The wealthy haven't had it this good since the "Gilded Age" in the late 19th century. Today bought politicians with bulging pockets are fighting right along side of the rich to make certain it remains this way. They've been raking it in for decades while the rest of us are dishing it out. This article is so true, we must change this.
.....if we are a "consumer-driven economy", is there a point where their strategies backfire, due to inability of the masses to finance consumption ? With so many now excluded from the housing market, that would seem to chop off the head of much traditional consumption like refrigerators, rugs, furniture, etc., etc.
I'm not an economist, but I completely agree with your assessment. Just as the 'Great Resignation' has thousands fleeing the workforce, and strikes are raging everywhere, consumers will withdraw from rampant spending as they see the futility of fighting within a rigged system. If millions closed their FB account today, Zuckerberg would lose the vast majority of his blood-soaked fortune. Similarly, if consumers stop consuming, the economy stalls and the markets plummet.
What continues to amaze me are how creeps like Gingrich et al are able to spew their nonsense with a straight face, and how so many Americans can still be manipulated by simply shouting the word "socialism!"
I recently saw one of Jordan Klepper's visits to the Magaverse or Magaworld and was amazed that so many people actually buy into what Trump and his followers and proponents (Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, etc.) tell them. How can they hate other people so much that they are willing to support the views of such as Trump? Are they the same people who don't want anyone to touch their social security or their workman's compensation or their Medicare? The same people who whine about the state of public highways and bridges and the run-down schools and closed hospitals? The same people who find fault with the homeless and accuse the homeless or immigrants or substance-abusers of lolling about and being lazy? I would assure such people that an individual who is on the public purse and has sworn an oath to manage and execute the laws of the enterprise (of state) but spends his time watching riots he started on tv and cheering on the insurrectionists; sending out text messages; spewing hatred of one and all; defying health cautions and practices; insulting similar heads of state and diplomats; attacking media; holding rallies and boasting about his (non-existent) accomplishments; and playing and cheating at endless rounds of golf is the real do-nothing and cheater. How can folks watch Jordan's interviews and come away feeling good about the status-quo?
They don’t listen to themselves. They don’t educate themselves. It is easier for them to join a cult and go all in. That’s not difficult to do and they love rallies. Facts be damned. But the worst of it is they are damaging themselves, society as a whole and their own children if they have any.
Janet...Yes, it does sound as though we pulled up the same Jordan Klepper video. I am sure that Jordan views his videos and interviews as something more than comedy because they are--as you say--frightening. I think the basic problem is the total lack of any sort of critical thinking skills among any of those attending the Trump rallies or fairs or events. These people truly live in an alternate (maga)verse and seem very happy to be there. They seem to feel that they have lost their chance at bliss when--in fact--their world is built on ignorance, hatred for others, and a lack of concern for their communities and country. It is my hope that Trump is finally brought to justice but I don't know that will happen. We need to get behind Biden and pressure him into holding the line and forcing through reforms that the majority of the people need.
I submit that cynical partisans bank on Americans’ ignorance of the meaning of the term “socialism,” or “democratic socialism” for that matter, and further that Americans will continue to be susceptible to manipulation unless we start attending to their way of understanding the term—their way of describing or defining it. As I’ve argued elsewhere, no intelligent, reasoned discussion about socialism, or any other issue, can proceed if the people involved do not share a basic understanding of the meaning of the issue at hand: what it is and what it is not.
I have to admit I always thought that the 'S" - word was dangerous to use in American circles - I kinda wished Bernie and others would have used a smidge more imagination to 'Re-brand" said 'S" word. The USA is legendary for re-branding / marketing campaigns. I say this partly tongue in cheek but - difficult nut to crack. The " Let's stop being total b*stards to the actual populous that tries to live within these borders and beyond - Party".
You may be right about the S word as there are a good many people who shy away from anything to do with socialism but rise up in indignation (and fear) if politicians propose doing away with Medicare, Social Security, Unemployment and Disability Programs, etc. etc. What do these folks think these programs are? (Hint if needed: THey are social safety net programs funded through taxes and run by the govt..Horrors.) On the other hand--and keep this in mind. There is nothing as damaging to individuals and society as the current set-up run by the union of corporate politicians out to feather then own nests and monopolistic corporations and tycoons. Nothing Bernie Sanders has done or proposed doing comes anywhere as chaotic and non-productive as the supposed administration of the 45 president...
Thank you Mariyn and thank you Tim. I appreciate that this space brings in people with a variety of viewpoints. Too much of the internet is an echo chamber already. That's not good for us as individuals and it's not good for democracy.
You see. Bernie Sanders was right all along and he tried to tell as many of us as he could: The top less-than-1% of the people in the US were gaining the most from taxes and paying the least. The system was (and still is) rigged in their favor, they use tax rate cuts and loopholes that just don't exist for you and me. Take an example closer to home: In 2016 and 2017, Donald Trump paid a grand total of $750 per year in taxes on an income of $$$$$$$ (I don't know for sure!). I made $29,000 in 2016 and $21,000 in 2017, two of the last years I worked. On that income, I paid $3500 in 2016 and $2700 in 2017. The only reasons I have been able to survive the pandemic (financially speaking are: a small retirement account of $9500 from 15 years of work at Macy*s; SSA of $1083 a month; Section 8 housing; and, no car. I have paid taxes on the retirement account and I continue to pay taxes on my SSA income. Most of my resources are due to programs that critics would label socialism (the SSA--known as social security--and the Section 8 housing. The wealthier members of society call this an indication of advancing socialism; they never get that, without such benefits from government programs, people like me would most probably not have survived and--truth be told--we are the luckier ones. We are warned away from people like Sanders and the ugly label of socialism (made only ugly by those at the other end of the spectrum drawing from the public till) tossed at us...were it not for FDR my parents would not have made it and I would not make it without FDR and the programs he started. He wanted to help people--as did his activist wife Eleanor--and he did. I am not sure Donald Trump is aware that other people actually exist at all or for any purpose but to serve and adore him. He is a disgrace to our country and the citizens he chooses to dismiss and deny.
