Thank you. a very thought provoking class. I'm glad you explained so clearly the difference between income and wealth. One thing I have noticed is the anger of the younger generation on the unfairness of both income and wealth today. I am 90. I had 4 children (all deceased now) Everyone of them owned a home. Although not all of them made more money than me, partly it was due to their untimely death between the ages of 39 and 69. However, none of my grandchildren, even those with college degrees is making even close to a decent living. Two own property, the other two will probably never earn enough money to purchase a home and all are resentful. I agree with them, somewhere along the line my generation became unwatchful and allowed the government to favor wealth and power over the citizenry.
Serfdom, slavery, the “laws” of supply and demand are all extensions of our nature, a nature that we must find a path above if we are to stay alive on this planet. What happened to “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” a philosophy pushed by some guy 2000 years ago.
The US is a bastion of Christianity except forget loving your neighbor, and Thou Shalt Not Kill is a forgotten edict.
It’s like climate change, the solution is to stop using fossil fuels, but it’s not going to happen unless?!?
There is a related issue that your network could energize and propagate:
How does the middle class prosper if systemic increases in pay leads to significant price increases by predatory corporations who seek windfall profits (because workers can now afford higher prices)?!
Back in the day when Unionization was large enough to influence benefits to even Non-Union labor, we could see a tighter relationship between higher profits leading to a larger share of profits going to labor.
Under these circumstances, it made less sense for corporations to increase prices, when it quickly and inevitably led to negotiated pay raises (unions were strong enough to compel pay raises with each round of increased profitability)!
It is now clear that without Unions as a non-legislative remedy to mitigate corporate greed, corporations exploit raises in labor compensation as a source of higher profits that won't be shared with the middle class!!!
Thank you. Never took advantage of higher education as a young person and now in my 60s am so happy to be able to see what it’s like and hopefully learn something.
the atlantic article is paywalled. is it possible for you to either "gift" this article or get a special dispensation from the atlantic for your students?
(please note: i am happy to gift NYTimes & WaPo articles to the class!)
I am sorry I never had a teacher like you, I might have stayed in college. I have forwarded your link to my grandchildren. I hope they take advantage of your generosity.
Trump is the perfect mob boss and he is proud of it.
He enjoys demanding complete loyalty from his Friends, (hit men.) If they don't give him their complete loyalty then Trump will turn on them and wrack his revenge on his former friends lives by publicly humiliating them with lies that will turn many of Trumps other misguided followers against these people.
Including Trumps violent followers who will do anything for Trump that they think will make him happy.
Trump's followers love it that Trump is a RACIST, LIAR, CHEATER, and a VIOLENT PSYCHOPATH, because it gives his followers permission to lie, cheat, steal, be racist and use violence whenever they want to.
Not at all surprised at your final comments when asking who the people liked to see for the 2016 Presidency.. they would answer Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump.. usually by the same person. A shame the DNC was having none of it.
This is fantastic. I wish I'd taken classes from you when I was at Cal decades ago! Maybe you were there? Took me back to watch and listen. You would have been a favorite prof! Thank you.
I'm so glad I decided to buy into your daily publication, especially, the latest edition where you are teaching us about economics, how it is important it is to our democratic way of life.
Nothing more destructive to a democracy than a capitalism run wild, creating gross inequalities and its consequences: poverty and unnecessary human suffering along with irreparable damage to our environment and all the life that depends on its blessings.
One idea I hope you explore is child labor. It appears that America plans to use the children of illegal aliens and children of poor families to work in the fields and factories rather than going to high school. In other words, we are getting rid of abortion to produce low cost laborers. Arkansas is one of the states that has changed its laws to make it easier to hire children.
just watched your first video, professor reich, and i AM SO HAPPY that i can see it (i was restricted from viewing last year's videos, which made me very sad, despite paying for your class -- although i did keep up with the assigned readings, as well as reading other materials, mostly books, about these issues).
i really love how you take the science of economics and join it with the social psychology/sociology of economics and make it real and applicable to most peoples' lives.
once again, THANK YOU for finally addressing the video access issues that kept me from fully enjoying your lectures last year!
https://substack.com/profile/88831324-fay-reid
Thank you. a very thought provoking class. I'm glad you explained so clearly the difference between income and wealth. One thing I have noticed is the anger of the younger generation on the unfairness of both income and wealth today. I am 90. I had 4 children (all deceased now) Everyone of them owned a home. Although not all of them made more money than me, partly it was due to their untimely death between the ages of 39 and 69. However, none of my grandchildren, even those with college degrees is making even close to a decent living. Two own property, the other two will probably never earn enough money to purchase a home and all are resentful. I agree with them, somewhere along the line my generation became unwatchful and allowed the government to favor wealth and power over the citizenry.
