines human nature-how able he is to see that Hobbs- Hayet-Harden- Friedman worked off a premise that man is a selfish being not capable of managing the commons cooperatively and how much Bob sees that no man deserves that much more than any other man when we understand the economy as a circular web that has been distorted to become a pyramid-in fact a pyramid scheme.
I always got a kick of Americans fearing the word socialism when American wealth is based on a very distorted form socialism given to those that need it least and denied to those who need it most.
"Since the late 1970s, inflation-adjusted pay for most U.S. workers has largely stagnated, while pay for the country’s highest earners has skyrocketed.....Yet, the root causes of these trends have frequently been wrongly attributed....In fact, disappointing wage growth for most workers in the U.S. economy was not an unintended consequence—it was the intentional outcome of legislative, regulatory, and corporate policies deliberately implemented to constrain labor costs, decisions made on behalf of the rich and corporations and validated by many economists."
American Bar Association 1/6/23