Yes, Senator Sanders was (and is) right all along and so is Robert Reich. It is socialism for the ultra wealthy and "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" capitalism for the poor and working class, if we even have much of a working class, more like the working poor.
Thank you for your comment. The last year I worked at the store was also the last year of "work" for the then-ceo. We folks who actually worked the floor used to comment on the platinum parachute that the ceo got as his retirement reward. (It is possible, of course, that this reward package was enlarged through hearsay but I tend to think the top managers put it out there to reassure the stockholders that everything was going along swimmingly, that the biz was doing great.) The reward package parachute was in three parts: 1--the retiring ceo's annual salary of $18 million per year; 2--the retirement benefit of $18 million; 3--the ceo's annual "new" consultant fee of $18 million, just so the old ceo could offer his "knowledge" to the new one. Since the retiring ceo's retirement benefit was a one-time-only addition to his income, he would have to manage on $36 million a year instead of his retirement year $54 million. You may wonder why my co-workers and I stood for this arrangement. Well, I was making $14.50 an hour after 15 years and took on occasional additional work. I was not an unusual worker or a poor worker. Unions did not exist for us or--if they did--they were bought out by the store itself. I tried to pursue this with a supposed labor lawyer as there were other issues (equal pay for equal work type deals). The situation was the source of amusement for that lawyer, probably because his own stock portfolio included shares in the very same company. There was nothing any of us could do but try to find a second or third job so we could survive. During the pandemic, I got a call from that very story, inquiring as to whether I could return....Well, I may be hard up but reason tells me that my days selling stuff and risking my health and security are done. Those in power belittle people who have decided to call it a day with such employers, they have decided that they deserve more than struggling to get by and keep a decent roof over their heads...the sad thing is that they are now condemned as lazy or freeloaders when all along the laziness and freeloading were coming from the top--not the bottom.
Wow- that is some story! This kind of pay disparity cannot continue, and no one n our country should have to work more than one full time job just to support themselves and their families.I’m glad you didn’t go back…
I have always found it interesting that the term"socialized medicine" was first used by the AMA in 1968 to scare people in the U.S. about having healthcare for us all .
I wonder how we would have fared during the pandemic had we had something akin to the NHS (National Health Service) of the UK. This afternoon, I watched the Last Night at the BBC Proms from Royal Albert Hall in London and from Coventry (north of LOndon). The crowds were huge and, since the pandemic is under control and the population more or less fully vaccinated, there was less need to wear masks, in other words, things had returned to normal. One did see masks and some of the performers wore them but those on the lawns in front of the Hall were relaxed and enjoying a great concert. Without a corresponding NHS and with considerable resistance to vaccination and to masks, we stumble along and have reached 700,000+ deaths, chaos in the workplace, schools, and the business sector. A recent study of the course of the pandemic in Denmark and Norway has revealed that people in those countries put their trust in the government and in scientists and health-care professionals so they were able to curb the virus early on, far before things approached the chaos we have experienced.
Thanks for so eloquently expressing in detail and with all the evidence anyone could possibly need the concept that I first heard from Gore Vidal ( not sure if it was from his play THE BEST MAN or possibly on a TV interview): "In America we have socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor." As you point out so clearly things have only gotten worse.
Thanks for your thanks, Tony. The idea of socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor has a long history. Notably, Martin Luther King, Jr. invoked it in a speech just a few months before he was assassinated, at a time when he was focused on the problem of economic inequality.
I thought this was rather prescient [full citation / link below ]. RE: Vidal's comments and analyses on the origins of the 'American Oligarchy " + James Madison's original contribution; and where "Today" said Oligarchy can be found hidden in plain sight, with explicit reference to the the 1% and then shifting to Truman (hmmmm 🤔) - (Interview in 2001 - at Prague Writers' Festival ).
[ Side note I think we NEED better graphics to illustrate what the break-over point of the 0.05 %to 0.0001% is really getting up to as a near cosmic black hole that sucks everything into it. esp. with recent ambush interview in CNN.].
________________________________
" Michael March: Talking about the rather invisible oligarchy in America, do people really have any concept of its existence?
Gore Vidal: James Madison, who is very much the creator of our Constitution, said: "Never forget that the iron law of oligarchy always obtains; few people will always run everything, no matter what the institution or what the country." The Constitution was carefully arranged for white men of property. Since then the franchise has been extended to the young, the black, the female; but because the sense of our oligarchy is everywhere, people don't know about it, they have no place to find out.
When we decided to become a global empire after the war, it was Harry Truman who dropped two atomic bombs on Japan and made us a national security state and a militarised economy. Our citizens were not advised, they still don't know. They still think that it's a free, open country, but we decided to stay armed and to be involved in every country in the world. That was their decision - and who are 'they'? They are traditionally the very wealthy: the one per cent that my cousin Al Gore dared mention at one point in the campaign as owning practically all the property in the country.
