In 1861 members of the Republican Party, who, back then, were True American Patriots, invented the U.S. income tax and graduated it to make sure that “the burdens will be more equalized on all classes of the community, more especially on those who are able to bear them,” as Senator William Pitt Fessenden (R-ME) put it and Justin Smith Morrill (R-VT) agreed saying “Not upon each man an equal amount, but a tax proportionate to his ability to pay.”
How about it Republicans? It was your party that helped our country get back on its feet after the Civil War.
A 2020 study by Carter C. Price and Kathryn A. Edwards of the RAND Corporation showed that the changing economic distribution systems of the past forty years, starting with Ronald Reagan, have moved a staggering $50 trillion upward, out of the hands of the bottom 90% of Americans. (The national debt is currently about $31.5 trillion.)
To me that means the top 10% could pay off the country’s deficit and still have Trillions left over!!!
A very special thank you to HCR for the very important history lesson.
It's simple. Progressive capitalism, upon which this country was founded, and which the Republican Party of 1861 echoed, DEPENDS on progressive taxation because it depends on a free market. Why the connection between free markets and progressive taxation? Because capitalism over-rewards (and if you doubt this, I give you Exhibits A and B, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk). Therefore, if you allow anyone to become too wealthy, they will use their wealth and power to distort the free market. Therefore, you need strong government to raise taxes and thereby protect the free market. Taxes are thereby not only a constraint on the capitalist, but a means for providing things the capitalist has little interest in such as schools, bridges, railroads, etc., which are good for society as a whole. This is pure Adam Smith, and it is what made America great.
In 1980, Ronald Reagan and his wretched Hoover Institute-inspired lickspittle, Milton Friedman, stood progressive capitalism on its head by declaring war on government, and reducing taxes on the wealthy, all in the name of freedom. And the peasants bought it.
The result is socialism, not for the common man this time, but for the plutocrats, for what else is not paying taxes but government welfare for the plutocrats? Yes, Zuckerberg and Musk are the new Welfare Queens.
If he could return, Adam Smith would never stop throwing up.
Reich explains this very well in Chapter 3, "Socialism for the Rich, Harsh Capitalism for the Rest" in his book, "The System: Who Rigged It and How We Fix It." Adam Smith never said some of the things that have been attributed to him, and I agree that he would never stop throwing up if he could return. The greedy used Darwin's new theory to apply to the free market and distorted Smith's and Darwin's theories to create the popular phrase, "Survival of the fittest." Now I'm going to watch class 8.
I wish Robert and the Justice Department would address the fact that if we collect what is due under the current system, it will self correct for income inequality to a certain extent without need to go to Congress. We don't control Congress. But we do control IRS, Treasury and DOJ.
I've been asking about this since I worked for SSA in the '80s. I also ask about the foreign businesses that sell and profit from US sales that are untaxed. E..g. widgets manufactured in a foreign country profit that country not the US. In many cases they compete against domestic widget makers who in essence subsidize the competition by paying taxes.
I also think our national security is undermined by foreign owners of some crucial industries, like energy. Saudis own out largest refineries, control Exxon and other "domestic" companies and through OPEC fix prices and undermine the entire US economy. We should recoup damages from price fixers to support our economy.
Something you should understand. The defeated Confederates became what used to be called the Southern Democrats - the Klan Democrats to understand it better. Those included the likes of George Wallace. Jessee Helms took up the banner within the Republican party and Newt Gingrich carried on, signaling the Southern Democrats to defect to the Republican party around the time of the Nixon/Reagan era, and they subsequently came to drive it. That was in response to an increasing number of Black Americans becoming Democrats to help temper those Southern Democrat "traditions" and the Civil Rights era. Simultaneously, the Cold War was >always< a smokescreen for the rise of capitalist plutocracy. What we see today is a Confederate-driven Republican party supported by international corporate interests and the plutocratic "family values" of effectively amoral billionaires, two of which aren't even natural born US citizens, holding a stranglehold on US news and social media and declaring themselves experts on the 1st Amendment and free speech - and even US-friggin' history! Just ask them. They'll say it's so themselves on the news they feed you and tweet about it!
