"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness." - John Kenneth Galbraith
I say, they [those at the top] don't have to conspire, because they all think alike. The president of General Motors and the president of Chase Manhattan Bank really are not going to disagree much on anything, nor would the editor of the New York Times disagree with them. They all tend to think quite alike, otherwise they would not be in those jobs.
I spent the last few days watching theCon.tv, 5 episodes that trace the origins of the banking/mortgage fiasco of 2008 through the complete lack of accountability from every one of the presidents including Obama, and trumpty. A gal on this site recommended it. It took me over two days to watch this as it is horrendous and still ongoing. Corportocracy and Corruption run the US. I would like to see you, Robert Reich rebut this after watching it and the comments post. The movie, The Big Short, was only one small dimension of the severe white collar criminality, corporate capture that owns the US. WE need an FDR NOW>. not in a few years... If I knew how to give you the connection, I would. Perhaps the gal who shared this prior will see this and offer it... Thank you Janet!! Deregulation, desupervision, then Decriminalization by our beloved DOJ>.
I, for one, do not believe - scratch that - know that one person will never be able to change the state of affairs. It will have to be a team effort. We must change ourselves. R. Reich has alluded to if not outright said this repeatedly - the current system we are in rewards the bad behavior and then proceeds to protect it because THAT is how the system is designed. The regulation needed to change that must necessarily step away from the property/value model and move towards a virtue/result model. And Capital will fight tooth and nail to never go in that direction. I do not have an answer, except a fantasy/sci-fi one - the removal of scarcity. I hope you get your interview and thanks for the suggestions.
painedumonde, I think you are correct. It will take many of us arising to turn this filthy tide. I think people need to watch theCon.tv. and then perhaps they will be riled up enough to act. It feels like voting is only a tiny part of it.. This takes a leader and a group of followers who have the COURAGE, a seemingly RARE trait, with the support of many of 'we the people" demanding and encouraging. The playbook has been written by FDR, but new dimensions will require use of strategies like Eminent Domain, past tax due now the Corruption is Uncovered and newly held accountable with jail time. The past Presidents also need to be put in historically accurate context as PROTECTORS OF THE WHITE COLLAR CRIMINALS. WE ARE the SOVIET UNION of CORPORATIONS. How does that criminality feel???
One small act of rising up, is dumping the monopolistic utilities as much as possible. We are entering a period where you can just about become free of fossil fuels, and the business that provide them.
Solar PV cost have come down, while module efficiency has gone up. To be amost free, you also need batteries, improved home efficiency and appliances, and of course an EV vs. a gas car. That is a lot of stuff coming from business, but with it you also get to greatly reduce your CO2 emissions - that MUST be eliminated.
You need enough solar power to meet your winter 'good' day needs. You need enough batteries to shift daytime solar power to cover nighttime energy consumption. You need a sunny space for the panels. Add heat pump water heaters, with a source of the warmest air available. You need mini-split heat pumps for space heating. You need the EV which can be charged from your solar. You still need some way to get power on those cloudy days without power. That could be the new role for the utilities - back up power. Most people can't afford all these changes easily. One of the biggest obstacle is the suitable property, if not shaded by tree hugging regulations.
Perhaps the way to solve the property problem, is to establish a cooperative to fund and place solar on a different cheap property that has the necessary sun, and pay the utilities only to ship your energy to you. Of course that is what the utilites already do, but they own the cheap sunny property now under the grants of our sneaky government, and can charge what they can get away with, for the free energy - forever.
But for a lucky few, they can afford the suitable property, and can afford the investment.
I helped a guy from Merrill Lynch write a book about that time, and I just read a lot of The Con page precis of the documentaries. Serious stuff!
Not only did banks make money encouraging an explosion of liar’s loans, they bundled those loans together into “investment products” and sold shares in them to people who would make their money as a share of all the bundled mortgage payments that came through. Many, many loans making money for investors as long as homeowners could keep up with payments, and then for whatever reason {maybe the ARM went up!}, they struggled or stopped and all of a sudden, the investment wasn’t worth garbage and the homeonwers had nobody to talk about how to refi because about a zilllion investors owned their damned mortgage … and it all went BUST.
And then there was something called a “credit default swap” that somehow indemnified the guy who sold the lousy investments … and then somehow some of the guys made money whether the investments went up or went over a cliff … The schemes were legion. And we bailed out the banks {thanks Dubya!!} and nobody else.
It was a sick and cruel time. And the reverberations are still with us ….
Further, Pat, Your 'good guy' Biden just nominated Andrew Biggs a Nazi waiting to privatize social security to the Social Security Commission. Call your Senators office now to request a NO vote on this absurd nomination. Reich keeps telling us that Biden is ok. Biden is a Corporatist that does a little for us and a lot in the back door for the Autocrats that have overtaken us. Biggs is another autocrat, oligarch, nazi type.
Further, Vicky, it was Mitch McConnell who proposed Biggs for the SS board, which must be a bi-partisan board.
I don’t know where you get the “Nazi type” from … I don’t know enough about him, other than that he has a long history of involvement with SS, not only on the board, and he does support raising the retirement age …
You painting Biden with this brush is just misinformation.
There’s certainly no shortage of things to be addressed in our government, but claiming that Biden and the Democrats are on a footing with the Republican Oligarch Machine is just so much trolling …
God, as a fellow atheist, I miss Gore Vidal and Christopher Hitchens. We need their voices today more than ever. The origins of trumpism can be traced directly to Ronald Reagan. Those two understood perhaps better than any “news” people of that time that Reagan was a nemesis posing as your avuncular uncle.
Graham, yet, I suspect not one of them would admit to it. They don't want to be seen as selfish while everything they do is at least intended to get for themselves and protect what they have gotten. I would love to see someone confront some of the "top" conservatives today with that quote on air. I'd love to hear how they either dismiss the quote, bash Galbraith or in some other way pretend it isn't true, for them at least. I doubt anyone has the guts to do it, but it would be fun/interesting.
I don't know about that, Ruth. Since Reagan & his "greed is good" philosophy, it seems that many people, especially corporate executives & others wielding the levers of power, proudly exhibit their greed & selfishness.
Jaime, you are right about that. I had forgotten just how proud a lot of rich guys are about the greed etc. that got them their wealth, lying that they had done it all on their own, you know, that ridiculous bootstraps nonsense. I understand a lot of that pride came from the movie "Wall Street," when the character proclaimed that "greed is good." I guess it is for the very rich, but the rest of us need to wake up and see that it is not a good thing and that good people don't need to be greedy. The rich don't care about what is good beyond what is good for them.
Barbara, maybe the head or assistant head of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. She would do some good there, or the Budget office. I know Biden would find an effective place for her.
re a boss that cares about people and community (and would-then they be rich?) Characterization of a "failing" generous boss, that benevolent (well meaning and kindly) don't go together with financial success is a trope (if-then-else), known, recognized, criticized--example, Christmas Carol, 1843, "Dickens uses the character Fezziwig, as an example of how an altruistic employer creates a sense of family and community in the workplace. A model of compassion, kindness and generosity, Fezziwig shows an option for upper class business men." "Young Scrooge loved his boss, Fezziwig. Young Scrooge says, “If ever I own a firm of my own, I shall treat my apprentices with the same dignity and respect.” "Scrooge's fear, like many in the Victorian Age, is an impoverished life, resulting in a fixation on money. No matter how much wealth he attains, background, habit, and attitude means it is never enough."
I think people can become wealthy and still be very good and benevolent people, but not many will get to be billionaires — well, maybe if they write a REALLY good book … !
I have to wonder if the definition of "conservative" is the same today as it was taught to me in the 60's in my high school economics class. Would you, Graham, be willing to define your term "conservative ethos?" I'm simply curious as I grew up in CT, and I know that others around the country were taught (or believed) something different.
If I had to guess, even conservatives have changed their views over the years, thus likely their own definition of themselves. There is forever a “new” way of thinking about how to do business, some good, some bad. Think about how “conservatives” during the mid 70’s pushed their view as the world went into an economic decline. “We’re got a better idea”, they said. That brought us Reagan Economics and the country fell for it, lock, stock and barrel. And here we are. All one has to do, is look at what has happened to two of the greatest companies this country has ever produced, GE and Boeing, to see what’s gone wrong with shareholder power. What these corporate heads never seem to understand, is, that once you turn that corner and no longer have any interest in the public, that the public generally has the final say with their pocketbook. While that takes time, once your reputation is shot, U.S. nearly impossible to get it back. That is where Boeing is at present. And that management thought process almost always ends up with it coming an end which serves no one, even investors. It’s all short term gain at the expense of long term stability. Or should I say, ME NOT THEE!
If the executive gets a huge bonus for a quarterly rise, two, three, four, six times … then the company goes bust … the executive still has all those bonuses in the bank….
I’m starting to separate “conservatives” from “Republicans” and “leftists” from “Democrats”. I’ve been reading “The Other Founders” by Saul Cornell which chronicles the debate between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists prior to the making of the US Constitution in 1789 and which continued through 1828. These anti-Federalists were primarily responsible for getting the Bill of Rights into the new constitution. They were very wary of governing from afar and so preferred trial by jury by peers rather than far off judges. Debating these ideas was difficult without mass communication and lot still happened by going to your local tavern. They pushed for the First amendment to allow such discussions. I’m only halfway through but I’m learning something I didn’t in school. I believe Jefferson had a quote something like “There will always be a division in the polis and that division is between aristocrats and democrats."
No- that’s why I put conservative within “ “ quotation marks. Don’t ask me to define a movement as incoherent as what self-described American “conservatives” claim to represent.
I will watch "Hot Coffee," the free HBO, 2011, that you recommend. PS in my experience health professionals use the words anger and angry--as a put-down indicating "you" have lost control, but not "me," the health care authority, representative, or provider. Example, complaining to hospital's Patient Care Quality Office, for discharging mental health patients without telling anyone (confidentiality over safety) that subsequently die, "You seem angry. Are you getting help?" an effective put-down. Now that they are dead, being accountable, answerable, a first step being to relay the message to professionals, that current practices and understanding are a root of bad outcomes, is not what employees that come between inquiries and professionals feel like doing; it's not their mandate. They are in place to take pressure off employer's employees, "I don't tell them what to do, they tell me what to do."
Another example. Employees that can't take the heat [title, Hot Coffee echoes, so an unanticipated pun]. Cancer services are accessible to rural and remote patients through, first, a phone interview. Having been put off by doctors' office staff for a few years the patient, a former doctor, found they now have stage-4 lung cancer. They pour out their concerns, regret, grief, are told by the telephone nurse guide (meant to listen and navigate accessing care), "You sound angry to me," listening some more and repeating this until, "I have warned you 3 times, I don't feel safe [on the phone, due to your angry attitude], so I am hanging up now." Care providers, feeling defensive, uncomfortable, deciding the issue is the patient's anger, having been told that if they don't feel safe they need to take care of their personal sense of safety first (apparently violence on health care workers is up, perhaps, as you say, due to lack of policy of patient-centered care--frail ability to level-with a person).
Taking things personally and feeling self-righteous about it, "People disrespecting health care workers," as if it were a priority issue under the circumstances. Regarding training, experience, selection of staff, first thing is one needs a credential and maybe that is an obstacle to hiring staff that would otherwise be compassionate. Using the words angry and anger ("being" angry is a major symptom of what is hurting someone, is maybe what you mean), is an indication one understands a person's point of view doesn't seem notable or revolutionary to me--it is instead your point, that a policy of patient-centered care, competence, is lost, where care providers are to avoid taking communications personally, to get to THE POINT, like a person feeling unheard and experiencing lack of control, because care doesn't come with firm guidelines, including unconditional care and treatment. Victim-blaming. Listen first. Characterizations and judgement is not helpful for a person suffering from illness.