The one per cent dominates. They reign through 20% of the country who are doing very well. These are the prosperous people who we read about, people that are put in Congress and in the White House. Eighty per cent of the people are doing very badly and are rather poor.
MM: You mentioned President Truman's decision to drop the bomb, but there were other people behind Truman. Was Truman a stooge of a greater force?
I liked Gore Vidal's comments about how the Constitution was later "Revised" to better fit the more immediate needs of "Mercantile Republic" ~ Kinda nailed it (sadly).
Thank you Robert. Very glad that you commented. Followed you for a long time on Youtube. You are doing such a good job. I hope that USA understand that too, Very soon.
Fortunately, all of this information helps us refute the endless misrepresentation of what will help the American people and why we have earned it. Free programs indeed. And you didn’t even have to foray into the military industrial complex.
Your example of tax cuts for the rich by borrowing from our grandchildren is spot on.
Republicans are good at making words like liberal: “…denoting a political and social philosophy that promotes individual rights”… sound like poison pills. They do this to the words, democratic socialism. (Bernie’s words..😊).
Why doesn't the average rural voter understand this and vote these hatemongering, fearmongering crooks out of office? Or in Newts case, severely limit his media exposure? We can't "silence" anyone, of course. But can we somehow educate ourselves past fearmongering? Can we educate ourselves into healthy democracy that uses our resourses and revenues for our longevity and the benefit of all?
The answer is 'no'. I've pleaded with people for years to close their FB accounts en masse to slow the spread of vitriolic propaganda...hardly equivalent to fighting on the front lines of a war...not a single person agreed. Always an excuse to avoid that tiny bit of inconvenience when collective action could have blunted the impact of a malevolent force. Ditto canceling the NYT or turning off CNN or Chuck Todd...the foregoing so often serving as apologists for fascism or minimizing the dangers of autocracy via 'both-sides' journalism (using the latter term loosely)...again, no one would take that smallest of steps to push back when it would have made a difference. We can wonder why rural voters do so little to help themselves, but we should also ask why so few of the rest of us take any steps (in a good year) 60% voting every 4 years and (in a good year) 40% voting in midterms. The average person is apathetic at best in the US. It doesn't help that Biden's administration and Schumer seem utterly indifferent to the outcomes. Schumer should have been voted out decades ago, but the donor class likes his refusal to rock the boat. There should have been mass protests in every state to save voting rights, daily hearings on what happens to people and corporations under authoritarian regimes, but almost no one can be bothered to do anything in the US. Thd GOP is counting on our lethargy...with few exception such as Georgia...they've been right in their calculations.
And try getting people away from Amazon.com. I live in Chicago and we have neighborhoods loaded with unique art works, crafts, bakery goods, hand crated beers, spices and handmade planters and on and on. There is great satisfaction of finding something made with pride. But I also know, especially with Covid, it was extra hard not to use Amazon…I did myself. When we can go without masks I’m right back to no-gifts-ordered-through-Amazon status. Put the wish list on Amazon…buy it elsewhere.
I would love to not buy from Amazon. Because I live in Alaska, thew shipping costs alone would bankrupt me. Prime more than pays for itself with the shipping costs it saves me. As a not very mobile senior citizen I do everything I possibly can online. The pandemic has exacerbated staying at home. If a website offers reasonable shipping or free shipping I do business with them but those are few.
I understand that Bezos needs to be brought to heel and I hope he is with taxes, making sure his workers are paid a living wage and his warehouses run in favor of care for the workers. Maybe his company needs to be broken up like Liz Warren says it does. Robert Reich and Bernie Sanders are my heroes and I hope that I see their vision for this country come to fruition before I die.
😊 It feels so much more special and if there are higher prices, they aren’t as high as people might think, and your money goes directly to the person who made the goods! I hope to put ideas out for people. Older people might enjoy a mix of breads and food products, young people love micro brews. Unique hand made throws. Hand made soaps, candles, a tube light for the bed side table…I cannot tell you how satisfying it is to find such creative talented people and to share their talents.
Maybe Democrats should start talking relentlessly about Republican Party socialism for the lazy rich moochers. If each party is accusing the other of socialism, then it would be a wash in elections, it seems to me.
Yes but then you really turn socialism into something negative. On the contrary, democratic socialism seems to be doing great things for people in places like Scandinavia. Much of what Bernie Sanders wants is democratic socialism and it would be great for us too. I’d much prefer not to see the word disparaged. Surely there are other ways of getting the point across.
Jen Psaki is one of the few people to get this on the news! But first we have to get the news to cover it, instead of every idiot screaming about wearing a mask.
Oh dear! When I was in the US prior to the POTUS election, the occasional question on the tv would pop up - something like: would you prefer socialism or capitalism (hope I got that right!)
Then all was revealed - the steady drip against socialism with fatuous references to Russia, Cuba, North Korea…blah blah. How easily led…
The UK is a monarchy, capitalist AND a welfare state, with a fair few socialist policies, particularly on workers rights.
Who on earth in an industrialised nation like the USA wouldn’t want fairness and equality for all, whilst preserving the notion of capitalism?
The UK is not perfect, by any means, but by golly, when I go to the doctor I don’t have to take my credit card!