Somehow, this seems an appropriate juncture to include the following video comment I just came across, that demonstrates how the notion of "politically correct" - for example - has become subverted and subsequently perverted in the hands of those who may be patriots, but certainly not in support of >these< United States, as the Republicans after 1864 up to around 1970 understood it, between the fall of the traitorous Confederate rebellion and in the wake of the Civil Rights era:
For those Confederates protesting they're >not< traitors, Confederates are traitors by definition. End of discussion. Neither are they're confined to the South. Many of them are such morons they don't even realize they embrace the Confederate values - yet they still see fit to fly the Confederate battle flag on their gun-racked pick-ups. Some of them even like to wear a cross hanging from a chain around their necks, and will reflexively beat your ass if you gainsay the lie.
That doesn't even mention the end of WWII:
NPR: Hundreds of Nazis fled to America after WWII.
According to NPR, hundreds of Nazis settled in the United States after the war. According to the book and review, many entered the country one by one and served as spies for American intelligence officials. They were able to start over, living under false names so as to protect their identities and past.
Now just in case you get the mistaken impression I hold some kind of grudge against southerners, let me provide a link to comments from a southern brother, who makes clear he and I share the same kind of childhood background, and that I'd be delighted to spend an evening having beers with. Indeed, the links I provide to guys I agree with here tend to be residents in - what to me is - the deep South. What I >do< hold a grudge against, of antipathy for if you prefer, is the residual, Confederate political culture - those who object to having monuments to traitors, what they claim as their heritage, removed:
Today's Republican political party equates with the Federalists of the 1800's; the Republicans of these early days of our political party configuration were regarded as Democratic Republicans. Subsequently in the aftermath of the Civil War, the Conservative Federalist faction reinvented themselves as the forerunner of today's Republican Party.
A too seldom referenced political instance may be the present day revisionist miss-characterisation of Lincoln as a present-day "Republican"; he who stood firmly that "...the public good come before private advantage."
Thom Williams and Keith Olson: More likely Republicans resemble the Anti-Federalists, i.e. Patrick Henry, who wanted a national church. The Federalists supported paying Revolutionary War debts. That tax was self imposed as most industry at the time was owned by Federalists.
At first, Congress placed a flat 3-percent tax on all incomes over $800 and later modified to a graduated tax. Congress repealed the income tax in 1872.. 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Federal Income Tax (1913). July 2, 1909, and ratified February 3, 1913, established Congress's right to impose a Federal income tax..
Supposedly Andrew Mellon supported it to make sure "nobody will ever be as rich as I am."
The term "Macro" refers to something that can be easily seen with the naked eye conversely "micro" refers to something that needs the assistance of a mechanical device to make something large enough to be viewed. Our economic problems are of such a dimension that they can be seen from the moon. Politically driven, our finical problems have been put in place to cause complications not to solve them. The Republicans are using economic power to weaken the current administration with little to no concern for the country as a whole. Their lust for power and control is the result of one man's greed and short sightedness. Donald Trump needs no microscope to be understood, he exists for one purpose and one purpose only, himself. Following him has no economic position of any value, it will only leave a person floundering in stupidity. His pressering of McCarthy to throw sand in the gears of our government is typical of a man that doesn't understand this country or our people.
I noticed it and commented on it, I think. I also got a e-mail from the Professor, asking to converse, with a phone number. It seems he has been hacked.
This is the second time I am “taking” this class. If there is one thing that Joe American should know but widely misunderstands is that “There is no such thing as the ‘Free Market.’” Who gets in power is pulling the strings and making the rules. I’m hoping the youth of America along with us aging hipsters can use what’s left of our voting rights to correct the course of this nation. This ship needs to be righted before we all go down together! Oh, and the average Joe should take a statistics class because he ain’t gonna win the lottery or somehow pull themselves up by their bootstraps and miraculously join the top 1%!!!!
You are absolutely correct. Money equals power. Most people can and will be bought when the price is right! That’s what will be the hardest to overcome.
If anyone gets a chance please read the Hartmann Report for Friday may 26th about how the GOP has successfully used the bait and switch propaganda of 2 Santa's in drag to justify tax cuts for the rich under the guise of trickle down economics and supply side economics that has allowed all the rich people and corporations to avoid an estimated $50 trillion in revenue for America 🇺🇸, not to mention the almost $8 trillion Trump's shenanigans added to the deficit in only 8 years while Biden has done everything to reduce the deficit almost $2 trillion in only 2 years 😉 Unfortunately that does nothing to stop the domestic terrorism of the Geezers Oppression Program holding all of America 🇺🇸 hostage over the debt ceiling under the guise of the 2 Santa's scheme. Please read it's a real eye opener!!