What I've come up with is "J, R, E" = 'justification, rationalization, and excuse' for almost
all types of business behaviour. If business practices go good, 'they[' -' justify' the 'correctness' of those practices. When they go sour, they 'rationalize' it to something/someone else's fault. Then if/when both fail, it becomes 'excuse' for not doing better and mostly because of 'outside' forces beyond our/their control' causing the "failures". Hardly ever do these [[ what I call: 'socio economic parasites' where $$$ - $$$$$$$ is all that really matters ]] express blame or fault for the failures because they've moved on to their next - economic conquest ~ ~ ~ from my P.O.V.
That and the creation and continuation of a "Kakistocracy State," or rule by the least qualified. Remember: trump has NEVER run a successful business; they ALL went banktupt!
Trump was NEVER a businessman. He just played one one television.
Lenore, Robert REich has completed an entire essay and many references to the fact that Trumnpty is a SYMPTOM of how far the US has fallen into greed. Watch theCon.tv and see the documentation of White collar criminality still running the US, excused by every president, including Obama whose DOJ, decriminalized the FRAUD of US... It must be recriminalized. There was never any trials. It is FREE to watch.. SHOCKING
I can't speak for Galbraith, but the underlying shift is to replace "wealth maximization" with "meeting human needs" as the primary motivator of human behavior. Given that there's enough for everyone, the appeal of the later should be self evident.
To put it differently, what is the purpose of our economy?
(A) To provide the goods and service people need.
(B) To allow a few powerful men to become extremely wealthy by exploiting those with much less economic or political power.
With great power comes great responsibility. We have perhaps unwittingly made ourselves stewards of the Earth and its creatures including ourselves. By lifting each other up, we can create more wellbeing and thriving for all. I believe this is the role of true leadership. To be out in front showing others the way for more to thrive. Certainly not to pad our own pockets by giving ourselves unfair advantages or stealing from our partners, employees, and customers.
I agree, Janet. But greed is not just a behavior; I think of it as a disease much akin to hoarding where the sufferer has convinced themselves that they will never have enough (money, possessions, power, respect).
such people are bullies at heart, with no regards for the feelings or welfare of others. I am not a psychologist, but I found this article on psychopathy among CEOs very interesting:
Pat, however, we choose to define greed, whether it is for money or power, I think we can all agree that it is an ever present fungus that is relentlessly destroying our society. Its perpetrators must be reined in either through higher taxes or enforced limits on income and property ownership that recall what In medieval times, were called sumptuary laws.
Ilene, I was making the distinction that greed is not action. It is a motivating desire. For what? Well, we can all fill in the blanks, there are many objects of desire that inspire greed.
I think we need a better-regulated economy, as well. Prior to the 1980s, we did have some pretty wealthy people in the world, but between WWII and Reagan, we were doing at least a half-way good job of keeping the billionaires at bay. Then we got “greed is good,” and we identified the wrong people as “job creators,” and we put our faith in “shareholder capitalism” and “trickle down.”
I prefer "wealth maximization" over "greed" because it's less loaded perhaps allowing us to see it more easily. The fear of not enough money is pervasive and the virtue of seeking maximum value for minimum cost is widely accepted. The issue is to see from a broader perspective what external costs and burdens are being shifted onto others. Our culture has developed cleverly designed systems including the corporation and mutual fund to hide this.
As a mutual fund investor, my primary concern is maximizing return on investment. In most cases I don't know or care what stocks, companies, or products my money is being invested in. The mutual fund managers themselves are also focussed on maximizing return for their shareholders. The point is It will take real creativity to develop new financial and economic models that are more broadly beneficial.
Blaming "others" for greed may not be getting at the root of the problem. Societies change their thinking one person at a time and each of us can play a role.
Societies change in waves and spurts, not one person at a time. Demographics, climate, technology, relations with other societies drive change. Some of these changes can be sudden and long-lasting. As an investor, you must beware of Black Swans.
"Greed" seems appropriate when someone seeks unfair advantage or deception to exploit others for financial gain. An industry may use a strategy of creating deliberate price complexity or lack of transparency to exploit others for example. Artificially constraining supply is another example. Markets are only efficient at setting a fair price when there is a balance of power and information between buyers and sellers. Fairness to all who will be affected seems relevant. Thanks for helping me clarify.
I agree 💯 percent with all of the comments so far. I'd give anything if I could get all of my Republican friends and family members to read this. I'll keep trying that's for sure!!
Keep up the fantastic work Professor Reich. And 3 cheers for standing up to that evil SOB!!! 😈
Of course they support stealing from kids with cancer, they do it all the time. Just won’t admit it, 1st to themselves, ( denial ) next to everyone else, that’s hypocrisy, what follows when greedy, selfish deniers practice their masterful liars ways.
Many years ago, in the early 80's, I was listening to a radio show on the Comminwealth Club, on NPR discussing the possibilities of curing cancer. The presenter on this radio show stated the same thing, that cancer would never be cured, because there would be no money in it, and millions would lose their jobs. I was absolutely flabbergasted, and still am. My apologies, sharing this information on this page, to anyone dealing with this terrible disease.
There are thousands of people today who are doing nothing but Cancer Research with amazing results. In the 80s we never dreamed of vaccines against HPV and melanoma, Crispr and gene splicing, improved surgical techniques and cancer protocols. The progress has been life enhancing for millions and is on going. I feel so sorry for the nay sayers and the cynics who are always looking for the money factor. They are dead wrong about cancer research.
Thanks for all your insights about all the commiment to find cures for cancer. I know my husband's life was extended by IL2 treatments which were a new technology 10 years ago. So I know progress is being made, which makes claims to the contrary all the more astonishing & worrisome.
The progress in cancer research goes on quietly in the labs and actively in hospital settings no matter how people grumble and find fault. As for the perverse view that cancer will never be cured because there is no money in that, I leave that view to others to discuss. It is just alien to you and I.
Janet Adams, maybe you mean this guy, “Big Pharma Millionaire Parting With His Luxury Yacht. Feb 2022. “Zafer Toksoz, Turkish millionaire, owns several businesses, mostly pharma-related, enjoyed vacations onboard the Panakeia, before deciding to put it on the market, asking price, $12.3 million. Despite its age, connoisseurs will appreciate its luxury pedigree.”
Same reason Exxon, et al, are pumping out the propaganda against green energy and EVs. I’ve owned Chrysler vans for 25 years. All were V6s. They got 18-20 mpg in my local small town community and 23-26 on the highway.
I bought a used plug-in hybrid Chrysler van 6 months ago. We took a trip to Houston for 6 weeks. I only used gas as a fuel because charging is a real nuisance and it only gets 30 miles on a full charge anyway. With regeneration and no engine running in traffic jams or at the multitude of lights here, I’m getting 37mpg. That’s bad for Exxon, et al.
What the doctors are telling us is that the real danger is the antibiotics, not vaccines. Is that antibiotics are not profitable? The emergence of antibiotic resistant microbes pose an enormous threat to all humankind, but quacks and politicians are scaring us about vaccines. It's a disgrace!
What the Drs don't tell us is that iron overload is the root cause for many many diseases . Most haven't a clue ,after my husband was diagnosed last year 23 with Hereditary Hemochromatosis ,we had a huge wake up call . We now know many of my husbands relatives died because of a curable disease .The cure blood plebotomys. The AMA doesn't want people to even know as bout it. My husband mom was from Wales ,his father a Mescalero Indian yet they both had this disease. It's a very eye opening ...because it's so gaslighted by the health industry ,yet , they say as many as 1-14 people in the world probley have it. It's so common in Western European states that they check newborns for the disease when their born ,but those are countries with national health plans so they do it for health care cost savings . I won't go further but I was a plebotomist and worked at a lab doing cytology ,and histology then worked for 7 years 40 years ago being a Internists to right hand so I knew the business and do my research . The internist we now have wAs amazed I figured out my husbands diagnosed . He appeared to have dementia , after 26 509ml draws @2 weeks , he's back , being the arsehole he used to be and I love it . But I tell everyone make your Dr check your Ferratin, IBC,iron saturation,and hemoglobin because over time the iron starts building up it causes organ damage ,cancer , dementia , cirrhosis of the liver is usually the take out. We're on iron free diet ,no red meat ,no vitamin C , and that's why going to a store now is easy ,there's nothing in stores anymore that's not either packed in plastic or full of sugar and bad chemicals . High sodium . It's hard to stay healthy and not be full of plastics and chemical compounds . I wish more people would look into this . We just found out now that my nephew has HH so it's in our genes too on my side . If you have it ,it's in the family ,lying quietlyuke a wildfire ,skipping generations but that one relative that died young with liver failure that never frank is usually the big sign .. thx for listening ..you want more info. I'm a walking book on it
Further, it is the corporate capture of all US agencies that are supposed to protect 'our safety', but currently the alliance is to the companies who are regulated, the round robin of company work, into the government to change or better understand , then back to the money making of Corporatocracy. The US has been called the Soviet Union of Corporations...
Dr. Berg, DC, doctor of chiropractics, is a quack. Your assertion that many don’t trust vaccines is just you. “Eric Berg received his Doctor of Chiropractic degree in 1988 from Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa, after studying pre-med at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside from 1983 to 1985 and serving in the Army Reserves, where he was trained in X-ray technology.” Eric Berg is NOT in any “peer reviewed journals.” You swallowed hook, line, and sinker. Just silly, shrill alarmist.
For every “Dr. Berg” there are 30,000 medical professionals who know vaccines are effective and safe. Ha ha!—he’s a fraud, a little research, “Dr. Eric Berg, PhD” simply has “something to sell,” don’t be taken for a ride, “Talk to a Product Advisor to find the best product for you! Call 1-540-299-1556 with your questions about Dr. Berg's products. Product Advisors are available Monday through Friday PST.” Your idea of an expert is a turnip.
Many cancers have been treated and cured. Sarcomas are a type that is still hard to cure, “Much of the research focus is on finding new drugs to treat various types of sarcomas, with modest progress in the area. A once "uniformly fatal" abdominal sarcoma called GIST, is treated with a molecular drug that targets a genetic mutation found in the tumours, leading to "an overnight change in outcome.” Before the drug's discovery, GIST patients had an average life expectancy of 9 months; survival for some patients now is measured in years, for some, as long as 15 years.”
Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican president. He wanted ordinary people to have a chance to earn a living. He thought slavery gave the southern Democratic planters an economic advantage over the small, ordinary people. Those same types of morbidly rich people moved into the Republican party at the invitation of Nixon after LBJ signed the Voting Rights Act. Today's Republican party is no more the party of Lincoln; it's just greedy robber barons trying to steal America from everyone else, fighting against the rule of law.
Back in the day before LBJ Republicans were the good guys and Dems the bad guys.
There has been a 180 degree reversal of the Republican party and a 100 degree reversal of the Democratic party, because of Santa Clara County v Southern Pacific, First National Bank of Boston v Belotti , Veleo v Buckley and Citizens United.
All politicians and parties are dependent on donor cash.
Experiences like yours Keith are proof of the immortality in the short term of “Chainsaw Al’s” vicious “business practices.” Power, Wealth & brief Acclaim for a few, followed by Long term Poverty, Woes & burdensome Agony for the many, when the inevitable Folly runs its Obvious course. Always does, always will.