And health care or surgery is the largest reason for bankruptcy in the US. When people point out that foreign countries have higher taxes, they never consider the fact that our health care is like a giant tax!
You are correct that capitalism can be saved. We have to undo the de-regulation that Reagan put forth and regulate capitalism to make it work.
The answer to who on earth…..Indoctrinated Trump supporters…Fox News/Rush Limbaugh lovers. It fed their racist underbelly.
Thank you. We all know the saying, "those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it". If "we the people" fail to stand up and defend our Democracy (now), against the rich and powerful "American Royalty Class", we will loose our democracy, rights, freedoms & we'll end up literally back in the "Second Middle Ages", with Royalty in their castles, knights guarding the walls and surfs (we the people), providing them with everything they desire. This is not the future I want my grandchildren to suffer through.
Remember, the gilded age supported elitist ideas such as "Eugenics". How can the hatred that's been poured into the American psyche since the eighties through deregulated media, and the disparity between rich and poor which parallels the gilded age have any other outcome today? The recent demagogue seemed to embrace supremacists ideologies, just as American and European figures did at the turn of the 20th. We all know where that led. Half a century of suffering, and genocide. We had Father Coughlin in America in the '30's reaching millions with his pro Nazi supremacist propaganda. Gingrich and his like just pick up the flag again. And the demagogue simply takes what's been done and pushes the envelope to a new extreme. Can we as a nation find the will to say "enough is enough"? "Build Better Together". Unity.
I totally agree - I have to admit , "Yanis" Varoufakis of Diem 25 "Fame" and "Other" (fame) really called it almost more than ten years ago; coupling economic instability (in the current age) to a pronounced very ugly strident lurch to the right and extreme-right (for many countries / territories) . + the ongoing disintegration of Europe*. Also reflected in banner "Trumpism" - I have to admit January 6th really broke my heart as never in a million years would I believe such a thing could happen on US soil today.
* It's interesting that Chancellor Helmut Kohl - (Germany) - and François Mitterrand (if I remember this right) formed the concept of the common currency and the Euro more as a symbolic means to "Cement" the idea that France and Germany would never go to war again. Interestingly many rural countrymen in France (when I lived there ) could discuss the the Maastricht Treaty (260 pages long) in great detail citing specific paragraphs and sub sections ) - even over a beer or a wine :-)
At the time it was quite clear that Kohl was very "BAD" with money and economics and the Euro made little sense but the prerogative of European Unity through a common currency - to stop future government-level extremism was seen as a necessary measure to ensure peace.
Sadly we are now headed to de-cohesion and fragmentation simply due to the arrogance of various central bodies and Banks. Both in Europe and the United States.
"Team Gingrich " would want to carve $1Tn out of the BBB bill just as cushion for the next stock market crash that they themselves cause.
I honestly think that the $3.5 Tn bill-blockers are afraid of losing their own ULTIMATE safety-net from a massive market crash and a multiplicity of gargantuan credit defaults.
Cowards !
Given that the stock market is an extremely over-valued bubble. If there's a crash the Banks will need a further $ 1trillion +++ to be bailed out. The Bank's safety net* - tax payer funded by our collective great-great Grand Children... [Which is ridiculous 'cuz these Oligarchic m*f*'s created this massive bubble in the first place. ]. That fact that BofA shares keep climbing (over the course of this year) is worrying as it seems the 0.1 %'rs are buying "Insurance" against the next crash and the Tax payer's obligation to necessarily bail the banks out - every time - (so we don't end up back to a pre-Medieval barter system - @William Carbley ).
* AND horribly it's the banks that fund a near infinite line of credit to the fossil fuel industries that carve future $ out of the planet (now) and leave an unworkable legacy to our "Grand Children".
If we don't legislate against the Banks, the GND (Green New Deal) and it's like will always be ineffective/ impotent against the collective (bought and lobbied) interests of the Fossil Fuel industries.
I wish that Democrats would get this kind if messaging,and it’s facts, out to the general public. How to organize the wealthy among us to takes out billboards and ads on all media to counter all the messaging of the Republicans? We need our own version of the Koch brothers, but without the sleaziness.
You have nailed it again, just as You did in your new book "Rigged", which is a must-read for all Americans. Power and Privilege and Wealth all go together!!
Robert, you’ve got your shit together. Will Americans ever wake up and realize what the super rich are doing to this country? By the way, I love reading your stuff. Jack
Thank you Jack. It's hard for people to see how the top 1% and corporate interests have distorted the narrative around power because of media bias and truckloads of cash dumped into PR. I'm working hard to help people connect the dots, but please join me by talking to people who don't see it yet and sharing this newsletter.
The wealthy haven't had it this good since the "Gilded Age" in the late 19th century. Today bought politicians with bulging pockets are fighting right along side of the rich to make certain it remains this way. They've been raking it in for decades while the rest of us are dishing it out. This article is so true, we must change this.
Studies show that the inequality gap is worse than it was in the 'Gilded Age' with no end in sight.
.....if we are a "consumer-driven economy", is there a point where their strategies backfire, due to inability of the masses to finance consumption ? With so many now excluded from the housing market, that would seem to chop off the head of much traditional consumption like refrigerators, rugs, furniture, etc., etc.
