I'm certified in a project management improvement area, and we've always been told that bottom-up decisions vs top-down decisions are always the better ideas and we should strive to identify those.
FYI - i apply those project management skills and look at the world and ask, "how can we do things better?" that's what my substack is about if anyone is interested: https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/
Instead of the 'trickle down' economic theory, it should be the 'trickle up' economic theory!! Those that actually do the work almost always have the better improvement ideas!!
The Mathematics speak for themselves. In this country we have 735 Billionaires. So out 1 out of every 450,000 people is a billionaire. The bottom 60% of the country share $1 out of every $100 the country makes. The Billionaires share a portion of the other $99. So you take 60% of that 450,000 and you get 270,000 people. Those bottom 60% most likely cannot afford a house on a single income. How many houses does a billionaire need to live in? One. How many Houses would the 270,000 need? Assuming 3 people per household. 90,000. Stop robbing the income of the bottom 60% and you would have 90,000 single income folks able to afford to buy one house. Would this not put a great need for construction. or renovation of houses? It would. There is only so much ONE billionaire or millionaire needs as a single individual. If that money stayed in the bottom 60% where it is rightfully is earned the money desperate poor, middle and upper middle class could afford and consume 270,000 more things than that lousy 1 billionaire.
Sing that out loud, Bill!! Everyone needs to hear that! You explained it so well. Absolutely no one needs more than one house but so many cannot afford even one! If it were not for the help of my fantastic children, I would be homeless! Billionaires do not need it but they want it and apparently the way things are now they will get whatever they want and to hell with the rest of us!!
There is one of the videos divides up income distribution into 5 groups of 20%. People usually think OK how much of the pie do the poor 20% have 10% Middle class 15% upper middle 20%? Spoilers 60% shares 1% of all the pie. So 200 million people have to fight each other for 1% of the money. It makes perfect sense why we are setup to hate the upper class or the poor or other races or other religions. It is to distract from that simple fact of us having to share 1% and a very small amount of people getting the lionshare of the pie.
It consistently escapes me how enormous corporations cannot seem to understand that when the Common Good is supported by everyone - EVERYONE does better and Corporate Profits INCREASE. Let's evolve, shall we?
Agreed we see it with the SMALL amount of money that's been put back into the pockets of ordinary Americans. It has had an outside effect on surging the economy. The most common thread and refrain I hear in the corporate world boiled down simply is "That's just the way things are". The most lazy and unintelligent answer I have ever heard.
Agree, Lynn. A by-product of Corporate power is lessening of product safety. If an engineer designs a flaw in placement of a gas tank in an auto so that in a minor fender bender the car explodes into flame - that's ok - a few peons die and eventually they may have to recall, by then thy've made a fortune.
This has been the ongoing blind spot for all the time I've paid attention (my whole life). The rich do not understand that "the rising tide lifts all boats." This is the metaphor I heard in my twenties. When there's plenty of money all around, the rich will continue to get richer, and so will everyone else. If I have enough money to buy a Tesla, Elon Musk will continue to get rich. He should give away free electric cars for the next three years and see what it does for the environment.
We have proof of that in our own history. The era in our history where we improved our standard of living fastest at all economic levels was from FDR-LBJ when our tax system was its most progressive, unions strengthened, many important social programs were instituted, including Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid, & we as a united nation were able to meet any challenge we faced, none of which is true today. As a result, we became the top nation in the world in most measures of prosperity and well-being.
True, but it's more important for them to have a much larger piece of a much smaller pie than it is for them to share an abundance of wealth in a much larger pie, even though they benefit, too. That is the sad state of their sick, selfish, avaricious greed.
Bravo, Bill! While this brings to mind the sinking of the Titanic, perhaps if enough violinists unite, the ship captains will be alerted to the importance of the Common Good and avoid the looming iceberg!
More people who have enough money in their pockets to spend on more than their most basic needs means more money going through the local economy, which helps small business.
We have a lot of politicians, especially Republican, who claim they care about small businesses, but they are against policies that are beneficial to small business that don't help big business more.