It was gratifying to learn egomaniac Al got his comeuppance, finally he, too Kicked to the curb. Not soon enough, before his greed ultimately destroyed the businesses
lives, communities and ultimately weakened our nation.
Professor Reich, you are an example of courage that the average working people need to have. You told Dunlap
that American businesses need to take responsibility for their employees because without them these companies would collapse. I personally knew of the Chainsaw because I worked for Kimberly Clark for 32 years and was laid off with over 400 of my fellow employees in 2004. Being 52 years old I had a very difficult time landing another job. Thank goodness our home was paid for because a lot of my fellow workers lost theirs. It was a huge shock to all of us.
Well now we know why the American Dream is turning into a nightmare. Workers are disposable assets
Hopelessness is rampant drugs with the abuse and suicides follow .
A Fair wage should be compromised of actual wages health insurance wages and pension wages paid from day one on the job. This will eliminate the now common less than 35 hours jobs that keep Workers impoverished to the benefit of the owners .
McDonald’s will hire you push up the ranks to manager of shift level but keep you “Part Time” .
As if you don’t contribute to the profits of the company. The structure is Wrong and creates the Patrician’s profits and the Plebs problems.
This labor problem of no pension rights was amplified by Bill Clinton and others Bill Claimed to have created millions of jobs … One Labor Leader agreed saying yes he created jobs I know because now I have Three part time Jobs to my head “above water “ not sinking into poverty.
This disease 🦠 no pension is preached by Democrats And Republicans alike united against the actual citizens that perform the tasks of working and keeping the country going.
Keeping all the profits in the patricians pockets explains the ultra rich the owners they are protected by the
DEVINE RIGHTS OF OWNERS a direct connection back to the Devine Rights Of Kings. We know how that ended…
Citizen J you are correct. My comment is the quality of the pension. When I started to work in the 70’s, we had defined pensions that the company funded. However, you not vested until 10 years of employment and as a Young person, I was astonished by the number of people fired in their ninth year. I earned several years of pension benefits that were never received because of job changes. Thus I was glad to see retirement plans independent and transferable
Between employers in the late 70’s -80’s. For a disciplined saver, these plans are good. For the lower income worker, social security and a non accessible plan are better. I speak from the experience of managing hundreds of lower income employees and working for a company that employed 4,000
I'm only 69, so not sure I can say this with any authority, but the business of business used to be making things and providing services, and thereby making money. Today it seems that the business of business is only to make money. I've worked for small businesses that were bought by mega companies. Overnight the philosophy changed from client focused to shareholder focused, maximizing sales, increasing productivity and increasing billable hours. The product we produced never got better.
Anthony, I totally related to what you said! My daughter and her partner started a small pet crematory business that grew and grew to gigantic proportions!! From a small little shop to a large, well-built establishment. Their whole philosophy was to provide their clients with a service that was truly excellent. Veterinarians used their services, clients came to them for private cremations and they made their business into an example for other crematories. Corporations began to sniff around and offer to purchase. When my daughter and her partner refused to sell, they moved their business into the area and started undercutting. The pressure was extremely horrible!! My daughter and her partner wound up selling the business they had worked all of their adult life on and then watch as the corporation tore down what they had built. They eliminated the extra touches that made their business the best and slowly merged it into their mediocre corporation. It was awful!!
That is very sad yet very common. I know a very successful vet who really cares about her clients and their pets. Corporations, even the military want to buy her out because she has the facility and staff to train military dogs. My best to you, your daughter and her partner.
Thank you, Tom. I feel for that vet because I know her intentions are honorable and good. Corporations tear that down and replace it with mediocre and profit and greed. It is truly sad. Don't you worry about my daughter and her partner. They have begun another business; however, they intend to keep this one small so no corporations come sniffing around!! They love what they do and both of them will always land on their feet!! Please let your vet friend know, I am thinking about her and hope that everything works out well!
Thank you, Peggy. She has been in the military, knows how they work and is also very savvy about what is going on in business. She tends to stay one step ahead. Values over money. Wow, what an idea!
Oh my gosh, Janet!! I have been hearing a lot of the horror stories about these corporations trampling all over businesses! Buying them all up and then producing a cheaper substitute and eventually closing it down! It is unbelievable!!
A big US chocolate bar manufacturer now owns hundreds of vet clinics previously held by the vet . Imagine that, a chocolate bar manufacturer owning veterinarian practices. My sister worked for one as a vet and hated her inability to be flexible to her clients' needs. She retired early.
Anthony, human food producers already are successfully operating employee Health offices/ clinics with physicians, PA’s, RN and in house Pharmacies . These
Operations have hours that are more suited to the employee and their children with office hours after 5:00’for two shifts and Nights. Copay’s are $15:00 . These operations are better than urgent care and private investment group operated
I agree, Tom. For years, we took our pets to a husband-and-wife vet clinic. When they retired last year, they arranged to send all their patients to a big clinic on the other side of town. We checked the place out, and didn't like it. When I asked our vets if they could recommend another small clinic, they said that all the places they knew of had gone "corporate," and that's how vet schools were training students now, with the corporate mindset: order all possible tests, go with the first diagnosis in the book, rather than actually paying a lot of attention to the animal. Cha-ching!!
We just came back from our very small pharmacy owned and operated by an Indian (as in India) American pharmacist. He is just a few blocks from Walgreens which has bought out other small pharmacies in the area.
He has a few loyal staff, but he is often there by himself. He is struggling but so far so good. He provides great service and information.
The store slogan is: Your trust is our achievement.
I hope he is never given an offer he can't refuse.
Peggy, my sister's brother-in-law is a doctor who had to stop practicing in his town because he would have had to join a large practice and the insurance companies would not pay him as a solo doctor who worked through all the local hospitals. For a while he went around the country doing surgeries in mostly small hospitals as needed, but that takes more energy than he could spare, so he now assesses patients for potential surgeries to see if insurance companies will pay for them. What a come down just because we have permitted insurance corporations like other corporations to put shareholders ahead of workers, customers, and communities, and have permitted them to merge and absorb (steal) other companies at will. We do have antitrust laws on the books, but alas, don't seem to have the will to honor those laws while we waste huge amounts of our legal time and effort on a whiny con artist who has broken so many laws it is hard to know where to begin, which is part of the reason more than 3 years after he incited an insurrection, he has still not been tried and is still running to become president again. This is nuts!
I agree, Ruth! It begs the question, 'Why have these antitrust laws and other laws that are simply being trampled upon? If we are not going to hold people, CEOs, corporations accountable then are we just not giving them our country to do with as they please? I grew up believing in the law. It was there to protect me. All I am seeing now is that those rich, entitled, spoiled brats at the top are saying those laws do not apply to me and I will use my army of litigators to delay and subvert until the other side finally caves and gives up. That is just not natural and should never be allowed. We, as a people, need to say enough is enough!! You break the law, you will be held accountable and that is the end of it. This has all become an absolute nightmare and there doesn't seem like the light at the end of the tunnel is burning very bright!!
Peggy, you're right about the armies of lawyers nitpicking the law to find just the tiny loophole that will permit delays and more delays while they look for more tiny loopholes that judges should dismiss but usually don't because it is the rich guys who have power the judges and justices don't want to interfere with. Why is that? They should not be beholden to those rich guys, but as we have seen with our Supreme Conservatives, they are beholden and think they know which side of the bread their butter is on despite the fact that in reality it is the American people who butter their bread. The law must be the law for everyone, but we have been watching how Trump and Kump have gotten years of delays for crimes we actually have physical evidence he has committed. This is nuts! Then there are the judges/justices who have conflicts of interest but do not recuse themselves, probably because they owe their job or something to Trump, or Trump has something on them. No judge appointed by a particular president should be able to sit on a case that involves that president, ever!
I agree, Ruth. You know what got me the most? Your last sentence "No judge appointed by a particular president should be able to sit on a case that involves that president, ever!" I cannot believe we have reached the point in our country where another president is facing criminal charges!! I know Nixon resigned rather than face what he did, but I feel the majority of republicans and Democrats alike handled that correctly. They did not tolerate him breaking the law and these politicians that are supporting trump should take their lessons from their predecessors!! It completely boggles the mind!!
Peggy, the problem is or rather a problem is that Republicans have done their best to rewrite history, as usual. They have forgotten what Nixon did and pretend it was nothing. I am thinking it does not seem like much when one considers the crimes Donald Trump has committed, but with Fox out there pumping out lies about Trump's prowess and pushing all kinds of harmful actions by Republican legislatures, Republicans can't even think at all. It seems our judicial system has given Trump and Kump far more leeway than they have given anyone in the past and seem to still be doing it. How is it those Trump lawyers are allowed to subvert our judicial system as they have. It requires the judges and justices to go along with it, and they have. No judge or justice appointed by Trump should be able to serve on any case involving Trump at any level, but that is not what has happened. Even judges ignorant of how the law works like Judge Cannon and that idiot in Texas who ruled on a drug he knew nothing about have been allowed to get away with the harm they have done. I am thinking that right now, our only saving grace would be for Democrats to win big at all levels in November. However, Democrats give up too easily and don't vote unless the candidate is practically perfect in every way. I hope that changes, but I am not holding my breath.
Peggy, my heart is with you and your daughter & her partner’s challenges from predatory competitive businesses in our country. It’s become a cancer eating away at the health of our business environment. As a retired small business owner, makes aware how deeply sad both the personal loss is and how much their community has lost in a level of personal commitment and personal care that can never be replaced by impersonal corporations.
Janet, you may want to add… Dominated in Congress by the GOPutin Party. Abraham Lincoln is rolling in horror in his grave. What he so nobly sacrificed his life for our Country, collusion with greedy one(s) easily bought.
Anthony, you are so right. Two members of my family experienced that. New CEOs came into power in their corporations and the whole atmosphere changed from being a family-oriented entity to something that cared nothing for anything but "the bottom line" which meant money to shareholders or to the top guy (or gal in the case of one of them ) and the workers became just pawns to be used and abused, then laid off when the corporate mood struck. That has not changed and it is just plain wrong, but both corporations my family members worked for are going on and I don't see either getting better.
The story you tell happens many times a day, Ruth, all over the country. I worked for four corporations, three of which underwent the scenario you describe. The fourth one went down with Enron.
We need to spend our money as much as possible to support small businesses. Too many large corporations are monopolies, restricting our ability to do so. Strong unions are our only hope of change. And voting against this system.
This has been accepted by all Americans for over 40 years. We are all goggled over listening to someone as mealy mouthed as Muskrat, sitting in an interview yelling “Fuc_ them “ several times.
But most cannot tell you what the Marshall plan was. Elon Muskraker is a phony bully hiding a big secret! And it isn’t that he is smart. He is crass and vulgar and pathetic.
To Robert Reich, thank you very much for today's letter on one of the worst human beings to live. There is the Common Good, and then there is the uncommon bad. I was a young man, and Al Dunlap was in the MSM as both a hero to some and the death knell for thousands of skilled and semi-skilled workers in America. Al was really a terrible person and ruined many people's lives. The 45th President and Al are like brothers in arms even if they'd never met. Today’s letter exemplifies how important historical perspectives are, and the information purveyed a great reminder of how rotten some people were in life.
The antidote is to win big to make changes. Want no more Dunlaps?
To protect American democracy, reach out to millions of unregistered likely Democrats using a dedicated database using every outreach method possible (phone and text, postcard, email and targeted ad, and in-person too), where new Democratic voters will make the most impact – in the most flippable states and districts.
Daniel, "Christians" who love Trump don't like that one because they want to be rich but also expect to go to heaven, and will hurt as many people as they can to get there.