I'm not an economist, but I completely agree with your assessment. Just as the 'Great Resignation' has thousands fleeing the workforce, and strikes are raging everywhere, consumers will withdraw from rampant spending as they see the futility of fighting within a rigged system. If millions closed their FB account today, Zuckerberg would lose the vast majority of his blood-soaked fortune. Similarly, if consumers stop consuming, the economy stalls and the markets plummet.
What continues to amaze me are how creeps like Gingrich et al are able to spew their nonsense with a straight face, and how so many Americans can still be manipulated by simply shouting the word "socialism!"
I recently saw one of Jordan Klepper's visits to the Magaverse or Magaworld and was amazed that so many people actually buy into what Trump and his followers and proponents (Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, etc.) tell them. How can they hate other people so much that they are willing to support the views of such as Trump? Are they the same people who don't want anyone to touch their social security or their workman's compensation or their Medicare? The same people who whine about the state of public highways and bridges and the run-down schools and closed hospitals? The same people who find fault with the homeless and accuse the homeless or immigrants or substance-abusers of lolling about and being lazy? I would assure such people that an individual who is on the public purse and has sworn an oath to manage and execute the laws of the enterprise (of state) but spends his time watching riots he started on tv and cheering on the insurrectionists; sending out text messages; spewing hatred of one and all; defying health cautions and practices; insulting similar heads of state and diplomats; attacking media; holding rallies and boasting about his (non-existent) accomplishments; and playing and cheating at endless rounds of golf is the real do-nothing and cheater. How can folks watch Jordan's interviews and come away feeling good about the status-quo?
They don’t listen to themselves. They don’t educate themselves. It is easier for them to join a cult and go all in. That’s not difficult to do and they love rallies. Facts be damned. But the worst of it is they are damaging themselves, society as a whole and their own children if they have any.
After reading your response I believe you should run for political office
Janet...Yes, it does sound as though we pulled up the same Jordan Klepper video. I am sure that Jordan views his videos and interviews as something more than comedy because they are--as you say--frightening. I think the basic problem is the total lack of any sort of critical thinking skills among any of those attending the Trump rallies or fairs or events. These people truly live in an alternate (maga)verse and seem very happy to be there. They seem to feel that they have lost their chance at bliss when--in fact--their world is built on ignorance, hatred for others, and a lack of concern for their communities and country. It is my hope that Trump is finally brought to justice but I don't know that will happen. We need to get behind Biden and pressure him into holding the line and forcing through reforms that the majority of the people need.
Especially when they’re family members who are so blind.
I submit that cynical partisans bank on Americans’ ignorance of the meaning of the term “socialism,” or “democratic socialism” for that matter, and further that Americans will continue to be susceptible to manipulation unless we start attending to their way of understanding the term—their way of describing or defining it. As I’ve argued elsewhere, no intelligent, reasoned discussion about socialism, or any other issue, can proceed if the people involved do not share a basic understanding of the meaning of the issue at hand: what it is and what it is not.
I have to admit I always thought that the 'S" - word was dangerous to use in American circles - I kinda wished Bernie and others would have used a smidge more imagination to 'Re-brand" said 'S" word. The USA is legendary for re-branding / marketing campaigns. I say this partly tongue in cheek but - difficult nut to crack. The " Let's stop being total b*stards to the actual populous that tries to live within these borders and beyond - Party".
You may be right about the S word as there are a good many people who shy away from anything to do with socialism but rise up in indignation (and fear) if politicians propose doing away with Medicare, Social Security, Unemployment and Disability Programs, etc. etc. What do these folks think these programs are? (Hint if needed: THey are social safety net programs funded through taxes and run by the govt..Horrors.) On the other hand--and keep this in mind. There is nothing as damaging to individuals and society as the current set-up run by the union of corporate politicians out to feather then own nests and monopolistic corporations and tycoons. Nothing Bernie Sanders has done or proposed doing comes anywhere as chaotic and non-productive as the supposed administration of the 45 president...
Thank you! Lanae
Thank you Robert Reich. Love reading you each morning.
I agree, even though I don't agree with everything he writes.
Thank you Mariyn and thank you Tim. I appreciate that this space brings in people with a variety of viewpoints. Too much of the internet is an echo chamber already. That's not good for us as individuals and it's not good for democracy.
You see. Bernie Sanders was right all along and he tried to tell as many of us as he could: The top less-than-1% of the people in the US were gaining the most from taxes and paying the least. The system was (and still is) rigged in their favor, they use tax rate cuts and loopholes that just don't exist for you and me. Take an example closer to home: In 2016 and 2017, Donald Trump paid a grand total of $750 per year in taxes on an income of $$$$$$$ (I don't know for sure!). I made $29,000 in 2016 and $21,000 in 2017, two of the last years I worked. On that income, I paid $3500 in 2016 and $2700 in 2017. The only reasons I have been able to survive the pandemic (financially speaking are: a small retirement account of $9500 from 15 years of work at Macy*s; SSA of $1083 a month; Section 8 housing; and, no car. I have paid taxes on the retirement account and I continue to pay taxes on my SSA income. Most of my resources are due to programs that critics would label socialism (the SSA--known as social security--and the Section 8 housing. The wealthier members of society call this an indication of advancing socialism; they never get that, without such benefits from government programs, people like me would most probably not have survived and--truth be told--we are the luckier ones. We are warned away from people like Sanders and the ugly label of socialism (made only ugly by those at the other end of the spectrum drawing from the public till) tossed at us...were it not for FDR my parents would not have made it and I would not make it without FDR and the programs he started. He wanted to help people--as did his activist wife Eleanor--and he did. I am not sure Donald Trump is aware that other people actually exist at all or for any purpose but to serve and adore him. He is a disgrace to our country and the citizens he chooses to dismiss and deny.