If you would take the wealth of billionaires in this country and distribute it among the US population how much would everyone get? According to my calculation less than $ 20,000.- . I asked my friends recently what they think Americans would do with this money. The unanimous answer was: they would piss it away.
Distributed among every person? So, a family of four would get $80,000. That's a new car to replace the clunker with money left over. Or paying off credit card debt. Or rent payments for years. Braces for little Suzy so she can feel more confident and have a successful and productive life.
The point is that there would be no savings. Without savings there would be no investments and without investments our economy would decline and we would join the ranks of the poor.
Who would invest in the economy. Who would promote the not for profit sector like symphonies or museums. The entertainment industry including sports are thriving.
You really miss the point. Read Reich's article again. The problem is the system. The benefits of his corrections compound every day. Instead of a lump sum payment, the lower and middle classes would receive increasing increments of benefits every day of their lives. That includes intangibles like financial regulation and the never-ending war against political corruption and fascism.
You and your friends certainly have a low opinion of the American people. I think most people would find lots of useful and helpful things to do with their $ 20,000.
Happens all the time. I see it in working with estates and income taxes. The money goes to many wrong things. But I do agree that billionaires do not pay enough in taxes on their wealth. Stop the capital gains tax on dividends and pay ordinary income tax and that would level the tax quickly.
The US savings rate is notoriously low, the lowest of the high income countries. Without savings there can be no investments. Without investments we would all be poor. Our income would decline.
Robber Barron Andrew Carnegie says as much in much less flattering words in "The Gospel Of Wealth". His idea which has been adopted by the robber barons of yesterday and today is to win as much money as possible by any means necessary and then giving it all back before you die (except most of todays folks only give back the minimum and leave the rest to their inheritors TAX FREE). What gives the ultra wealthy any say in how we spend our money? The idea that only the wealthy can decide what is good for everyone else has gotten us into this inequality he'll hole we are in now. Even if we just....pass it away.
For one $20k could pay off or into a lot of student loans debt. So, for those with school loan debt that money could be allocated by law law to pay into that debt instead of a personal check.
For others it could be forced to go towards their
social security. We need more out-of-the-box thinking. We've had enough of the same old corporatists in power.
You are absolutely right. In my career (retired now), my bosses didn't want to know how I was creating what we needed. They were frequently annoyed when I wanted to discuss possible improvement to the process.
Leftie Fact Check, it means that as the middle class and lower income begin to succeed and are able to live life comfortably on their wages then that prosperity could eventually 'trickle up' to the richer class. Of course, it would take decades for the rich to see any income from that. Much like the decades it took for the middle and lower income classes to benefit from the 'trickle down' effect. Oh wait, the middle and lower income classes have NEVER benefited from the 'trickle down' economics because the rich kept it and began devising ways to ALWAYS keep it and get more, more, more!!
Try telling that to Liz Truss - shortest ever reigning British PM! Much like the GOP economists she believed that by cutting benefits to the poorest, you could use the money to give generous tax cuts to the wealthiest, who would then grow the economy and all would be better. Only the markets didn't believe her and the run on sterling forced the Bank of England to raise interest rates making everyone much worse off than before, especially if like most people they had a massive mortgage on an over-priced house...
I laughed when I heard Times Radio talking about Ukraine and Russia and they mentioned Liz Truss and that she would support a Republican presidential candidate for 2024. So the lady who wanted to give tax breaks for the rich during war time would support Trump or his wanna be vice presidential candidates. I said bring her to the states she can hang with MJT and Boebert. She would fit right in with MAGA. Brexit/MAGA. MAGAxit? MAGexit? BrAGA?
How would anyone with at least one functioning brain cell think that giving tax cuts to the rich and taking benefits away from the poor would be a good thing? The wealthiest aren't going to 'grow' the economy. Hard working people do that!!