I found it, read it, and shared it. Thank you for telling us about the article. It explains how devious the Republicans are, and their disregard for the American people.
That's why I call them the Geezers Oppression Program. Anything is not too low for their seditious funneling of $50 trillion in tax revenues off the rich people and corporations that sustain the Geezers unhealthy bigotry and gerrymandering of the American voters. How else can we explain Trump winning in 2016 when Hillary had 3 million more votes and the hell on earth 🌎 our country has become because of Trump and the Geezers Oppression Program since then 🙄
James Madison said the following words in Federalist Papers # 10 to the wealthy objectors to the Constitution in 1787. Note he uses the term "opulent minority" of which he was one. On this Memorial Day, I feel sorry for the shoeless soldiers in the winter who fought for this man, the author of the Constitution. "The man who is possessed of wealth, who lolls on his sofa or rolls in his carriage, cannot judge the wants or feelings of the day-laborer. The government we mean to erect is intended to last for ages. The landed interest, at present, is prevalent; but in process of time, when we approximate to the states and kingdoms of Europe, — when the number of landholders shall be comparatively small, through the various means of trade and manufactures, will not the landed interest be overbalanced in future elections, and unless wisely provided against, what will become of your government? In England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people, the property of landed proprietors would be insecure. An agrarian law would soon take place. If these observations be just, our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation. Landholders ought to have a share in the government, to support these invaluable interests, and to balance and check the other. They ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority. The senate, therefore, ought to be this body; and to answer these purposes, they ought to have permanency and stability."
Our country functions the way it was intended, to protect the opulent minority against the majority.
You might also want to check out “An Opportunity of a Lifetime”: Covid-19 in the Age of Finance. In Tim Di Muzio, and Matt Dow edited. Covid-19 and the Global Economy. Chapter 1, P. 29-47. (2023, Routledge Publishing).
I noticed that Class 8 was from 2022 as well. I suspect that Professor Reich's views on some of these topics have evolved even further in the last year. I would love to see the lecture from 2023.
Over 50 yrs ago I was a history major at TCU and I took Economics 101 as an elective. Dr. Perkins, a dramatic fellow, tattooed the lecture below on my ass and it remains. He called the man “Lord John Maynard Keynes.” The story made sense to me, so much sense that I decided on a double major. In this lecture, you will be given a picture of how our economy actually works and why such a large disparity of wealth cripples it. Inequality eventually kills demand. Without demand, you don’t need factories that employ workers who spend the money that fuels the demand for CAPITAL to build the factories that employ the workers that fuel demand. Soon after college, I began reading Dr. Reich and the story hasn’t changed. That’s why I call him a man with the curse of Cassandra! There has been two great storytellers in my life, Joseph Cambell and Robert Reich. They are students of mythology and poetry. Dr Reich can turn numbers into poetry, and that ain't easy but it puts tattoos on the ass of his listeners! Many of Dr. Reich's listeners never know they are hearing poetry. They think it is just facts doled out from an "Enlightened" thinker. Reich is a sneaky SOB!
At 18:00 - A local restaurant, "The Grapevine," IMMEDIATELY started offering free deliveries when the pandemic started in The Town of Tonawanda, New York. (A suburb outside Buffalo.) They were able to EXPAND and MODERNIZE their restaurant as they went completely empty for months!
THEY made BANK by lowering prices and delivering for free. I just wish they would bring back their beef rib burger.
I was wondering if a now retired economist might at some time also consider retiring economics. Discuss a world where the needs of the citizens are satisfied by the technologies. Maybe start with the uncoupling of income from work along with a pull approach to satisfying needs and move on from there. It would be healthy to have someone so vested in economics address a civilization without the need for money.