Ruth - I have siblings who are drumpfers, and when I ask them where they learned christianity was a choose and pick buffet, they stop talking to me. silence can be golden.
Great article Mr. Reich. I believe in responsible capitalism, i.e. when corporations understand that elevating their profits means making sure they have a properly paid, well adjusted and reasonably content work force. It should be the responsibility of every corporation to ensure this, instead of merely considering the bottom line. I am someone who watches CNBC daily, and it bothers me when speakers always mention how certain CEO"s "cost cutting" measures are going to increase profitability! I understand recalculating unnecessary costs, but how does one really evaluate the damage it might do to a whole community, its people and therefore to the country as a whole. We all pay for all the drug addicts, the psychologically damaged unemployed workers, their children who grow up having less chances for their future... we must learn to calculate the costs of such irresponsibilities.
We cling to the word "capitalism" because we fear the alternatives. For capitalism to be responsible, it would have to be re-engineered beyond recognition so that workers were valued and no one accumulated a billion dollars of personal wealth.
There's also the opposite situation, as Reich describes today, when CEO compensation is tied to profitability, with the understanding that profitability should increase at any cost. The first action is ALWAYS cutting head count, no matter what that does to product quality or customer service levels. The more people who get the ax, the better the bottom line looks, at least in the short term. If sales start to dip because of that low quality or lack of service, the answer is more cuts! Along with finding more things to monetize. Your phone used to come with a charge cord? Well, not anymore. Now it's an accessory you have to purchase. You used to get a free el cheapo check cover when you ordered new checks from your bank? Nope, that baby costs $4.99 now. And if you have to call your bank about an issue, good luck! Your wait time just expanded to 45 minutes.
This could be an interesting debate I would love to take part inMr. Kelm. I have nothing against accumulating wealth, as long as it is not done at someone else's expense. And that seems to be the culture of many of our corporations. Maybe we should change the word, if it has a negative connotations. And I would agree that it would have to be re-engineered. I just hope that when it reaches the "beyond recognition" point, it still allows for the entrepreneurs, ambitious souls and the visionaries to excel.
"Chainsaw" Al Dunlap's actions caused Sunbeam corporation to go bankrupt. The shareholders lost everything! So much for 'maximizing shareholder value"!
Economic growth only means the rich are getting richer. Capitalism is a pyramid scheme and it's working as intended. You cannot successfully regulate psychopaths. Corporations are predators, run by literal psychopaths. They need to die before they kill the rest of us. I cannot understand why we continue tolerate their destruction and abuse. Thousands of years of this cycle and our species has learned nothing.
And the likelihood of our extended ignorance is very high. Your comments Jasmine make me feel less alone in the world. I remember a book several years ago entitled, "There are Men Too Gentle to Live with Wolves." The more I examined our economy, the better I understood the book.
I'm tired of hearing that nonsense quote. Kennedy was human and often wrong. Boats in the ocean are not the same as people trying to survive in the system of unregulated capitalism on steroids. And Trump hates dogs.
Valid for about 80% of the general population For Gen X and Gen Z who have skills and traits that may be marketable and "transferrable." Not for people who do not have the capacity to perform "substantial gainful activities."
To most of the world, the US is still a land of opportunity for that 80%.
I disagree. Where did you get those numbers? If there are few jobs, and people don't have money to pay for goods and services, you can't make a small business profit. Haven't you heard that many college grads with loans are underemployed? You're wrong.
Vocational experts in disability and other kinds of cases for more than 40 years. If people of work age have skills they can be placed. It's skewed, so that people older than 45 have less of a chance than "younger" individuals, and that's why I say Gen X and Gen Z.
I also worked with discharges from the military. 15% of the general population cannot pass the AFQT, Armed Forces Qualification Tests. The rest can be placed if they have acquired skills.
The unemployment rate is the lowest it's been in history.
A comment just on your statement about unemployment, Daniel. On paper, yes, the rate may be low. But that percentage hides a lot of ugly, inconvenient truths. Some of these are situations that didn't necessarily exist a decade ago, or at least, weren't as widespread.
Here, I'm mainly referring to contractors and gig workers, many of whom would rather be on company payrolls as employees. I doubt that most of the people who are doing Door Dash would prefer it to a steady, wage-earning job. Ditto with contractors providing say, admin or website maintenance or similar services. All of these people are technically employed, but in precarious situations with no guaranteed wages and no benefits. Also, they may have to work odd hours or be on-call, standing by but not actively working, so not getting paid.
Then there's the trend of having people work 35 or 37 hours a week. They're essentially working full-time, but employers don't have to provide benefits.
Then there are all the people who've had to take huge pay and/or benefits cuts to get or keep their jobs. Or the ones who are highly qualified in one way or another, but who are big-box greeters or clerks because they can't get anything else. Or the ones who've been unemployed so long, they've fallen off the rolls. Maybe they can't get jobs because of age, lack of ability, or they can't physically do the only jobs they might land. And on and on, including the scenarios that Gloria listed.
Those unemployment numbers are, to put it charitably, quite misleading. The real story is much more bleak.
Have you heard of underemployment and multiple part time job employment? "Placed" where? I would expect that belief and attitude from those who callsthemselves "vocational experts." They work mostly for worker's compensation insurers. I know from personal experience what happens if you are considered to have a disability because I have a collagen deficiency disorder that causes many "strange and unexplainable symptoms" unless you are aware of the diagnosis. I also worked for a vocational rehabilitation business and was so upset everyday by the way victims were lied to by medical professionals, and what they required of those people in order to get their compensation that I had to quit for the sake of my own mental health. And I had five children to support with no insurance. Some physicians in health care are starting to use the term "moral injury" and considering law suits when they are forced to comply with insurance and medical system policies that they consider immoral in order to remain employed.
I spent 35 years with General Motors. They continually announced plans to raise employee morale and attempted to cut worker benefits and lay folks off. There were two schools of thought among employees...the first an unthinking and unswerving loyalty that was so sure the company would always do the best by it employees. Others , like myself saw only the terrible decisions that this unswerving loyalty and a stunning environment of nepotism could only result in long term disaster. When I announced to my supervision that this could not go on and that I was cashing in my stockin my 401 retirement plan, they all thought I was crazy. I cashed it all in and quickly retired. Shortly after the corporation went bankrupt. Thank goodness I did. I was condemned as not being that kind of person prized above all...a "Team Player". I guess it had finally just become too much for me to stomach. I see around me now those folks who were and how they lost all their retirement savings and recall their their amazing smugness and arrogance. So much for being a team player. But this is just one person's experience with corporate America. I have a friend who retired as a VP of Target and he is, thankfully, doing just fine. Your mileage may vary.
"Team playing" managers were as vulnerable as the line workers. Stockholders took a bath but didn't necessarily lose their livelihoods. Everyone involved in the industry should have known it was cut throat. https://repository.law.umich.edu/context/mlr/article/6091/viewcontent
In the 70s I was involved with the industry -- we represented Ford in about 13 counties in Pa. I also represented local dealers. Lived 30 miles from the now defunct Lordstown Fisher Body plant.
The 1989 film "Roger and Me" should have tipped everyone off. Michael Moore documented the business strategy of General Motors' then-chairman, Roger Smith. "Roger and Me chronicles Michael Moore's long quest to confront Smith with the human consequences of his business decisions on Moore's hometown of Flint, Michigan, where GM eliminated 30,000 jobs." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_%26_Me
I was a financial consultant with a brokerage firm who saw the changes coming to the industry and retired after 41 years. It used to be a business where all customers were treated equally and I tried to help them with their investments, but that wasn't the goal of the firm who just wanted profits at all costs. And the type of investments became shadier and shadier. The derivatives started out ok, but soon became more like scams.
I think so. Companies can leverage better scale on the WWW (to focus on one major tech change the past decades) with global markets(-winner take-all) and so it's eat or be eaten. Financialization. Technology and bigness also changes how we interact on a moral basis in the sense most probably have a different attitude on their obligations toward a conglomerate versus their locally owned corner market. Does this have a broader effect ? IDK.
American corporations "behave" as entities separate from their "place." They do not pay taxes; their executives don't pay taxes, don't pay into Social Security, don't support policies and practices that support workers and communities; they very often commit crimes against the environment. They use what might be considered legitimate human need, human emotion, human suffering for marketing and selling and profit-making. When the profits are insufficient, they will abandon people and communities and move to where their profit-making resumes and their parasitic "behaviors" attach to a new host, new humans, new communities, repeating the same patterns. They are paradoxically un-American and totally American.
"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness." - John Kenneth Galbraith
I say, they [those at the top] don't have to conspire, because they all think alike. The president of General Motors and the president of Chase Manhattan Bank really are not going to disagree much on anything, nor would the editor of the New York Times disagree with them. They all tend to think quite alike, otherwise they would not be in those jobs.
~Gore Vidal
I spent the last few days watching theCon.tv, 5 episodes that trace the origins of the banking/mortgage fiasco of 2008 through the complete lack of accountability from every one of the presidents including Obama, and trumpty. A gal on this site recommended it. It took me over two days to watch this as it is horrendous and still ongoing. Corportocracy and Corruption run the US. I would like to see you, Robert Reich rebut this after watching it and the comments post. The movie, The Big Short, was only one small dimension of the severe white collar criminality, corporate capture that owns the US. WE need an FDR NOW>. not in a few years... If I knew how to give you the connection, I would. Perhaps the gal who shared this prior will see this and offer it... Thank you Janet!! Deregulation, desupervision, then Decriminalization by our beloved DOJ>.
I, for one, do not believe - scratch that - know that one person will never be able to change the state of affairs. It will have to be a team effort. We must change ourselves. R. Reich has alluded to if not outright said this repeatedly - the current system we are in rewards the bad behavior and then proceeds to protect it because THAT is how the system is designed. The regulation needed to change that must necessarily step away from the property/value model and move towards a virtue/result model. And Capital will fight tooth and nail to never go in that direction. I do not have an answer, except a fantasy/sci-fi one - the removal of scarcity. I hope you get your interview and thanks for the suggestions.
painedumonde, I think you are correct. It will take many of us arising to turn this filthy tide. I think people need to watch theCon.tv. and then perhaps they will be riled up enough to act. It feels like voting is only a tiny part of it.. This takes a leader and a group of followers who have the COURAGE, a seemingly RARE trait, with the support of many of 'we the people" demanding and encouraging. The playbook has been written by FDR, but new dimensions will require use of strategies like Eminent Domain, past tax due now the Corruption is Uncovered and newly held accountable with jail time. The past Presidents also need to be put in historically accurate context as PROTECTORS OF THE WHITE COLLAR CRIMINALS. WE ARE the SOVIET UNION of CORPORATIONS. How does that criminality feel???
One small act of rising up, is dumping the monopolistic utilities as much as possible. We are entering a period where you can just about become free of fossil fuels, and the business that provide them.
Solar PV cost have come down, while module efficiency has gone up. To be amost free, you also need batteries, improved home efficiency and appliances, and of course an EV vs. a gas car. That is a lot of stuff coming from business, but with it you also get to greatly reduce your CO2 emissions - that MUST be eliminated.
You need enough solar power to meet your winter 'good' day needs. You need enough batteries to shift daytime solar power to cover nighttime energy consumption. You need a sunny space for the panels. Add heat pump water heaters, with a source of the warmest air available. You need mini-split heat pumps for space heating. You need the EV which can be charged from your solar. You still need some way to get power on those cloudy days without power. That could be the new role for the utilities - back up power. Most people can't afford all these changes easily. One of the biggest obstacle is the suitable property, if not shaded by tree hugging regulations.