True, I look at it this way. The leftie fact checker keeps us sharp to reply with information and knowledge. Usually what follows (when they can't dispute it) is name calling....
i tried that trickle down during halloween - it was a failure - the first greedy criminal came along and stole it all (bowl and all) and the poor innocent kids kept coming to get their share . but left empty handed.
I actually did this. I let the kids choose what they took out of the bowl. Despite my encouragement to take more because I had too much, none of the kids would take more than one treat. We tend to believe that all people are greedy but I think this is learned behaviour. Kids have an innate sense of fairness.
and how are we supposed to stay informed when our politicians are allowed to lie to us , even when they are on the floor and especially when they are on camera ? if information is the currency of a democracy - we are left penny poor by our politicians/media and the internet.
Nailed it. According to the Bible, it was a lie that started all the trouble. Even if you think the Bible is the lie (because the Liar so insists), that lies are at the root of all evil is an essential understanding.
According to the Bible, we cannot remove the Liar. And far too many love the lies, because they stroke their ego or profit them. Only the Creator can rescue us. And that is His promise. But the Liar has us scoffing “where is this promised coming of his?” Read the answer at 2 Peter 3 (the whole chapter.)
many choose the comfortable lie over the uncomfortable truth. prayer is a tool for fools . it condones inaction. perfect example would be the "thoughts and prayers". mantra we see after every mass shooting.
I just posted a detailed blueprint solution that addresses the root cause of the problem. I too, have 45 years of experience in process improvement. Improvement. The book addresses the true root cause with a realistic solution and a plan. You can read it for free at https://endpoliticsnow.com/
i was co-chair for the northern ca. green party because of Ralph Nader . the dems and republicans had taken over the debates (COPD)from the league of women voters and wouldnt even allow Ralph into the parking lot (and he had a ticket!) heck - the last 3rd party candidate allowed in the debates was Ross Perot (but i digress)
It wasn’t until I was recently I an auto dust up that I understood from the gut and the heart how much I owed him! Thank God and RalphNader for seatbelts. What an undertaking, unimaginable without Ralph Nader! (Just imagine if Trump gets in he’l probably make them illegal?)
I’m fine , it was the other person I was worried about she did a 360 head on into a gigantic utility pole and when I heard the crash I ran to the car ill with what I thought I would have to witness when the door was opened by a nearby neighbor!
He helped her out and she a little dazed but absolutely perfect, not a scratch, she shook herself , looked around, and then smiled at us! In her early 20’s !! It was the airbag - it worked perfectly! The car was totaled.
I am from the Rust belt. I still grieve for the Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroads, Youngstown Sheet and Tube, Shenango China, Johnson Bronze Co, Pennsylvania Engineering and Mesta Machine, the "geese" that laid the golden eggs, our manufacturing sector. Killed by tax policy, by monopolistic unfair competition, by foreign intrigue.
Like Robert's family I also grieve for my family's businesses, Baron Hardware, The Brewster Company, and the shop keepers and store owners from my childhood - lost because industry dried up and because "big fish" like the Waltons and Bezos and Bill Gates could tilt the playing field.
I relocated. In my home town there are lawyers who still live with their mothers, who average less money than entry level lawyers make in DC or NY. They are addicted to "place." I guess I stayed with the government because I was concerned with job security. I would not have taken the test for the judicial register without my wife's prodding. I took a 50% cut in pay to take the job.
There were times when I was grateful. In 1992 during the Savings and Loan crisis, two lawyers I knew went to the top of then the highest building south of Philadelphia and jumped. Business is mostly luck. take what you need, you think will last
But whatever you wish to keep, you better grab it fast
Be careful what you wish for: all those industries use PFAS and will dump their leftovers in your drinking water . Ask me how I know. That stuff is nearly impossible to deal with.
😭😭😭 so many have perished after the Midwest plummeted. I’m sorry. Our family were so low on the totem pole that we survived. Now what...and we do need to account for human loss. The 1% must be held to account.
Exactly, Duncan! The people actually doing the work could come up with the best ideas because they were frontline!! The executives did not have a clue and I feel even now the CEOs are clueless about their companies and actually depend on the very people they screw over in order to get richer!!