Yes, Senator Sanders was (and is) right all along and so is Robert Reich. It is socialism for the ultra wealthy and "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" capitalism for the poor and working class, if we even have much of a working class, more like the working poor.
Thank you for your comment. The last year I worked at the store was also the last year of "work" for the then-ceo. We folks who actually worked the floor used to comment on the platinum parachute that the ceo got as his retirement reward. (It is possible, of course, that this reward package was enlarged through hearsay but I tend to think the top managers put it out there to reassure the stockholders that everything was going along swimmingly, that the biz was doing great.) The reward package parachute was in three parts: 1--the retiring ceo's annual salary of $18 million per year; 2--the retirement benefit of $18 million; 3--the ceo's annual "new" consultant fee of $18 million, just so the old ceo could offer his "knowledge" to the new one. Since the retiring ceo's retirement benefit was a one-time-only addition to his income, he would have to manage on $36 million a year instead of his retirement year $54 million. You may wonder why my co-workers and I stood for this arrangement. Well, I was making $14.50 an hour after 15 years and took on occasional additional work. I was not an unusual worker or a poor worker. Unions did not exist for us or--if they did--they were bought out by the store itself. I tried to pursue this with a supposed labor lawyer as there were other issues (equal pay for equal work type deals). The situation was the source of amusement for that lawyer, probably because his own stock portfolio included shares in the very same company. There was nothing any of us could do but try to find a second or third job so we could survive. During the pandemic, I got a call from that very story, inquiring as to whether I could return....Well, I may be hard up but reason tells me that my days selling stuff and risking my health and security are done. Those in power belittle people who have decided to call it a day with such employers, they have decided that they deserve more than struggling to get by and keep a decent roof over their heads...the sad thing is that they are now condemned as lazy or freeloaders when all along the laziness and freeloading were coming from the top--not the bottom.
Wow- that is some story! This kind of pay disparity cannot continue, and no one n our country should have to work more than one full time job just to support themselves and their families.I’m glad you didn’t go back…
That's what I call LABOR SLAVERY! pretty soon this country will be like Latin american countries: RICH and POOR citizens!
We are in our way if not substantially there.
So true
I have always found it interesting that the term"socialized medicine" was first used by the AMA in 1968 to scare people in the U.S. about having healthcare for us all .
I wonder how we would have fared during the pandemic had we had something akin to the NHS (National Health Service) of the UK. This afternoon, I watched the Last Night at the BBC Proms from Royal Albert Hall in London and from Coventry (north of LOndon). The crowds were huge and, since the pandemic is under control and the population more or less fully vaccinated, there was less need to wear masks, in other words, things had returned to normal. One did see masks and some of the performers wore them but those on the lawns in front of the Hall were relaxed and enjoying a great concert. Without a corresponding NHS and with considerable resistance to vaccination and to masks, we stumble along and have reached 700,000+ deaths, chaos in the workplace, schools, and the business sector. A recent study of the course of the pandemic in Denmark and Norway has revealed that people in those countries put their trust in the government and in scientists and health-care professionals so they were able to curb the virus early on, far before things approached the chaos we have experienced.
Thanks for so eloquently expressing in detail and with all the evidence anyone could possibly need the concept that I first heard from Gore Vidal ( not sure if it was from his play THE BEST MAN or possibly on a TV interview): "In America we have socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor." As you point out so clearly things have only gotten worse.
Thanks for your thanks, Tony. The idea of socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor has a long history. Notably, Martin Luther King, Jr. invoked it in a speech just a few months before he was assassinated, at a time when he was focused on the problem of economic inequality.
I thought this was rather prescient [full citation / link below ]. RE: Vidal's comments and analyses on the origins of the 'American Oligarchy " + James Madison's original contribution; and where "Today" said Oligarchy can be found hidden in plain sight, with explicit reference to the the 1% and then shifting to Truman (hmmmm 🤔) - (Interview in 2001 - at Prague Writers' Festival ).
[ Side note I think we NEED better graphics to illustrate what the break-over point of the 0.05 %to 0.0001% is really getting up to as a near cosmic black hole that sucks everything into it. esp. with recent ambush interview in CNN.].
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" Michael March: Talking about the rather invisible oligarchy in America, do people really have any concept of its existence?
Gore Vidal: James Madison, who is very much the creator of our Constitution, said: "Never forget that the iron law of oligarchy always obtains; few people will always run everything, no matter what the institution or what the country." The Constitution was carefully arranged for white men of property. Since then the franchise has been extended to the young, the black, the female; but because the sense of our oligarchy is everywhere, people don't know about it, they have no place to find out.
When we decided to become a global empire after the war, it was Harry Truman who dropped two atomic bombs on Japan and made us a national security state and a militarised economy. Our citizens were not advised, they still don't know. They still think that it's a free, open country, but we decided to stay armed and to be involved in every country in the world. That was their decision - and who are 'they'? They are traditionally the very wealthy: the one per cent that my cousin Al Gore dared mention at one point in the campaign as owning practically all the property in the country.
The one per cent dominates. They reign through 20% of the country who are doing very well. These are the prosperous people who we read about, people that are put in Congress and in the White House. Eighty per cent of the people are doing very badly and are rather poor.
