The Investor’s View - Wealth & Poverty Class 2
The highest return, regardless
Hello again, friends. Thank you for joining me for the second week of my Wealth and Poverty class. In today’s class, we begin to explore why such inequalities have soared since the late 1970s and early 1980s.
The questions we’ll focus on today are: How did the market for financial capital contribute to inequalities of income and wealth? Did the accepted purpose of the American corporation change over the last fifty years, and, if so, when and how? More generally, for whom should the corporation exist? Is there such a thing as “corporate social responsibility?”
You’ll find recommended readings below the video. Just click on the links.
Ready? Here we go. Please double-click the video box below. Thanks again for joining me! (And as always, let me know what you think in the comments below.)
Click here for the Class 2 slides.
Looking for another session? Click the link for: Class 1, Class 3, Class 4, Class 5, Class 6, Class 7, Class 8, Class 9, Class 10, Class 11, Class 12, Class 13, Class 14.
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Select Readings:
Watching this class was a walk down memory lane for me. I’ve worked and lived through all of the changes, many negative, during my career. I even sat face-to-face with a corporate head of the same tire company mentioned. Actually, it was that person who sparked my interest in Professor Reich during a work presentation so I should thank them!
I’ve watched the fall of “Stakeholder” capitalism and saw the horrific repercussions of plant closing that resulted in high unemployment, personal bankruptcies, health issues and yes, even suicides. I’ve seen strong middleclass communities fall, home values plummet and poverty skyrocket. Ironically, those who created this nightmare were the first to decry that those who were suffering were either lazy or welfare queens.
As for the roundtable, talk is cheap. Without government intervention through policy and laws, this will continue to get worse creating a population of angry American workers who will turn to authoritarian leadership out of despair. Great class, a real wake-up call!
The Business Roundtable was stuck in system that needs changing, just the way some of the people running for office or who are in office need to sell themselves to big money and abandon the desire to value all 'stakeholders', including the workers at the base level a company. It's all about the money going to the top wealth, and not about constituents or lower paid workers.