Agreed. Think of Xerox when they allowed Apple to steal their interactive mouse. The executive suite and bean counters at Xerox didn’t see a business purpose, while the computer engineers at the Xerox’s California lab were incensed.
How’s Xerox doing today? Its market capitalization is $1.7 billion, and Apple: $2.95 trillion...:)
Microsoft stole most of its software ideas from other companies. Windows was initially a ripoff of Apple's computer mouse driven interface system (which I believe they stole from Xerox as noted above). Microsoft is now a huge company, and most of the companies they stole from are long gone out of business.
I once met this old timer at a party in the 80's who bragged to me he did the very first computer simulation. He simulated a tank battle, Considering his age and that he worked at Los Alamos near its beginning days I thought yeah, he probably was one of the first. Alhough simulation of nuclear denotation came first.
Loved the post today Mr. Reich but I would also like to talk about the biggest budget problem - appraisal fraud and 2008 housing crisis. Today on NPR - seniors who can't afford housing. Why? It goes back (way back) to the housing accounting fraud crisis of 2008, 90s, texas, and probably further. (Bill Black How to Rob a Bank is to Own One) - side note, where can I buy one??? ;) lol.
Yes, the student loans are a crisis! Employers require a degree. College students pass 120 credit hours of classes more than 160 tests + research papers, essays etc. We are not lazy. We didn't expect "something for nothing". We put in the time and we expect to get what was promised.
If the government has the money to "forgive" Wall Street pandemic loans, then they have the money for much more.
Ditto for my company! The ideas from upper management always involved reducing staff (firing or layoffs), capping salary, or reducing/eliminating benefits to lower costs and increase profit! I am also an engineer.
One method of investing is to identify "fat" companies that will "cut the fat."
I worked for the government during Al Gore's "Reinventing government." At the time I was at SSA. It was a disaster. My experience was that DOL was far more receptive to "user input" and I moved on....
If I were king, I'd cut most management. Too many chiefs not enough Native Americans (you know what I mean.) My wife and I were on the cutting edge because we acquired computer knowledge at a time when computer memory was more expensive than human capital and the government was privatizing. I was not a computer programmer, but from what I understand SSA is still using some programs that I designed to speed up my docket and do word processing. Many staff members complained that I cut out the "middleman," i.e. steps that required compiling the records.
Mu uncle was chief appraiser when they privatized and he lost most of his staff. The government paid former GS 12, 13 employees who made about $60,000 per as government employees, hundreds of thousands per as government contractors.
My office lost its docket section to privatization. Some of my cases involved top secret documents, similar to the Trump Miami case. Imagine the risk!!!!
When my wife worked for the court the outside company that got the contract to copy documents was Pakistani! National security?
Because many of my cases were at "remote sites" (How about Iraq and Afghanistan) I worked out methods (out of self defense) to held hearings, first via phone, later by what is now Zoom.
What really is the American Dream? Is it a tangible entity which is available to everyone or is it just an idea beyond the reach of the average American. No matter what the thought actually represents it is the driving force behind the engine that runs this country. It's the primary reason why immigrants across the globe attempt to relocate to this country. To some of us the idea has been lost because of the desire to obtain personal wealth and social power. But to those on the outside looking in what we have here as Americans represents everything they ever wanted as oppressed refugees. Why is our lifestyle so objectionable to us but so desirable to others? Maybe we need to see life through their eyes in order to appreciate what we actually have.
I agree, Donald, but what happens when those on the outside finally make it here? They are subjected to camps out in the desert, told they aren't wanted here. I think their eyes open up pretty quickly to the fact that on the people level, they are on the bottom rung!! I do appreciate what I have but I want to see everyone be able to live comfortably - to live free of fear, hate, and bigotry. I think Americans need to work harder to reach a place where the American Dream is absolutely real and obtainable!