Perhaps the way to solve the property problem, is to establish a cooperative to fund and place solar on a different cheap property that has the necessary sun, and pay the utilities only to ship your energy to you. Of course that is what the utilites already do, but they own the cheap sunny property now under the grants of our sneaky government, and can charge what they can get away with, for the free energy - forever.
But for a lucky few, they can afford the suitable property, and can afford the investment.
A small or medium co op structure would solve a lot of the design problems and it would also spread risks over a larger base.
I helped a guy from Merrill Lynch write a book about that time, and I just read a lot of The Con page precis of the documentaries. Serious stuff!
Not only did banks make money encouraging an explosion of liar’s loans, they bundled those loans together into “investment products” and sold shares in them to people who would make their money as a share of all the bundled mortgage payments that came through. Many, many loans making money for investors as long as homeowners could keep up with payments, and then for whatever reason {maybe the ARM went up!}, they struggled or stopped and all of a sudden, the investment wasn’t worth garbage and the homeonwers had nobody to talk about how to refi because about a zilllion investors owned their damned mortgage … and it all went BUST.
And then there was something called a “credit default swap” that somehow indemnified the guy who sold the lousy investments … and then somehow some of the guys made money whether the investments went up or went over a cliff … The schemes were legion. And we bailed out the banks {thanks Dubya!!} and nobody else.
It was a sick and cruel time. And the reverberations are still with us ….
Further, Pat, Your 'good guy' Biden just nominated Andrew Biggs a Nazi waiting to privatize social security to the Social Security Commission. Call your Senators office now to request a NO vote on this absurd nomination. Reich keeps telling us that Biden is ok. Biden is a Corporatist that does a little for us and a lot in the back door for the Autocrats that have overtaken us. Biggs is another autocrat, oligarch, nazi type.
Further, Vicky, it was Mitch McConnell who proposed Biggs for the SS board, which must be a bi-partisan board.
I don’t know where you get the “Nazi type” from … I don’t know enough about him, other than that he has a long history of involvement with SS, not only on the board, and he does support raising the retirement age …
You painting Biden with this brush is just misinformation.
There’s certainly no shortage of things to be addressed in our government, but claiming that Biden and the Democrats are on a footing with the Republican Oligarch Machine is just so much trolling …
The rot is still in power and round robbing into our WASHington Government. This is not gone... That is a fable.
Those days were brutal!
God, as a fellow atheist, I miss Gore Vidal and Christopher Hitchens. We need their voices today more than ever. The origins of trumpism can be traced directly to Ronald Reagan. Those two understood perhaps better than any “news” people of that time that Reagan was a nemesis posing as your avuncular uncle.
I love that quote, because it so succinctly sums up the “conservative” ethos.
Graham, yet, I suspect not one of them would admit to it. They don't want to be seen as selfish while everything they do is at least intended to get for themselves and protect what they have gotten. I would love to see someone confront some of the "top" conservatives today with that quote on air. I'd love to hear how they either dismiss the quote, bash Galbraith or in some other way pretend it isn't true, for them at least. I doubt anyone has the guts to do it, but it would be fun/interesting.
I don't know about that, Ruth. Since Reagan & his "greed is good" philosophy, it seems that many people, especially corporate executives & others wielding the levers of power, proudly exhibit their greed & selfishness.
and built rocket ships for pleasure and other meaningless things
Driverless cars come to mind instead of rebuilding and upgrading our railroad system.
Jaime, you are right about that. I had forgotten just how proud a lot of rich guys are about the greed etc. that got them their wealth, lying that they had done it all on their own, you know, that ridiculous bootstraps nonsense. I understand a lot of that pride came from the movie "Wall Street," when the character proclaimed that "greed is good." I guess it is for the very rich, but the rest of us need to wake up and see that it is not a good thing and that good people don't need to be greedy. The rich don't care about what is good beyond what is good for them.
Sadly, it is Katie Porter who confronted them with her white board and she will not return to the House. That is a great loss.
I’m hoping she will be appointed to some other position that utilizes her expertise.
Barbara, maybe the head or assistant head of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. She would do some good there, or the Budget office. I know Biden would find an effective place for her.
Altruistic billionaires—if there really were such an animal, the question is, would they still be billionaires?
re a boss that cares about people and community (and would-then they be rich?) Characterization of a "failing" generous boss, that benevolent (well meaning and kindly) don't go together with financial success is a trope (if-then-else), known, recognized, criticized--example, Christmas Carol, 1843, "Dickens uses the character Fezziwig, as an example of how an altruistic employer creates a sense of family and community in the workplace. A model of compassion, kindness and generosity, Fezziwig shows an option for upper class business men." "Young Scrooge loved his boss, Fezziwig. Young Scrooge says, “If ever I own a firm of my own, I shall treat my apprentices with the same dignity and respect.” "Scrooge's fear, like many in the Victorian Age, is an impoverished life, resulting in a fixation on money. No matter how much wealth he attains, background, habit, and attitude means it is never enough."
I think people can become wealthy and still be very good and benevolent people, but not many will get to be billionaires — well, maybe if they write a REALLY good book … !
Welcome to the Victorian jungle. Resembles 21st century USA.
Greed ethos is actually a more accurate summation of this type of business “model /philosophy.” In reality it’s a form of “legalized” Ponzi scheme.
I have to wonder if the definition of "conservative" is the same today as it was taught to me in the 60's in my high school economics class. Would you, Graham, be willing to define your term "conservative ethos?" I'm simply curious as I grew up in CT, and I know that others around the country were taught (or believed) something different.
If I had to guess, even conservatives have changed their views over the years, thus likely their own definition of themselves. There is forever a “new” way of thinking about how to do business, some good, some bad. Think about how “conservatives” during the mid 70’s pushed their view as the world went into an economic decline. “We’re got a better idea”, they said. That brought us Reagan Economics and the country fell for it, lock, stock and barrel. And here we are. All one has to do, is look at what has happened to two of the greatest companies this country has ever produced, GE and Boeing, to see what’s gone wrong with shareholder power. What these corporate heads never seem to understand, is, that once you turn that corner and no longer have any interest in the public, that the public generally has the final say with their pocketbook. While that takes time, once your reputation is shot, U.S. nearly impossible to get it back. That is where Boeing is at present. And that management thought process almost always ends up with it coming an end which serves no one, even investors. It’s all short term gain at the expense of long term stability. Or should I say, ME NOT THEE!
If the executive gets a huge bonus for a quarterly rise, two, three, four, six times … then the company goes bust … the executive still has all those bonuses in the bank….
I’m starting to separate “conservatives” from “Republicans” and “leftists” from “Democrats”. I’ve been reading “The Other Founders” by Saul Cornell which chronicles the debate between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists prior to the making of the US Constitution in 1789 and which continued through 1828. These anti-Federalists were primarily responsible for getting the Bill of Rights into the new constitution. They were very wary of governing from afar and so preferred trial by jury by peers rather than far off judges. Debating these ideas was difficult without mass communication and lot still happened by going to your local tavern. They pushed for the First amendment to allow such discussions. I’m only halfway through but I’m learning something I didn’t in school. I believe Jefferson had a quote something like “There will always be a division in the polis and that division is between aristocrats and democrats."
No- that’s why I put conservative within “ “ quotation marks. Don’t ask me to define a movement as incoherent as what self-described American “conservatives” claim to represent.
Dunlap was neither liberal nor conservative. He was mercenary.
I will watch "Hot Coffee," the free HBO, 2011, that you recommend. PS in my experience health professionals use the words anger and angry--as a put-down indicating "you" have lost control, but not "me," the health care authority, representative, or provider. Example, complaining to hospital's Patient Care Quality Office, for discharging mental health patients without telling anyone (confidentiality over safety) that subsequently die, "You seem angry. Are you getting help?" an effective put-down. Now that they are dead, being accountable, answerable, a first step being to relay the message to professionals, that current practices and understanding are a root of bad outcomes, is not what employees that come between inquiries and professionals feel like doing; it's not their mandate. They are in place to take pressure off employer's employees, "I don't tell them what to do, they tell me what to do."
Another example. Employees that can't take the heat [title, Hot Coffee echoes, so an unanticipated pun]. Cancer services are accessible to rural and remote patients through, first, a phone interview. Having been put off by doctors' office staff for a few years the patient, a former doctor, found they now have stage-4 lung cancer. They pour out their concerns, regret, grief, are told by the telephone nurse guide (meant to listen and navigate accessing care), "You sound angry to me," listening some more and repeating this until, "I have warned you 3 times, I don't feel safe [on the phone, due to your angry attitude], so I am hanging up now." Care providers, feeling defensive, uncomfortable, deciding the issue is the patient's anger, having been told that if they don't feel safe they need to take care of their personal sense of safety first (apparently violence on health care workers is up, perhaps, as you say, due to lack of policy of patient-centered care--frail ability to level-with a person).
Taking things personally and feeling self-righteous about it, "People disrespecting health care workers," as if it were a priority issue under the circumstances. Regarding training, experience, selection of staff, first thing is one needs a credential and maybe that is an obstacle to hiring staff that would otherwise be compassionate. Using the words angry and anger ("being" angry is a major symptom of what is hurting someone, is maybe what you mean), is an indication one understands a person's point of view doesn't seem notable or revolutionary to me--it is instead your point, that a policy of patient-centered care, competence, is lost, where care providers are to avoid taking communications personally, to get to THE POINT, like a person feeling unheard and experiencing lack of control, because care doesn't come with firm guidelines, including unconditional care and treatment. Victim-blaming. Listen first. Characterizations and judgement is not helpful for a person suffering from illness.
Whut?
I think this conversation has gone off the rails, Betsy
Rationalization is a powerful defense mechanism.
What I've come up with is "J, R, E" = 'justification, rationalization, and excuse' for almost
all types of business behaviour. If business practices go good, 'they[' -' justify' the 'correctness' of those practices. When they go sour, they 'rationalize' it to something/someone else's fault. Then if/when both fail, it becomes 'excuse' for not doing better and mostly because of 'outside' forces beyond our/their control' causing the "failures". Hardly ever do these [[ what I call: 'socio economic parasites' where $$$ - $$$$$$$ is all that really matters ]] express blame or fault for the failures because they've moved on to their next - economic conquest ~ ~ ~ from my P.O.V.
That and the creation and continuation of a "Kakistocracy State," or rule by the least qualified. Remember: trump has NEVER run a successful business; they ALL went banktupt!
Trump was NEVER a businessman. He just played one one television.
Exactly, and no one personifies this more than Donald Trump!
Lenore, Robert REich has completed an entire essay and many references to the fact that Trumnpty is a SYMPTOM of how far the US has fallen into greed. Watch theCon.tv and see the documentation of White collar criminality still running the US, excused by every president, including Obama whose DOJ, decriminalized the FRAUD of US... It must be recriminalized. There was never any trials. It is FREE to watch.. SHOCKING
Well Said…
I can't speak for Galbraith, but the underlying shift is to replace "wealth maximization" with "meeting human needs" as the primary motivator of human behavior. Given that there's enough for everyone, the appeal of the later should be self evident.
To put it differently, what is the purpose of our economy?
(A) To provide the goods and service people need.
(B) To allow a few powerful men to become extremely wealthy by exploiting those with much less economic or political power.
With great power comes great responsibility. We have perhaps unwittingly made ourselves stewards of the Earth and its creatures including ourselves. By lifting each other up, we can create more wellbeing and thriving for all. I believe this is the role of true leadership. To be out in front showing others the way for more to thrive. Certainly not to pad our own pockets by giving ourselves unfair advantages or stealing from our partners, employees, and customers.