I like Robert Reich for many reasons, but not when it comes to economic theory. He fails to distinguish the macro from the micro. The failure to properly understand the difference by the average American has been weaponized by Republicans, especially kleptocrat tools like McCarthy, to get the unwashed 99% to consent to bring robbed blind by the 1%. We must be “fiscally responsible,” he says, and Biden agrees. The federal budget must be balanced, they say, just like a household budget, and federal debt must be limited with a self-imposed “ceiling.” We are the only country which has such an artificial ceiling, except for Denmark. Almost no one says a word when Congress, in its wisdom (or whatever it is that passes for wisdom) routinely ignores this ceiling to bless our military with more funding than it asks for. It gets most of the federal budget, and is now bigger than the military budgets of the next-ten-biggest global budgets *combined.* Why is the national budget NOT like any others (household, state, local, or corporate)? Because only Congress ISSUES our currency. That’s why Congress need not, and cannot, fund federal programs with our federal taxes, borrowing from other nations or future generations--it’s self-funding. This must be Reich’s Lesson One. He needs, like the rest of us, to learn MMT (that “theory” the kleptocrats love to hate). Lesson 1a: Federal Taxes Do Not Fund Federal appropriations. (“Spending” should be a term restricted to the microeconomic realm.) Lesson 1b: federal taxes are deleted, as spreadsheet entries, on receipt. For the lessons which follow, visit a website like realprogressives.org to see why and how we can always afford what we need to survive and thrive.
In 1861 members of the Republican Party, who, back then, were True American Patriots, invented the U.S. income tax and graduated it to make sure that “the burdens will be more equalized on all classes of the community, more especially on those who are able to bear them,” as Senator William Pitt Fessenden (R-ME) put it and Justin Smith Morrill (R-VT) agreed saying “Not upon each man an equal amount, but a tax proportionate to his ability to pay.”
How about it Republicans? It was your party that helped our country get back on its feet after the Civil War.
A 2020 study by Carter C. Price and Kathryn A. Edwards of the RAND Corporation showed that the changing economic distribution systems of the past forty years, starting with Ronald Reagan, have moved a staggering $50 trillion upward, out of the hands of the bottom 90% of Americans. (The national debt is currently about $31.5 trillion.)
To me that means the top 10% could pay off the country’s deficit and still have Trillions left over!!!
A very special thank you to HCR for the very important history lesson.
It's simple. Progressive capitalism, upon which this country was founded, and which the Republican Party of 1861 echoed, DEPENDS on progressive taxation because it depends on a free market. Why the connection between free markets and progressive taxation? Because capitalism over-rewards (and if you doubt this, I give you Exhibits A and B, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk). Therefore, if you allow anyone to become too wealthy, they will use their wealth and power to distort the free market. Therefore, you need strong government to raise taxes and thereby protect the free market. Taxes are thereby not only a constraint on the capitalist, but a means for providing things the capitalist has little interest in such as schools, bridges, railroads, etc., which are good for society as a whole. This is pure Adam Smith, and it is what made America great.
In 1980, Ronald Reagan and his wretched Hoover Institute-inspired lickspittle, Milton Friedman, stood progressive capitalism on its head by declaring war on government, and reducing taxes on the wealthy, all in the name of freedom. And the peasants bought it.
The result is socialism, not for the common man this time, but for the plutocrats, for what else is not paying taxes but government welfare for the plutocrats? Yes, Zuckerberg and Musk are the new Welfare Queens.
If he could return, Adam Smith would never stop throwing up.
Reich explains this very well in Chapter 3, "Socialism for the Rich, Harsh Capitalism for the Rest" in his book, "The System: Who Rigged It and How We Fix It." Adam Smith never said some of the things that have been attributed to him, and I agree that he would never stop throwing up if he could return. The greedy used Darwin's new theory to apply to the free market and distorted Smith's and Darwin's theories to create the popular phrase, "Survival of the fittest." Now I'm going to watch class 8.
I wish Robert and the Justice Department would address the fact that if we collect what is due under the current system, it will self correct for income inequality to a certain extent without need to go to Congress. We don't control Congress. But we do control IRS, Treasury and DOJ.
https://home.treasury.gov/news/featured-stories/the-case-for-a-robust-attack-on-the-tax-gap
$7 trillion could fix almost everything!!!!!!!!!
That is an eye opener. Which party will get their way on funding the IRS?
I think Biden is caving.