You bought into the idea that hard work obtains success. That idea is what Reich is explaining is not reality for the majority any more. The people who fail because the system is rigged are blamed as though it is their fault. Capitalism couldn't continue without victim blaming being part of the system.
Gloria, there really shouldn't be victim blaming. I do agree that people try very hard to work and get ahead. It really isn't their fault that the system is not working for them. All of us need to work hard to change the system not blame the people!
Hence the existence of working class, which has always been there, feudalism on up. Some people just want enough to climb the Maslow pyramid one step, and are happy with that if it can be attained. Pooling our resources by way of taxation, many if not most advances have been government subsidized. Giving credit, in the form of money, to the masters of war so that they can exploit what belongs to all taxpayers, doesn't that fit some definition of taxation without representation?
Peggy--And do away with the stupid practice of texting. All texting does is divert someone's attention from what they should be doing to something that might cost them their lives, and sadly for many that's exactly what it did. Let's go back to the old days when people used to talk to one another.
I've always felt safe going to sleep in the clean bed I've always been privileged to have, in my very own bedroom where I also keep my clean clothes. I've always had enough to eat, and good shelter from the weather. As an adult, I've always had my own car and I've driven all over, in my dozen-plus cars, one after the other. I've always had an indoor toilet, hot and cold running water and could take a bath whenever I wanted to. I've been privileged to own tools made for creativity and had the time to use them, to write and paint. I've spent many years being aware of trees; I've written poetry. I've shared meaningful friendships. I've flown across the waters.
Where I work, ideas are not solicited from the technicians. Experience & expertise are ignored or dismissed. Upper level managers who have had no experience in the kind of work that a project entails do all the planning, never including those people who do have the experience in the planning, & as a result, things are done very inefficiently & have to be redone over & over.
Like you, I’m a retired engineer, 35 years with one company. In that time, I had five really good ideas. Everything else I accomplished came from listening to the guys in the control rooms. Either taking their ideas and implementing them, or listening to what they saw and heard and relating that to an underlying cause. They usually knew where the problem was and just needed someone to add the engineering vocabulary.
Keith Olson ; Also, they will establish a kangaroo court system and destroy the Constitution, or change it so much it will be unrecognizable. Voting will be a bigger joke than it has ever been, if it is even a thing. Ultimately, it will be Ronald Reagans' "Work or starve" economy, for the majority.
....in Wisconsin, legislative elections already have been a joke for the last 12 years. In the last several elections teh (R)s maintained and even gained power even though they received less than 50$% of the total statewide vote (last election with only 46%). It has come to the point that the state may as well save time, bother, and money and stop holding legislative elections as the outcome (thanks to the most extreme gerrymandering in the country) will always end up with the same result election after election.
This is why gerrymandering needs to be abolished nationwide at both the congressional and state level as state legislatures are who control voting and election regulations as well as draft voting laws which have a direct impact at large federal races as well.
You make the assumption they would follow the Constitution in order to dump it. They've proven that, no matter how much they try to attach themselves to the Constitution & even insist we're a constitutional republic (which we are), & not a representative democracy (which we also are), they are willing to ignore or betray the Constitution whenever it suits their purposes.
Denise Donaldson : They can just end it, I guess, the same way that tfg interfered with the Mueller investigation and installed "A G" Bill Barr, and messed with our intelligence official, telling her that she may have to "go through some things" if she did not leave her post in Europe (or where ever she was), and on and on. He has stated that he wants to make some big changes in government, the FBI : everything he does not like. He will " go after" anyone he does not think is sufficiently loyal.. most likely,, get rid of anyone opposing him, like Putin did and still does ( think Navalny).He jailed Navalny for even more time recently.. He loves Putin and thinks he is a genius.
I'm sure Agent Orange and his minions would continue as they've done before, only worse. I was trying to bring out that they have no chance of legally changing the Constitution. It's not a question of just arbitrarily changing things. Meaning that they'd have to be in blatant violation of Constitutional laws to do many of the things they'd do, if they'd proceed as advertised. That fact wouldn't make any difference to the MAGAs, of course, but it might galvanize any conservatives who aren't cult members.