I agree, Janet. But greed is not just a behavior; I think of it as a disease much akin to hoarding where the sufferer has convinced themselves that they will never have enough (money, possessions, power, respect).
such people are bullies at heart, with no regards for the feelings or welfare of others. I am not a psychologist, but I found this article on psychopathy among CEOs very interesting:
https://fortune.com/2021/06/06/corporate-psychopaths-business-leadership-csr/
Greed is a type of overwhelming and selfish desire. It motivates behavior. It is not behavior in itself.
Pat, however, we choose to define greed, whether it is for money or power, I think we can all agree that it is an ever present fungus that is relentlessly destroying our society. Its perpetrators must be reined in either through higher taxes or enforced limits on income and property ownership that recall what In medieval times, were called sumptuary laws.
Ilene, I was making the distinction that greed is not action. It is a motivating desire. For what? Well, we can all fill in the blanks, there are many objects of desire that inspire greed.
I think we need a better-regulated economy, as well. Prior to the 1980s, we did have some pretty wealthy people in the world, but between WWII and Reagan, we were doing at least a half-way good job of keeping the billionaires at bay. Then we got “greed is good,” and we identified the wrong people as “job creators,” and we put our faith in “shareholder capitalism” and “trickle down.”
Lots to adjust and fix.
If greed is learned behavior, who teaches it?
I prefer "wealth maximization" over "greed" because it's less loaded perhaps allowing us to see it more easily. The fear of not enough money is pervasive and the virtue of seeking maximum value for minimum cost is widely accepted. The issue is to see from a broader perspective what external costs and burdens are being shifted onto others. Our culture has developed cleverly designed systems including the corporation and mutual fund to hide this.
As a mutual fund investor, my primary concern is maximizing return on investment. In most cases I don't know or care what stocks, companies, or products my money is being invested in. The mutual fund managers themselves are also focussed on maximizing return for their shareholders. The point is It will take real creativity to develop new financial and economic models that are more broadly beneficial.
Blaming "others" for greed may not be getting at the root of the problem. Societies change their thinking one person at a time and each of us can play a role.
Societies change in waves and spurts, not one person at a time. Demographics, climate, technology, relations with other societies drive change. Some of these changes can be sudden and long-lasting. As an investor, you must beware of Black Swans.
"Greed" seems appropriate when someone seeks unfair advantage or deception to exploit others for financial gain. An industry may use a strategy of creating deliberate price complexity or lack of transparency to exploit others for example. Artificially constraining supply is another example. Markets are only efficient at setting a fair price when there is a balance of power and information between buyers and sellers. Fairness to all who will be affected seems relevant. Thanks for helping me clarify.
I agree 💯 percent with all of the comments so far. I'd give anything if I could get all of my Republican friends and family members to read this. I'll keep trying that's for sure!!
Keep up the fantastic work Professor Reich. And 3 cheers for standing up to that evil SOB!!! 😈
We appreciate you!! ❤️🇺🇸💙
Ask them if they support stealing from kids with cancer.
They don’t care about anyone but themselves.
It depends....
On an individual basis it's relatively easy to deal with it. MAGATS are visceral -- issues mean nothing.
But for those with something to lose, lots of epiphanies.
👍🏼Great come back for them Daniel!
Of course they support stealing from kids with cancer, they do it all the time. Just won’t admit it, 1st to themselves, ( denial ) next to everyone else, that’s hypocrisy, what follows when greedy, selfish deniers practice their masterful liars ways.
Daniel, are you asking them to lie to you?
Many years ago, in the early 80's, I was listening to a radio show on the Comminwealth Club, on NPR discussing the possibilities of curing cancer. The presenter on this radio show stated the same thing, that cancer would never be cured, because there would be no money in it, and millions would lose their jobs. I was absolutely flabbergasted, and still am. My apologies, sharing this information on this page, to anyone dealing with this terrible disease.
There are thousands of people today who are doing nothing but Cancer Research with amazing results. In the 80s we never dreamed of vaccines against HPV and melanoma, Crispr and gene splicing, improved surgical techniques and cancer protocols. The progress has been life enhancing for millions and is on going. I feel so sorry for the nay sayers and the cynics who are always looking for the money factor. They are dead wrong about cancer research.
And much else, Joan. Scientist don't do it for the money, which is not to say that they don't appreciate it.
Thanks for all your insights about all the commiment to find cures for cancer. I know my husband's life was extended by IL2 treatments which were a new technology 10 years ago. So I know progress is being made, which makes claims to the contrary all the more astonishing & worrisome.
The progress in cancer research goes on quietly in the labs and actively in hospital settings no matter how people grumble and find fault. As for the perverse view that cancer will never be cured because there is no money in that, I leave that view to others to discuss. It is just alien to you and I.
Janet Adams, maybe you mean this guy, “Big Pharma Millionaire Parting With His Luxury Yacht. Feb 2022. “Zafer Toksoz, Turkish millionaire, owns several businesses, mostly pharma-related, enjoyed vacations onboard the Panakeia, before deciding to put it on the market, asking price, $12.3 million. Despite its age, connoisseurs will appreciate its luxury pedigree.”
Same reason Exxon, et al, are pumping out the propaganda against green energy and EVs. I’ve owned Chrysler vans for 25 years. All were V6s. They got 18-20 mpg in my local small town community and 23-26 on the highway.
I bought a used plug-in hybrid Chrysler van 6 months ago. We took a trip to Houston for 6 weeks. I only used gas as a fuel because charging is a real nuisance and it only gets 30 miles on a full charge anyway. With regeneration and no engine running in traffic jams or at the multitude of lights here, I’m getting 37mpg. That’s bad for Exxon, et al.
What the doctors are telling us is that the real danger is the antibiotics, not vaccines. Is that antibiotics are not profitable? The emergence of antibiotic resistant microbes pose an enormous threat to all humankind, but quacks and politicians are scaring us about vaccines. It's a disgrace!
What the Drs don't tell us is that iron overload is the root cause for many many diseases . Most haven't a clue ,after my husband was diagnosed last year 23 with Hereditary Hemochromatosis ,we had a huge wake up call . We now know many of my husbands relatives died because of a curable disease .The cure blood plebotomys. The AMA doesn't want people to even know as bout it. My husband mom was from Wales ,his father a Mescalero Indian yet they both had this disease. It's a very eye opening ...because it's so gaslighted by the health industry ,yet , they say as many as 1-14 people in the world probley have it. It's so common in Western European states that they check newborns for the disease when their born ,but those are countries with national health plans so they do it for health care cost savings . I won't go further but I was a plebotomist and worked at a lab doing cytology ,and histology then worked for 7 years 40 years ago being a Internists to right hand so I knew the business and do my research . The internist we now have wAs amazed I figured out my husbands diagnosed . He appeared to have dementia , after 26 509ml draws @2 weeks , he's back , being the arsehole he used to be and I love it . But I tell everyone make your Dr check your Ferratin, IBC,iron saturation,and hemoglobin because over time the iron starts building up it causes organ damage ,cancer , dementia , cirrhosis of the liver is usually the take out. We're on iron free diet ,no red meat ,no vitamin C , and that's why going to a store now is easy ,there's nothing in stores anymore that's not either packed in plastic or full of sugar and bad chemicals . High sodium . It's hard to stay healthy and not be full of plastics and chemical compounds . I wish more people would look into this . We just found out now that my nephew has HH so it's in our genes too on my side . If you have it ,it's in the family ,lying quietlyuke a wildfire ,skipping generations but that one relative that died young with liver failure that never frank is usually the big sign .. thx for listening ..you want more info. I'm a walking book on it
Further, it is the corporate capture of all US agencies that are supposed to protect 'our safety', but currently the alliance is to the companies who are regulated, the round robin of company work, into the government to change or better understand , then back to the money making of Corporatocracy. The US has been called the Soviet Union of Corporations...
Dr. Berg, DC, doctor of chiropractics, is a quack. Your assertion that many don’t trust vaccines is just you. “Eric Berg received his Doctor of Chiropractic degree in 1988 from Palmer College of Chiropractic in Davenport, Iowa, after studying pre-med at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside from 1983 to 1985 and serving in the Army Reserves, where he was trained in X-ray technology.” Eric Berg is NOT in any “peer reviewed journals.” You swallowed hook, line, and sinker. Just silly, shrill alarmist.
For every “Dr. Berg” there are 30,000 medical professionals who know vaccines are effective and safe. Ha ha!—he’s a fraud, a little research, “Dr. Eric Berg, PhD” simply has “something to sell,” don’t be taken for a ride, “Talk to a Product Advisor to find the best product for you! Call 1-540-299-1556 with your questions about Dr. Berg's products. Product Advisors are available Monday through Friday PST.” Your idea of an expert is a turnip.
Many cancers have been treated and cured. Sarcomas are a type that is still hard to cure, “Much of the research focus is on finding new drugs to treat various types of sarcomas, with modest progress in the area. A once "uniformly fatal" abdominal sarcoma called GIST, is treated with a molecular drug that targets a genetic mutation found in the tumours, leading to "an overnight change in outcome.” Before the drug's discovery, GIST patients had an average life expectancy of 9 months; survival for some patients now is measured in years, for some, as long as 15 years.”
Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican president. He wanted ordinary people to have a chance to earn a living. He thought slavery gave the southern Democratic planters an economic advantage over the small, ordinary people. Those same types of morbidly rich people moved into the Republican party at the invitation of Nixon after LBJ signed the Voting Rights Act. Today's Republican party is no more the party of Lincoln; it's just greedy robber barons trying to steal America from everyone else, fighting against the rule of law.
Unfortunately, they often have great influence on what becomes law, how laws are interpreted and upheld.
Back in the day before LBJ Republicans were the good guys and Dems the bad guys.
There has been a 180 degree reversal of the Republican party and a 100 degree reversal of the Democratic party, because of Santa Clara County v Southern Pacific, First National Bank of Boston v Belotti , Veleo v Buckley and Citizens United.
All politicians and parties are dependent on donor cash.
Fellow Killers Not Losers . .not Heart on Sleeve . .Snowflakes .. .
Experiences like yours Keith are proof of the immortality in the short term of “Chainsaw Al’s” vicious “business practices.” Power, Wealth & brief Acclaim for a few, followed by Long term Poverty, Woes & burdensome Agony for the many, when the inevitable Folly runs its Obvious course. Always does, always will.
It was gratifying to learn egomaniac Al got his comeuppance, finally he, too Kicked to the curb. Not soon enough, before his greed ultimately destroyed the businesses
lives, communities and ultimately weakened our nation.
Kudos for trying. They don't care however. Best to help get out the vote for Democrats this year, now.
We've gotten converts!
https://rvat.org/
Love to hear former Trump people. Hope we add more every day
Nice to see a good amt from WI. None from Iowa though...shocker.
Professor Reich, you are an example of courage that the average working people need to have. You told Dunlap
that American businesses need to take responsibility for their employees because without them these companies would collapse. I personally knew of the Chainsaw because I worked for Kimberly Clark for 32 years and was laid off with over 400 of my fellow employees in 2004. Being 52 years old I had a very difficult time landing another job. Thank goodness our home was paid for because a lot of my fellow workers lost theirs. It was a huge shock to all of us.
Well now we know why the American Dream is turning into a nightmare. Workers are disposable assets
Hopelessness is rampant drugs with the abuse and suicides follow .
A Fair wage should be compromised of actual wages health insurance wages and pension wages paid from day one on the job. This will eliminate the now common less than 35 hours jobs that keep Workers impoverished to the benefit of the owners .