I've been asking about this since I worked for SSA in the '80s. I also ask about the foreign businesses that sell and profit from US sales that are untaxed. E..g. widgets manufactured in a foreign country profit that country not the US. In many cases they compete against domestic widget makers who in essence subsidize the competition by paying taxes.
I also think our national security is undermined by foreign owners of some crucial industries, like energy. Saudis own out largest refineries, control Exxon and other "domestic" companies and through OPEC fix prices and undermine the entire US economy. We should recoup damages from price fixers to support our economy.
Something you should understand. The defeated Confederates became what used to be called the Southern Democrats - the Klan Democrats to understand it better. Those included the likes of George Wallace. Jessee Helms took up the banner within the Republican party and Newt Gingrich carried on, signaling the Southern Democrats to defect to the Republican party around the time of the Nixon/Reagan era, and they subsequently came to drive it. That was in response to an increasing number of Black Americans becoming Democrats to help temper those Southern Democrat "traditions" and the Civil Rights era. Simultaneously, the Cold War was >always< a smokescreen for the rise of capitalist plutocracy. What we see today is a Confederate-driven Republican party supported by international corporate interests and the plutocratic "family values" of effectively amoral billionaires, two of which aren't even natural born US citizens, holding a stranglehold on US news and social media and declaring themselves experts on the 1st Amendment and free speech - and even US-friggin' history! Just ask them. They'll say it's so themselves on the news they feed you and tweet about it!
Somehow, this seems an appropriate juncture to include the following video comment I just came across, that demonstrates how the notion of "politically correct" - for example - has become subverted and subsequently perverted in the hands of those who may be patriots, but certainly not in support of >these< United States, as the Republicans after 1864 up to around 1970 understood it, between the fall of the traitorous Confederate rebellion and in the wake of the Civil Rights era:
- REPUBLICAN REP GETS OFFENDED BY TRUTH:
https://youtu.be/hgFFswtoAhI
A little more related:
- IF NAZIS DON'T APPROVE YOUR BOOK IS BANNED?:
https://youtu.be/ZRaokxH4A78
For those Confederates protesting they're >not< traitors, Confederates are traitors by definition. End of discussion. Neither are they're confined to the South. Many of them are such morons they don't even realize they embrace the Confederate values - yet they still see fit to fly the Confederate battle flag on their gun-racked pick-ups. Some of them even like to wear a cross hanging from a chain around their necks, and will reflexively beat your ass if you gainsay the lie.
That doesn't even mention the end of WWII:
NPR: Hundreds of Nazis fled to America after WWII.
According to NPR, hundreds of Nazis settled in the United States after the war. According to the book and review, many entered the country one by one and served as spies for American intelligence officials. They were able to start over, living under false names so as to protect their identities and past.
https://www.npr.org/2014/11/05/361427276/how-thousands-of-nazis-were-rewarded-with-life-in-the-u-s
Now just in case you get the mistaken impression I hold some kind of grudge against southerners, let me provide a link to comments from a southern brother, who makes clear he and I share the same kind of childhood background, and that I'd be delighted to spend an evening having beers with. Indeed, the links I provide to guys I agree with here tend to be residents in - what to me is - the deep South. What I >do< hold a grudge against, of antipathy for if you prefer, is the residual, Confederate political culture - those who object to having monuments to traitors, what they claim as their heritage, removed:
https://youtu.be/aIF3ZuIwyeg They'd likely provide better detail than I have in what I've said here.
@ Keith Olson
Today's Republican political party equates with the Federalists of the 1800's; the Republicans of these early days of our political party configuration were regarded as Democratic Republicans. Subsequently in the aftermath of the Civil War, the Conservative Federalist faction reinvented themselves as the forerunner of today's Republican Party.
A too seldom referenced political instance may be the present day revisionist miss-characterisation of Lincoln as a present-day "Republican"; he who stood firmly that "...the public good come before private advantage."
As Usual,
EA
Thom Williams and Keith Olson: More likely Republicans resemble the Anti-Federalists, i.e. Patrick Henry, who wanted a national church. The Federalists supported paying Revolutionary War debts. That tax was self imposed as most industry at the time was owned by Federalists.