Denise Donaldson ; I think you are right ; Look at recent developments in the case where Jack Smith is requesting a 'speedy trial' in tfg's attempt to again assert some kind of immunity in the D.C. case.
And I read that SCOTUS has taken notice of Smith's filing. Could it be that the MAGA six will do the right thing? If so, I'm buying a lottery ticket....
Denise : yes, One would certainly hope it could galvanize some conservatives and awaken anyone with any perception at all, no matter their political stance. Look at retired Judge, J. Michael Luttig ; He is no wild eyed political extremist: But he has been on a campaign to educate everyone who can listen about the gravity of this current Constitutional crisis. This is the biggest deal for our young Democracy 'experiment' in a long time. A grave threat.
Exactly so, Laurie. I've been following Judge Luttig's articles since the J6 Committee hearings. A most impressive man, especially because of his willingness to call out the Rs for their illegal maneuvers.
I am suprised they haven't yet outlawed- again - the Theory of Evolution due to its basis on the premise of "Out of Africa" to the rest of the contentents.
How many white children will be spared that revelation and be better citizens later in life because of it?
Thankfully, not all versions of God are Theocracy that is White ' Christian' Nationalism, complete with 'sheeple'! We don't have to tolerate the intolerable. Freedom of/from religion is an important part of our Constitution. ("If we can keep it").
Benjamin Franklin was asked, upon leaving the constitutional convention, "What form of government do we have?"
"A republic, if you'll keep it," he replied.
If he didn't use "will" instead of "can", I still want to believe it was that we WILL keep it, by our choice and actions. "Can" implies weakness; "will" gives us the vision of heroism and the proper behavior toward freedom.
What about the, ''soft non-working people'' like myself and other old and disabled people?? I would guess all of us will just starve to death or be homeless. And some wonder why i HATE and despise these damn Fascist SOB's. so very much. The Fascist GQP always says that Social Security is an entitlement program, but it isn't an entitlement program at all. We paid into it all of our working lives and we paid for it through deductions from our paychecks. According to Nancy Altman at the ''Social Security Works'' organization, Social Security does not contribute a single cent to the damn budget deficit. If these greedy low life rich people paid into the program like we have to, Social Security would be solvent for decades to come.
Believe me, there is NO ''Common Good'' in these greedy, heartless, cruel, evil and corrupt Fascist GQP rotten bungholes. May they rot in hell for all i care.
You are right, John. I paid into Social Security all of my working life and the GOP is not going to make me feel guilty for using it now. The GOP does not have any interest in the common good anymore, just greed and corruption and power!
Phil, i was watching a program the other night about how most UFO sightings were actually deep, dark, covert secret black project vehicles that were manufactured here in the United States. They did show that clip of Eisenhour making that statement in 1955 that said, '' We should all be aware of the increasing threat of the Military/ Industrial complex'' His granddaughter was also on that program and she actually resembles him a good bit in her facial features.
Speaking the truth, John! The GOP wants to gut Social Security, and see the elderly living on the street and eating cat food, like it was before the program existed. Their idea that somehow we should all work until we drop dead to support the wealthy is pure bs! Once you become too disabled, that somehow your family can take care of you- more bs! They are barely able to make ends meet, due to the flat wage "curve" since the 70's.
Walter, Completely agree, except have you checked out the price of cat food? The cans keep getting smaller and more expensive. Pay more, get less. It’s the American corporate way.
And use your power of the purse. Boycott the corporations at the top:
Amazon, Walmart, Twitter. Starbucks, autos run on fossil fuel. Speaking of which: Tesla owns 60% of the charging stations in our country; time to get more, and enforce more, anti-trust laws.
how about the hedge funds, banks ,holding companies that are buying up all of the homes in the united states at fire sales because of covid ? we have monopoly laws on the books but our politicians are beholden to the rich them to keep themselves in power . they are selling us out and supporting them at every turn. the trumper party has no platform other than supporting trump and the rich at the cost of us all. they will gladly burn us to the ground and rule over our ashes
Carole, I think if we did that, we would begin to see the stirrings of change!! It would mean for a lot of Americans to make sacrifices that many do not want to make but it would definitely make the corporations sit up and take notice!!!