McDonald’s will hire you push up the ranks to manager of shift level but keep you “Part Time” .
As if you don’t contribute to the profits of the company. The structure is Wrong and creates the Patrician’s profits and the Plebs problems.
This labor problem of no pension rights was amplified by Bill Clinton and others Bill Claimed to have created millions of jobs … One Labor Leader agreed saying yes he created jobs I know because now I have Three part time Jobs to my head “above water “ not sinking into poverty.
This disease 🦠 no pension is preached by Democrats And Republicans alike united against the actual citizens that perform the tasks of working and keeping the country going.
Keeping all the profits in the patricians pockets explains the ultra rich the owners they are protected by the
DEVINE RIGHTS OF OWNERS a direct connection back to the Devine Rights Of Kings. We know how that ended…
When the bottom 90% of income earners understand they are not wealthy enough to vote republican then maybe real changes will be made.
Citizen J you are correct. My comment is the quality of the pension. When I started to work in the 70’s, we had defined pensions that the company funded. However, you not vested until 10 years of employment and as a Young person, I was astonished by the number of people fired in their ninth year. I earned several years of pension benefits that were never received because of job changes. Thus I was glad to see retirement plans independent and transferable
Between employers in the late 70’s -80’s. For a disciplined saver, these plans are good. For the lower income worker, social security and a non accessible plan are better. I speak from the experience of managing hundreds of lower income employees and working for a company that employed 4,000
Vesting in retirement plans should be immediate upon initial hour at work
If people have the freedom to move from job to job just as money has the ability to go move from industry to industry.
If companies offer bonuses for longevity that should be the board of Directors decision without vesting .
Keith, when you lost your job your ability to pay taxes was greatly diminished; it was a loss to all of society.
Thank You
Citizen J
I'm only 69, so not sure I can say this with any authority, but the business of business used to be making things and providing services, and thereby making money. Today it seems that the business of business is only to make money. I've worked for small businesses that were bought by mega companies. Overnight the philosophy changed from client focused to shareholder focused, maximizing sales, increasing productivity and increasing billable hours. The product we produced never got better.
Anthony, I totally related to what you said! My daughter and her partner started a small pet crematory business that grew and grew to gigantic proportions!! From a small little shop to a large, well-built establishment. Their whole philosophy was to provide their clients with a service that was truly excellent. Veterinarians used their services, clients came to them for private cremations and they made their business into an example for other crematories. Corporations began to sniff around and offer to purchase. When my daughter and her partner refused to sell, they moved their business into the area and started undercutting. The pressure was extremely horrible!! My daughter and her partner wound up selling the business they had worked all of their adult life on and then watch as the corporation tore down what they had built. They eliminated the extra touches that made their business the best and slowly merged it into their mediocre corporation. It was awful!!
That is very sad yet very common. I know a very successful vet who really cares about her clients and their pets. Corporations, even the military want to buy her out because she has the facility and staff to train military dogs. My best to you, your daughter and her partner.
Thank you, Tom. I feel for that vet because I know her intentions are honorable and good. Corporations tear that down and replace it with mediocre and profit and greed. It is truly sad. Don't you worry about my daughter and her partner. They have begun another business; however, they intend to keep this one small so no corporations come sniffing around!! They love what they do and both of them will always land on their feet!! Please let your vet friend know, I am thinking about her and hope that everything works out well!
Thank you, Peggy. She has been in the military, knows how they work and is also very savvy about what is going on in business. She tends to stay one step ahead. Values over money. Wow, what an idea!
It's a neat concept, right? If more people put their values over money, imagine what our country could be!! Vote Blue, America!!!
Yes!!!
Oh my gosh, Janet!! I have been hearing a lot of the horror stories about these corporations trampling all over businesses! Buying them all up and then producing a cheaper substitute and eventually closing it down! It is unbelievable!!
A big US chocolate bar manufacturer now owns hundreds of vet clinics previously held by the vet . Imagine that, a chocolate bar manufacturer owning veterinarian practices. My sister worked for one as a vet and hated her inability to be flexible to her clients' needs. She retired early.
Yes, I’ve heard the chocolate is toxic to dogs.
Yikes!
They are also one of the nation’s largest pet food manufacturers
...but should manufacturers of human food be running doctors' offices? Probably not.
Anthony, human food producers already are successfully operating employee Health offices/ clinics with physicians, PA’s, RN and in house Pharmacies . These
Operations have hours that are more suited to the employee and their children with office hours after 5:00’for two shifts and Nights. Copay’s are $15:00 . These operations are better than urgent care and private investment group operated
Practices.
I agree, Tom. For years, we took our pets to a husband-and-wife vet clinic. When they retired last year, they arranged to send all their patients to a big clinic on the other side of town. We checked the place out, and didn't like it. When I asked our vets if they could recommend another small clinic, they said that all the places they knew of had gone "corporate," and that's how vet schools were training students now, with the corporate mindset: order all possible tests, go with the first diagnosis in the book, rather than actually paying a lot of attention to the animal. Cha-ching!!
Yes, it is happening everywhere.
We just came back from our very small pharmacy owned and operated by an Indian (as in India) American pharmacist. He is just a few blocks from Walgreens which has bought out other small pharmacies in the area.
He has a few loyal staff, but he is often there by himself. He is struggling but so far so good. He provides great service and information.
The store slogan is: Your trust is our achievement.
I hope he is never given an offer he can't refuse.
I love that slogan! Yes, I'm with you, Tom---I hope this gentleman manages to survive. He certainly deserves success!
Peggy, my sister's brother-in-law is a doctor who had to stop practicing in his town because he would have had to join a large practice and the insurance companies would not pay him as a solo doctor who worked through all the local hospitals. For a while he went around the country doing surgeries in mostly small hospitals as needed, but that takes more energy than he could spare, so he now assesses patients for potential surgeries to see if insurance companies will pay for them. What a come down just because we have permitted insurance corporations like other corporations to put shareholders ahead of workers, customers, and communities, and have permitted them to merge and absorb (steal) other companies at will. We do have antitrust laws on the books, but alas, don't seem to have the will to honor those laws while we waste huge amounts of our legal time and effort on a whiny con artist who has broken so many laws it is hard to know where to begin, which is part of the reason more than 3 years after he incited an insurrection, he has still not been tried and is still running to become president again. This is nuts!
I agree, Ruth! It begs the question, 'Why have these antitrust laws and other laws that are simply being trampled upon? If we are not going to hold people, CEOs, corporations accountable then are we just not giving them our country to do with as they please? I grew up believing in the law. It was there to protect me. All I am seeing now is that those rich, entitled, spoiled brats at the top are saying those laws do not apply to me and I will use my army of litigators to delay and subvert until the other side finally caves and gives up. That is just not natural and should never be allowed. We, as a people, need to say enough is enough!! You break the law, you will be held accountable and that is the end of it. This has all become an absolute nightmare and there doesn't seem like the light at the end of the tunnel is burning very bright!!
Peggy, you're right about the armies of lawyers nitpicking the law to find just the tiny loophole that will permit delays and more delays while they look for more tiny loopholes that judges should dismiss but usually don't because it is the rich guys who have power the judges and justices don't want to interfere with. Why is that? They should not be beholden to those rich guys, but as we have seen with our Supreme Conservatives, they are beholden and think they know which side of the bread their butter is on despite the fact that in reality it is the American people who butter their bread. The law must be the law for everyone, but we have been watching how Trump and Kump have gotten years of delays for crimes we actually have physical evidence he has committed. This is nuts! Then there are the judges/justices who have conflicts of interest but do not recuse themselves, probably because they owe their job or something to Trump, or Trump has something on them. No judge appointed by a particular president should be able to sit on a case that involves that president, ever!
I agree, Ruth. You know what got me the most? Your last sentence "No judge appointed by a particular president should be able to sit on a case that involves that president, ever!" I cannot believe we have reached the point in our country where another president is facing criminal charges!! I know Nixon resigned rather than face what he did, but I feel the majority of republicans and Democrats alike handled that correctly. They did not tolerate him breaking the law and these politicians that are supporting trump should take their lessons from their predecessors!! It completely boggles the mind!!
Peggy, the problem is or rather a problem is that Republicans have done their best to rewrite history, as usual. They have forgotten what Nixon did and pretend it was nothing. I am thinking it does not seem like much when one considers the crimes Donald Trump has committed, but with Fox out there pumping out lies about Trump's prowess and pushing all kinds of harmful actions by Republican legislatures, Republicans can't even think at all. It seems our judicial system has given Trump and Kump far more leeway than they have given anyone in the past and seem to still be doing it. How is it those Trump lawyers are allowed to subvert our judicial system as they have. It requires the judges and justices to go along with it, and they have. No judge or justice appointed by Trump should be able to serve on any case involving Trump at any level, but that is not what has happened. Even judges ignorant of how the law works like Judge Cannon and that idiot in Texas who ruled on a drug he knew nothing about have been allowed to get away with the harm they have done. I am thinking that right now, our only saving grace would be for Democrats to win big at all levels in November. However, Democrats give up too easily and don't vote unless the candidate is practically perfect in every way. I hope that changes, but I am not holding my breath.
Very sad to hear that! How do we structure an economy that isn’t so susceptible to that!?
People seek the “affordable” service, but in the end are damaging their own future. I d’t know how we counteract it.
Pat, I would give a big gold star to anyone that can figure out how to do that!! I certainly don't know how!
This why chain stores are forbidden in some neighborhoods.
Amen and hallelujah, Victor! It should happen in more and more neighborhoods and towns!!
Peggy, my heart is with you and your daughter & her partner’s challenges from predatory competitive businesses in our country. It’s become a cancer eating away at the health of our business environment. As a retired small business owner, makes aware how deeply sad both the personal loss is and how much their community has lost in a level of personal commitment and personal care that can never be replaced by impersonal corporations.
Janet, you may want to add… Dominated in Congress by the GOPutin Party. Abraham Lincoln is rolling in horror in his grave. What he so nobly sacrificed his life for our Country, collusion with greedy one(s) easily bought.
Anthony, you are so right. Two members of my family experienced that. New CEOs came into power in their corporations and the whole atmosphere changed from being a family-oriented entity to something that cared nothing for anything but "the bottom line" which meant money to shareholders or to the top guy (or gal in the case of one of them ) and the workers became just pawns to be used and abused, then laid off when the corporate mood struck. That has not changed and it is just plain wrong, but both corporations my family members worked for are going on and I don't see either getting better.
The story you tell happens many times a day, Ruth, all over the country. I worked for four corporations, three of which underwent the scenario you describe. The fourth one went down with Enron.
We need to spend our money as much as possible to support small businesses. Too many large corporations are monopolies, restricting our ability to do so. Strong unions are our only hope of change. And voting against this system.
And Anthony,
This has been accepted by all Americans for over 40 years. We are all goggled over listening to someone as mealy mouthed as Muskrat, sitting in an interview yelling “Fuc_ them “ several times.
But most cannot tell you what the Marshall plan was. Elon Muskraker is a phony bully hiding a big secret! And it isn’t that he is smart. He is crass and vulgar and pathetic.
Maybe we should outlaw the limited liability corporation. It is a fictitious person without conscience. It is a monster.
To Robert Reich, thank you very much for today's letter on one of the worst human beings to live. There is the Common Good, and then there is the uncommon bad. I was a young man, and Al Dunlap was in the MSM as both a hero to some and the death knell for thousands of skilled and semi-skilled workers in America. Al was really a terrible person and ruined many people's lives. The 45th President and Al are like brothers in arms even if they'd never met. Today’s letter exemplifies how important historical perspectives are, and the information purveyed a great reminder of how rotten some people were in life.