At first, Congress placed a flat 3-percent tax on all incomes over $800 and later modified to a graduated tax. Congress repealed the income tax in 1872.. 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Federal Income Tax (1913). July 2, 1909, and ratified February 3, 1913, established Congress's right to impose a Federal income tax..
Supposedly Andrew Mellon supported it to make sure "nobody will ever be as rich as I am."
@ Daniel Solomon✔
Sorry for the belated reply.
The early Federalists referenced existed before the formation of the Anti-Federalists.
I commend Charles Rappleye's biography "ROBERT MORRIS" to your interest in things economic during the founding of our nation.
As Usual,
EA
The term "Macro" refers to something that can be easily seen with the naked eye conversely "micro" refers to something that needs the assistance of a mechanical device to make something large enough to be viewed. Our economic problems are of such a dimension that they can be seen from the moon. Politically driven, our finical problems have been put in place to cause complications not to solve them. The Republicans are using economic power to weaken the current administration with little to no concern for the country as a whole. Their lust for power and control is the result of one man's greed and short sightedness. Donald Trump needs no microscope to be understood, he exists for one purpose and one purpose only, himself. Following him has no economic position of any value, it will only leave a person floundering in stupidity. His pressering of McCarthy to throw sand in the gears of our government is typical of a man that doesn't understand this country or our people.
Is there a mistake (this is from last year. All the prior lessons were from this year). Did he post the wrong link?
I also noticed this
I noticed it and commented on it, I think. I also got a e-mail from the Professor, asking to converse, with a phone number. It seems he has been hacked.
I noticed that too but somehow all sounds still relevant.
This is the second time I am “taking” this class. If there is one thing that Joe American should know but widely misunderstands is that “There is no such thing as the ‘Free Market.’” Who gets in power is pulling the strings and making the rules. I’m hoping the youth of America along with us aging hipsters can use what’s left of our voting rights to correct the course of this nation. This ship needs to be righted before we all go down together! Oh, and the average Joe should take a statistics class because he ain’t gonna win the lottery or somehow pull themselves up by their bootstraps and miraculously join the top 1%!!!!
You are absolutely correct. Money equals power. Most people can and will be bought when the price is right! That’s what will be the hardest to overcome.
If anyone gets a chance please read the Hartmann Report for Friday may 26th about how the GOP has successfully used the bait and switch propaganda of 2 Santa's in drag to justify tax cuts for the rich under the guise of trickle down economics and supply side economics that has allowed all the rich people and corporations to avoid an estimated $50 trillion in revenue for America 🇺🇸, not to mention the almost $8 trillion Trump's shenanigans added to the deficit in only 8 years while Biden has done everything to reduce the deficit almost $2 trillion in only 2 years 😉 Unfortunately that does nothing to stop the domestic terrorism of the Geezers Oppression Program holding all of America 🇺🇸 hostage over the debt ceiling under the guise of the 2 Santa's scheme. Please read it's a real eye opener!!
I found it, read it, and shared it. Thank you for telling us about the article. It explains how devious the Republicans are, and their disregard for the American people.
That's why I call them the Geezers Oppression Program. Anything is not too low for their seditious funneling of $50 trillion in tax revenues off the rich people and corporations that sustain the Geezers unhealthy bigotry and gerrymandering of the American voters. How else can we explain Trump winning in 2016 when Hillary had 3 million more votes and the hell on earth 🌎 our country has become because of Trump and the Geezers Oppression Program since then 🙄
James Madison said the following words in Federalist Papers # 10 to the wealthy objectors to the Constitution in 1787. Note he uses the term "opulent minority" of which he was one. On this Memorial Day, I feel sorry for the shoeless soldiers in the winter who fought for this man, the author of the Constitution. "The man who is possessed of wealth, who lolls on his sofa or rolls in his carriage, cannot judge the wants or feelings of the day-laborer. The government we mean to erect is intended to last for ages. The landed interest, at present, is prevalent; but in process of time, when we approximate to the states and kingdoms of Europe, — when the number of landholders shall be comparatively small, through the various means of trade and manufactures, will not the landed interest be overbalanced in future elections, and unless wisely provided against, what will become of your government? In England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people, the property of landed proprietors would be insecure. An agrarian law would soon take place. If these observations be just, our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation. Landholders ought to have a share in the government, to support these invaluable interests, and to balance and check the other. They ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority. The senate, therefore, ought to be this body; and to answer these purposes, they ought to have permanency and stability."