Serfdom, slavery, the “laws” of supply and demand are all extensions of our nature, a nature that we must find a path above if we are to stay alive on this planet. What happened to “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” a philosophy pushed by some guy 2000 years ago.
The US is a bastion of Christianity except forget loving your neighbor, and Thou Shalt Not Kill is a forgotten edict.
It’s like climate change, the solution is to stop using fossil fuels, but it’s not going to happen unless?!?
How about Thou Shalt Pay a Living Wage?
Mr Reich:
There is a related issue that your network could energize and propagate:
How does the middle class prosper if systemic increases in pay leads to significant price increases by predatory corporations who seek windfall profits (because workers can now afford higher prices)?!
Back in the day when Unionization was large enough to influence benefits to even Non-Union labor, we could see a tighter relationship between higher profits leading to a larger share of profits going to labor.
Under these circumstances, it made less sense for corporations to increase prices, when it quickly and inevitably led to negotiated pay raises (unions were strong enough to compel pay raises with each round of increased profitability)!
It is now clear that without Unions as a non-legislative remedy to mitigate corporate greed, corporations exploit raises in labor compensation as a source of higher profits that won't be shared with the middle class!!!
Thank you. Never took advantage of higher education as a young person and now in my 60s am so happy to be able to see what it’s like and hopefully learn something.
the atlantic article is paywalled. is it possible for you to either "gift" this article or get a special dispensation from the atlantic for your students?
(please note: i am happy to gift NYTimes & WaPo articles to the class!)
I am sorry I never had a teacher like you, I might have stayed in college. I have forwarded your link to my grandchildren. I hope they take advantage of your generosity.
Trump is the perfect mob boss and he is proud of it.
He enjoys demanding complete loyalty from his Friends, (hit men.) If they don't give him their complete loyalty then Trump will turn on them and wrack his revenge on his former friends lives by publicly humiliating them with lies that will turn many of Trumps other misguided followers against these people.
Including Trumps violent followers who will do anything for Trump that they think will make him happy.
Trump's followers love it that Trump is a RACIST, LIAR, CHEATER, and a VIOLENT PSYCHOPATH, because it gives his followers permission to lie, cheat, steal, be racist and use violence whenever they want to.
Can’t wait to listen, watch, and learn. Thank you
Not at all surprised at your final comments when asking who the people liked to see for the 2016 Presidency.. they would answer Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump.. usually by the same person. A shame the DNC was having none of it.
This is fantastic. I wish I'd taken classes from you when I was at Cal decades ago! Maybe you were there? Took me back to watch and listen. You would have been a favorite prof! Thank you.
I'm so glad I decided to buy into your daily publication, especially, the latest edition where you are teaching us about economics, how it is important it is to our democratic way of life.
Nothing more destructive to a democracy than a capitalism run wild, creating gross inequalities and its consequences: poverty and unnecessary human suffering along with irreparable damage to our environment and all the life that depends on its blessings.
Robert Reich , Heather Lofthouse et al : Thank you for this!
Thank you.
One idea I hope you explore is child labor. It appears that America plans to use the children of illegal aliens and children of poor families to work in the fields and factories rather than going to high school. In other words, we are getting rid of abortion to produce low cost laborers. Arkansas is one of the states that has changed its laws to make it easier to hire children.
just watched your first video, professor reich, and i AM SO HAPPY that i can see it (i was restricted from viewing last year's videos, which made me very sad, despite paying for your class -- although i did keep up with the assigned readings, as well as reading other materials, mostly books, about these issues).
i really love how you take the science of economics and join it with the social psychology/sociology of economics and make it real and applicable to most peoples' lives.
once again, THANK YOU for finally addressing the video access issues that kept me from fully enjoying your lectures last year!