MM: You mentioned President Truman's decision to drop the bomb, but there were other people behind Truman. Was Truman a stooge of a greater force?
GV: Well, under our system... "
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from,
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/mar/29/politics
I liked Gore Vidal's comments about how the Constitution was later "Revised" to better fit the more immediate needs of "Mercantile Republic" ~ Kinda nailed it (sadly).
Well put Robert. Terrifying "development" you have over there in USA.
/Anders in Sweden
Anders, thanks for reading. I love to hear when people are tuning in from around the world.
Hey ROBERT! I feel that way and I live in San Francisco!
Thank you Robert. Very glad that you commented. Followed you for a long time on Youtube. You are doing such a good job. I hope that USA understand that too, Very soon.
Regards
/Anders
Fortunately, all of this information helps us refute the endless misrepresentation of what will help the American people and why we have earned it. Free programs indeed. And you didn’t even have to foray into the military industrial complex.
Your example of tax cuts for the rich by borrowing from our grandchildren is spot on.
Republicans are good at making words like liberal: “…denoting a political and social philosophy that promotes individual rights”… sound like poison pills. They do this to the words, democratic socialism. (Bernie’s words..😊).
Great article.
Why doesn't the average rural voter understand this and vote these hatemongering, fearmongering crooks out of office? Or in Newts case, severely limit his media exposure? We can't "silence" anyone, of course. But can we somehow educate ourselves past fearmongering? Can we educate ourselves into healthy democracy that uses our resourses and revenues for our longevity and the benefit of all?
The answer is 'no'. I've pleaded with people for years to close their FB accounts en masse to slow the spread of vitriolic propaganda...hardly equivalent to fighting on the front lines of a war...not a single person agreed. Always an excuse to avoid that tiny bit of inconvenience when collective action could have blunted the impact of a malevolent force. Ditto canceling the NYT or turning off CNN or Chuck Todd...the foregoing so often serving as apologists for fascism or minimizing the dangers of autocracy via 'both-sides' journalism (using the latter term loosely)...again, no one would take that smallest of steps to push back when it would have made a difference. We can wonder why rural voters do so little to help themselves, but we should also ask why so few of the rest of us take any steps (in a good year) 60% voting every 4 years and (in a good year) 40% voting in midterms. The average person is apathetic at best in the US. It doesn't help that Biden's administration and Schumer seem utterly indifferent to the outcomes. Schumer should have been voted out decades ago, but the donor class likes his refusal to rock the boat. There should have been mass protests in every state to save voting rights, daily hearings on what happens to people and corporations under authoritarian regimes, but almost no one can be bothered to do anything in the US. Thd GOP is counting on our lethargy...with few exception such as Georgia...they've been right in their calculations.
And try getting people away from Amazon.com. I live in Chicago and we have neighborhoods loaded with unique art works, crafts, bakery goods, hand crated beers, spices and handmade planters and on and on. There is great satisfaction of finding something made with pride. But I also know, especially with Covid, it was extra hard not to use Amazon…I did myself. When we can go without masks I’m right back to no-gifts-ordered-through-Amazon status. Put the wish list on Amazon…buy it elsewhere.
I would love to not buy from Amazon. Because I live in Alaska, thew shipping costs alone would bankrupt me. Prime more than pays for itself with the shipping costs it saves me. As a not very mobile senior citizen I do everything I possibly can online. The pandemic has exacerbated staying at home. If a website offers reasonable shipping or free shipping I do business with them but those are few.
I understand that Bezos needs to be brought to heel and I hope he is with taxes, making sure his workers are paid a living wage and his warehouses run in favor of care for the workers. Maybe his company needs to be broken up like Liz Warren says it does. Robert Reich and Bernie Sanders are my heroes and I hope that I see their vision for this country come to fruition before I die.
You are exactly right, and you are setting an excellent example.
😊 It feels so much more special and if there are higher prices, they aren’t as high as people might think, and your money goes directly to the person who made the goods! I hope to put ideas out for people. Older people might enjoy a mix of breads and food products, young people love micro brews. Unique hand made throws. Hand made soaps, candles, a tube light for the bed side table…I cannot tell you how satisfying it is to find such creative talented people and to share their talents.
Maybe Democrats should start talking relentlessly about Republican Party socialism for the lazy rich moochers. If each party is accusing the other of socialism, then it would be a wash in elections, it seems to me.
Yes but then you really turn socialism into something negative. On the contrary, democratic socialism seems to be doing great things for people in places like Scandinavia. Much of what Bernie Sanders wants is democratic socialism and it would be great for us too. I’d much prefer not to see the word disparaged. Surely there are other ways of getting the point across.
Jen Psaki is one of the few people to get this on the news! But first we have to get the news to cover it, instead of every idiot screaming about wearing a mask.
Oh dear! When I was in the US prior to the POTUS election, the occasional question on the tv would pop up - something like: would you prefer socialism or capitalism (hope I got that right!)
Then all was revealed - the steady drip against socialism with fatuous references to Russia, Cuba, North Korea…blah blah. How easily led…
The UK is a monarchy, capitalist AND a welfare state, with a fair few socialist policies, particularly on workers rights.
Who on earth in an industrialised nation like the USA wouldn’t want fairness and equality for all, whilst preserving the notion of capitalism?