Our country functions the way it was intended, to protect the opulent minority against the majority.
Wow. What awesome content. I look forward to this class every Friday. Thanks for sharing this class with us, professor Reich.
Our most immediate concern for our government is the Republicans. They are a menace
You might also want to check out “An Opportunity of a Lifetime”: Covid-19 in the Age of Finance. In Tim Di Muzio, and Matt Dow edited. Covid-19 and the Global Economy. Chapter 1, P. 29-47. (2023, Routledge Publishing).
I will try to get that. Thanks.
The 8th class posted today appears to be from 2022. Is there one from today?
I noticed that Class 8 was from 2022 as well. I suspect that Professor Reich's views on some of these topics have evolved even further in the last year. I would love to see the lecture from 2023.
Thank you so much for all the readings & your insights on this vital issue.🙏🏽
Over 50 yrs ago I was a history major at TCU and I took Economics 101 as an elective. Dr. Perkins, a dramatic fellow, tattooed the lecture below on my ass and it remains. He called the man “Lord John Maynard Keynes.” The story made sense to me, so much sense that I decided on a double major. In this lecture, you will be given a picture of how our economy actually works and why such a large disparity of wealth cripples it. Inequality eventually kills demand. Without demand, you don’t need factories that employ workers who spend the money that fuels the demand for CAPITAL to build the factories that employ the workers that fuel demand. Soon after college, I began reading Dr. Reich and the story hasn’t changed. That’s why I call him a man with the curse of Cassandra! There has been two great storytellers in my life, Joseph Cambell and Robert Reich. They are students of mythology and poetry. Dr Reich can turn numbers into poetry, and that ain't easy but it puts tattoos on the ass of his listeners! Many of Dr. Reich's listeners never know they are hearing poetry. They think it is just facts doled out from an "Enlightened" thinker. Reich is a sneaky SOB!
Those making the decisions are rich and so no matter where we go the rich determine our lives
At 18:00 - A local restaurant, "The Grapevine," IMMEDIATELY started offering free deliveries when the pandemic started in The Town of Tonawanda, New York. (A suburb outside Buffalo.) They were able to EXPAND and MODERNIZE their restaurant as they went completely empty for months!
THEY made BANK by lowering prices and delivering for free. I just wish they would bring back their beef rib burger.
And remember...POOP -- Political Organization for the Oligarchical Party...is who is/are/will be mostly running things...
I was wondering if a now retired economist might at some time also consider retiring economics. Discuss a world where the needs of the citizens are satisfied by the technologies. Maybe start with the uncoupling of income from work along with a pull approach to satisfying needs and move on from there. It would be healthy to have someone so vested in economics address a civilization without the need for money.
I like Robert Reich for many reasons, but not when it comes to economic theory. He fails to distinguish the macro from the micro. The failure to properly understand the difference by the average American has been weaponized by Republicans, especially kleptocrat tools like McCarthy, to get the unwashed 99% to consent to bring robbed blind by the 1%. We must be “fiscally responsible,” he says, and Biden agrees. The federal budget must be balanced, they say, just like a household budget, and federal debt must be limited with a self-imposed “ceiling.” We are the only country which has such an artificial ceiling, except for Denmark. Almost no one says a word when Congress, in its wisdom (or whatever it is that passes for wisdom) routinely ignores this ceiling to bless our military with more funding than it asks for. It gets most of the federal budget, and is now bigger than the military budgets of the next-ten-biggest global budgets *combined.* Why is the national budget NOT like any others (household, state, local, or corporate)? Because only Congress ISSUES our currency. That’s why Congress need not, and cannot, fund federal programs with our federal taxes, borrowing from other nations or future generations--it’s self-funding. This must be Reich’s Lesson One. He needs, like the rest of us, to learn MMT (that “theory” the kleptocrats love to hate). Lesson 1a: Federal Taxes Do Not Fund Federal appropriations. (“Spending” should be a term restricted to the microeconomic realm.) Lesson 1b: federal taxes are deleted, as spreadsheet entries, on receipt. For the lessons which follow, visit a website like realprogressives.org to see why and how we can always afford what we need to survive and thrive.