The antidote is to win big to make changes. Want no more Dunlaps?
To protect American democracy, reach out to millions of unregistered likely Democrats using a dedicated database using every outreach method possible (phone and text, postcard, email and targeted ad, and in-person too), where new Democratic voters will make the most impact – in the most flippable states and districts.
https://www.fieldteam6.org/actions
I am an atheist, but may Mr. Dunlop burn in hell.
It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle ......
Daniel, "Christians" who love Trump don't like that one because they want to be rich but also expect to go to heaven, and will hurt as many people as they can to get there.
Ruth - I have siblings who are drumpfers, and when I ask them where they learned christianity was a choose and pick buffet, they stop talking to me. silence can be golden.
He's more than likely already there, but I second you wholeheartedly in case he's not.
Great article Mr. Reich. I believe in responsible capitalism, i.e. when corporations understand that elevating their profits means making sure they have a properly paid, well adjusted and reasonably content work force. It should be the responsibility of every corporation to ensure this, instead of merely considering the bottom line. I am someone who watches CNBC daily, and it bothers me when speakers always mention how certain CEO"s "cost cutting" measures are going to increase profitability! I understand recalculating unnecessary costs, but how does one really evaluate the damage it might do to a whole community, its people and therefore to the country as a whole. We all pay for all the drug addicts, the psychologically damaged unemployed workers, their children who grow up having less chances for their future... we must learn to calculate the costs of such irresponsibilities.
We cling to the word "capitalism" because we fear the alternatives. For capitalism to be responsible, it would have to be re-engineered beyond recognition so that workers were valued and no one accumulated a billion dollars of personal wealth.
My biggest issue is with the CEOs who get paid millions of dollars, even when the companies they head, are not profitable!
There's also the opposite situation, as Reich describes today, when CEO compensation is tied to profitability, with the understanding that profitability should increase at any cost. The first action is ALWAYS cutting head count, no matter what that does to product quality or customer service levels. The more people who get the ax, the better the bottom line looks, at least in the short term. If sales start to dip because of that low quality or lack of service, the answer is more cuts! Along with finding more things to monetize. Your phone used to come with a charge cord? Well, not anymore. Now it's an accessory you have to purchase. You used to get a free el cheapo check cover when you ordered new checks from your bank? Nope, that baby costs $4.99 now. And if you have to call your bank about an issue, good luck! Your wait time just expanded to 45 minutes.
This could be an interesting debate I would love to take part inMr. Kelm. I have nothing against accumulating wealth, as long as it is not done at someone else's expense. And that seems to be the culture of many of our corporations. Maybe we should change the word, if it has a negative connotations. And I would agree that it would have to be re-engineered. I just hope that when it reaches the "beyond recognition" point, it still allows for the entrepreneurs, ambitious souls and the visionaries to excel.
The game needs rules and umpires. Cheaters don't want to play fairly.
The costs of these externalities is the cost to society and taxpayers picking them up. I’m sure that many researchers study this.
Robert, this was a tough read for me. It makes me sick from anger. Greed rules. Vote Blue!
As usual, follow the money. What's specially infuriating is that greed gave us, (and continues threats to return to us,) donald trump.
"Chainsaw" Al Dunlap's actions caused Sunbeam corporation to go bankrupt. The shareholders lost everything! So much for 'maximizing shareholder value"!
Economic growth only means the rich are getting richer. Capitalism is a pyramid scheme and it's working as intended. You cannot successfully regulate psychopaths. Corporations are predators, run by literal psychopaths. They need to die before they kill the rest of us. I cannot understand why we continue tolerate their destruction and abuse. Thousands of years of this cycle and our species has learned nothing.
And the likelihood of our extended ignorance is very high. Your comments Jasmine make me feel less alone in the world. I remember a book several years ago entitled, "There are Men Too Gentle to Live with Wolves." The more I examined our economy, the better I understood the book.
Not necessarily true. Kennedy said a rising tide lifts all boats.
I'm tired of hearing that nonsense quote. Kennedy was human and often wrong. Boats in the ocean are not the same as people trying to survive in the system of unregulated capitalism on steroids. And Trump hates dogs.
Thanks, Gloria. I agree. Anyone who hates animals, like Trump, has definite mental problems and Kennedy has no saint.
Valid for about 80% of the general population For Gen X and Gen Z who have skills and traits that may be marketable and "transferrable." Not for people who do not have the capacity to perform "substantial gainful activities."
To most of the world, the US is still a land of opportunity for that 80%.
I disagree. Where did you get those numbers? If there are few jobs, and people don't have money to pay for goods and services, you can't make a small business profit. Haven't you heard that many college grads with loans are underemployed? You're wrong.
Vocational experts in disability and other kinds of cases for more than 40 years. If people of work age have skills they can be placed. It's skewed, so that people older than 45 have less of a chance than "younger" individuals, and that's why I say Gen X and Gen Z.
I also worked with discharges from the military. 15% of the general population cannot pass the AFQT, Armed Forces Qualification Tests. The rest can be placed if they have acquired skills.
The unemployment rate is the lowest it's been in history.
In my paper Save Social Security Disability, I lay out the "science" of the vocational educational prescription. https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/naalj/vol36/iss1/4/
A comment just on your statement about unemployment, Daniel. On paper, yes, the rate may be low. But that percentage hides a lot of ugly, inconvenient truths. Some of these are situations that didn't necessarily exist a decade ago, or at least, weren't as widespread.
Here, I'm mainly referring to contractors and gig workers, many of whom would rather be on company payrolls as employees. I doubt that most of the people who are doing Door Dash would prefer it to a steady, wage-earning job. Ditto with contractors providing say, admin or website maintenance or similar services. All of these people are technically employed, but in precarious situations with no guaranteed wages and no benefits. Also, they may have to work odd hours or be on-call, standing by but not actively working, so not getting paid.
Then there's the trend of having people work 35 or 37 hours a week. They're essentially working full-time, but employers don't have to provide benefits.
Then there are all the people who've had to take huge pay and/or benefits cuts to get or keep their jobs. Or the ones who are highly qualified in one way or another, but who are big-box greeters or clerks because they can't get anything else. Or the ones who've been unemployed so long, they've fallen off the rolls. Maybe they can't get jobs because of age, lack of ability, or they can't physically do the only jobs they might land. And on and on, including the scenarios that Gloria listed.
Those unemployment numbers are, to put it charitably, quite misleading. The real story is much more bleak.
Have you heard of underemployment and multiple part time job employment? "Placed" where? I would expect that belief and attitude from those who callsthemselves "vocational experts." They work mostly for worker's compensation insurers. I know from personal experience what happens if you are considered to have a disability because I have a collagen deficiency disorder that causes many "strange and unexplainable symptoms" unless you are aware of the diagnosis. I also worked for a vocational rehabilitation business and was so upset everyday by the way victims were lied to by medical professionals, and what they required of those people in order to get their compensation that I had to quit for the sake of my own mental health. And I had five children to support with no insurance. Some physicians in health care are starting to use the term "moral injury" and considering law suits when they are forced to comply with insurance and medical system policies that they consider immoral in order to remain employed.
and when he said it it was more true than not. Not anymore.
JFK was one of the super-rich.
Tides come and go, and someone usually end up at the bottom.
Fine article. I'm old enough to have watched the deterioration of corporate morality for the last 50+ years, and you're spot on. Thanks!
Yup, we seen it. Discusted by it too.
I spent 35 years with General Motors. They continually announced plans to raise employee morale and attempted to cut worker benefits and lay folks off. There were two schools of thought among employees...the first an unthinking and unswerving loyalty that was so sure the company would always do the best by it employees. Others , like myself saw only the terrible decisions that this unswerving loyalty and a stunning environment of nepotism could only result in long term disaster. When I announced to my supervision that this could not go on and that I was cashing in my stockin my 401 retirement plan, they all thought I was crazy. I cashed it all in and quickly retired. Shortly after the corporation went bankrupt. Thank goodness I did. I was condemned as not being that kind of person prized above all...a "Team Player". I guess it had finally just become too much for me to stomach. I see around me now those folks who were and how they lost all their retirement savings and recall their their amazing smugness and arrogance. So much for being a team player. But this is just one person's experience with corporate America. I have a friend who retired as a VP of Target and he is, thankfully, doing just fine. Your mileage may vary.
"Team playing" managers were as vulnerable as the line workers. Stockholders took a bath but didn't necessarily lose their livelihoods. Everyone involved in the industry should have known it was cut throat. https://repository.law.umich.edu/context/mlr/article/6091/viewcontent
In the 70s I was involved with the industry -- we represented Ford in about 13 counties in Pa. I also represented local dealers. Lived 30 miles from the now defunct Lordstown Fisher Body plant.
The 1989 film "Roger and Me" should have tipped everyone off. Michael Moore documented the business strategy of General Motors' then-chairman, Roger Smith. "Roger and Me chronicles Michael Moore's long quest to confront Smith with the human consequences of his business decisions on Moore's hometown of Flint, Michigan, where GM eliminated 30,000 jobs." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_%26_Me
That was a seriously good film. It put Michael Moore on the map and in the minds of many who still rely on his insights.
I was a financial consultant with a brokerage firm who saw the changes coming to the industry and retired after 41 years. It used to be a business where all customers were treated equally and I tried to help them with their investments, but that wasn't the goal of the firm who just wanted profits at all costs. And the type of investments became shadier and shadier. The derivatives started out ok, but soon became more like scams.
so the issue is what caused the shift toward profits at all costs and what can be done about it.
Pure greed
Yes. And a profound sense of privilege that justified it.
we've always had greed. Or, if you want to say there is more greed than before then the question is why ?
Technological change creates opportunities for gain, feeds rapid economic growth, and creates feeding frenzies.
I think so. Companies can leverage better scale on the WWW (to focus on one major tech change the past decades) with global markets(-winner take-all) and so it's eat or be eaten. Financialization. Technology and bigness also changes how we interact on a moral basis in the sense most probably have a different attitude on their obligations toward a conglomerate versus their locally owned corner market. Does this have a broader effect ? IDK.
Many companies in the field went bellyup. Bear Sterns, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch -- died in 2008 The remains of the original E.F. Hutton became part of Citigroup, and later Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, a joint venture between Morgan Stanley and Citigroup. https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/after-14-years-lehman-brothers-brokerage-ends-liquidation-2022-09-28/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRRRgtdJgtk
Thanks! I definitely will watch it.
American corporations "behave" as entities separate from their "place." They do not pay taxes; their executives don't pay taxes, don't pay into Social Security, don't support policies and practices that support workers and communities; they very often commit crimes against the environment. They use what might be considered legitimate human need, human emotion, human suffering for marketing and selling and profit-making. When the profits are insufficient, they will abandon people and communities and move to where their profit-making resumes and their parasitic "behaviors" attach to a new host, new humans, new communities, repeating the same patterns. They are paradoxically un-American and totally American.
We'd see better corporate behavior if we repeal Citizens United, reinstate Glass-Steagall, and cut the Trump Tax cuts!
You have named the trifecta of my dreams.
Good start!
Worse than that: they think they are doing God's work.
But corporations have the same rights as people and money is speech.
The idea that shareholders are owed more than stakeholders, like the workers and the community, is like saying that rape is OK.
That is already well known. As he said: "for a million years!, they just let you do it!".
DUNLAP: If you want to come after me, I’ll come after you twice as hard.
Why does this sound so familiar??
Again, a great piece! Thank you.
"services people don’t want"
I guess you're not a person unless you're rich enough to buy all the services you want.