The UK is not perfect, by any means, but by golly, when I go to the doctor I don’t have to take my credit card!
Lance Clarke
And health care or surgery is the largest reason for bankruptcy in the US. When people point out that foreign countries have higher taxes, they never consider the fact that our health care is like a giant tax!
You are correct that capitalism can be saved. We have to undo the de-regulation that Reagan put forth and regulate capitalism to make it work.
The answer to who on earth…..Indoctrinated Trump supporters…Fox News/Rush Limbaugh lovers. It fed their racist underbelly.
PS Good observation on how things are phrased on the news. All of our major networks are owned by the far right, including CNN.
Thank you. We all know the saying, "those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it". If "we the people" fail to stand up and defend our Democracy (now), against the rich and powerful "American Royalty Class", we will loose our democracy, rights, freedoms & we'll end up literally back in the "Second Middle Ages", with Royalty in their castles, knights guarding the walls and surfs (we the people), providing them with everything they desire. This is not the future I want my grandchildren to suffer through.
Remember, the gilded age supported elitist ideas such as "Eugenics". How can the hatred that's been poured into the American psyche since the eighties through deregulated media, and the disparity between rich and poor which parallels the gilded age have any other outcome today? The recent demagogue seemed to embrace supremacists ideologies, just as American and European figures did at the turn of the 20th. We all know where that led. Half a century of suffering, and genocide. We had Father Coughlin in America in the '30's reaching millions with his pro Nazi supremacist propaganda. Gingrich and his like just pick up the flag again. And the demagogue simply takes what's been done and pushes the envelope to a new extreme. Can we as a nation find the will to say "enough is enough"? "Build Better Together". Unity.
I totally agree - I have to admit , "Yanis" Varoufakis of Diem 25 "Fame" and "Other" (fame) really called it almost more than ten years ago; coupling economic instability (in the current age) to a pronounced very ugly strident lurch to the right and extreme-right (for many countries / territories) . + the ongoing disintegration of Europe*. Also reflected in banner "Trumpism" - I have to admit January 6th really broke my heart as never in a million years would I believe such a thing could happen on US soil today.
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* It's interesting that Chancellor Helmut Kohl - (Germany) - and François Mitterrand (if I remember this right) formed the concept of the common currency and the Euro more as a symbolic means to "Cement" the idea that France and Germany would never go to war again. Interestingly many rural countrymen in France (when I lived there ) could discuss the the Maastricht Treaty (260 pages long) in great detail citing specific paragraphs and sub sections ) - even over a beer or a wine :-)
At the time it was quite clear that Kohl was very "BAD" with money and economics and the Euro made little sense but the prerogative of European Unity through a common currency - to stop future government-level extremism was seen as a necessary measure to ensure peace.
Sadly we are now headed to de-cohesion and fragmentation simply due to the arrogance of various central bodies and Banks. Both in Europe and the United States.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maastricht_Treaty
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Mitterrand
^^^ Born 1916 ,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmut_Kohl
^^^ Born 1930,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newt_Gingrich
^^^ Born 1943 ... (faceplam). the face of Jim Crow 2.0 and beyond :-(
"Team Gingrich " would want to carve $1Tn out of the BBB bill just as cushion for the next stock market crash that they themselves cause.
I honestly think that the $3.5 Tn bill-blockers are afraid of losing their own ULTIMATE safety-net from a massive market crash and a multiplicity of gargantuan credit defaults.
Cowards !
Given that the stock market is an extremely over-valued bubble. If there's a crash the Banks will need a further $ 1trillion +++ to be bailed out. The Bank's safety net* - tax payer funded by our collective great-great Grand Children... [Which is ridiculous 'cuz these Oligarchic m*f*'s created this massive bubble in the first place. ]. That fact that BofA shares keep climbing (over the course of this year) is worrying as it seems the 0.1 %'rs are buying "Insurance" against the next crash and the Tax payer's obligation to necessarily bail the banks out - every time - (so we don't end up back to a pre-Medieval barter system - @William Carbley ).
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* AND horribly it's the banks that fund a near infinite line of credit to the fossil fuel industries that carve future $ out of the planet (now) and leave an unworkable legacy to our "Grand Children".
If we don't legislate against the Banks, the GND (Green New Deal) and it's like will always be ineffective/ impotent against the collective (bought and lobbied) interests of the Fossil Fuel industries.
I wish that Democrats would get this kind if messaging,and it’s facts, out to the general public. How to organize the wealthy among us to takes out billboards and ads on all media to counter all the messaging of the Republicans? We need our own version of the Koch brothers, but without the sleaziness.
This is what we're up against, Robert. One of the writers, appears to be a 'member' of the tried and failed thinking (trickle down) that's been sinking us for year. - https://www.wsj.com/articles/build-back-better-tax-increases-subsidies-household-income-11634592447
You have nailed it again, just as You did in your new book "Rigged", which is a must-read for all Americans. Power and Privilege and Wealth all go together!!
I recommend it as well!
Robert, you’ve got your shit together. Will Americans ever wake up and realize what the super rich are doing to this country? By the way, I love reading your stuff. Jack
Thank you Jack. It's hard for people to see how the top 1% and corporate interests have distorted the narrative around power because of media bias and truckloads of cash dumped into PR. I'm working hard to help people connect the dots, but please join me by talking to people who don't see it yet and sharing this newsletter.
Newt Gingrich is a Long time Reactionary; NOT a conservative!