They should be rattled. They have no idea what the majority of the people want. They march to the beat of a totally different drum!! May we rattle them and rattle them and rattle them!!!
Carole, our power is our voices. We must never stop defending Democracy at every level!! We need to lift our collective voices to say enough is enough!! Tell everyone - Go to the polls and vote!! That is our voice!
I have not darkened the door of our local Walmart in 15 years. It is a lonely protest that has not harmed them, and inconvenienced me. Getting people to boycott these commercial giants is nigh impossible as they do deliver good enough, cheap enough products to customers. We Americans are caught in the endless loop of consumerism that sustains these massive corporations. Do I really "need" a microwave to reheat my food, or can I use a stove as I did until I was an adult in my 30's? Small example.
What happened? Rapacious finance capitalism, neoliberalism and the betrayal of the middle class and working class by those who decided profits were more important than societal progress, stability and prosperity, signing away millions of good paid skilled jobs to go where the labor is cheaper, without health and safety protections and without representation by trade unions. Meanwhile setting about destroying the trade union movement at home. It began in the 1970s and all the graphs show up until then - Reagan & Thatcher - wages rose year on year alongside productivity, then the two lines on the graph suddenly show a huge gap which only gets wider and wider as years go by. This continued through Bush, Clinton, Bush 2, Obama, Trump and now Biden because neoliberal supply-side economics is the “holy” consensus within both parties - blue and red. Just like the Bi-Partisan (ruinous) foreign policy consensus that eat up trillions of dollars through war after illegal war, while the duopoly in Washington all eagerly vote for more funding for the kind of death and destruction which has made the US less safe, not safer as we were told. Ignoring the tens of thousands of deaths each year from lack of healthcare and millions either uninsured or underinsured, the second most common cause of bankruptcy being medical debt. 25% of the worlds prison population whilst the US makes up only 5% of the world’s population. Homelessness visible in every city, along with boarded up homes. Only a sick society allows these things. That is what happened to the American Dream and neither party - red or blue - represents the wishes and needs of the american people anymore, but are in hock to oligarchs, big pharma, tech, insurance, military industrial complex and more lobbyists on Capitol Hill than there are Congressional Representatives. Sadly i don’t see us voting our way out of this purgatory.
Oh, i’m not giving up. I just will no longer play along with their game of the non-democratic duopoly, hoping for the least worst thing to happen by voting for the “Lesser Evil” - which is looking more and more ridiculous with every day of both of the Wars Biden is funding and supporting, one of which is a genocide.
J-Pat : Joe Biden is trying to prevent more civilians getting killed. He has done diplomacy to get hostages released. He has told Netanyahu that deliberate killing of innocents will end any weapons support as will the development of more settlements. It's a challenge to help in this war. Hamas hides behind human shields. I do not believe that President Joe Biden wants genocide for Israelis or Palestinians.
I also think we need to keep the pressure on any way we can. There's definitely been a change in tone from Blinken, and I'm sure voices have been raised behind closed doors as of course they needed to be. What's important is that strings get attached to future aid so that a political solution can be found to end all the carnage for good, and undermine support for groups like Hamas.
1 of those wars is the most important conflict for us to have become involved in, perhaps the only one, since WWII, & if anything, we should be more robustly supportive of Ukraine than we already are. It's a perfect example of a nation having been attacked with no provocation whatsoever in a truly existential battle, as Russia has actually already declared its genocidal intentions against Ukraine. Russia's obsession with building empire goes back centuries, in fact to its inception. Being by far the largest country in the world isn't good enough for them. This is truly a great investment for the US, because our greatest enemy weakens without the expense of our lives or those of most of our European allies, & this is much less expensive for us than if we let them take over Ukraine & move onto their next neighbor to invade, & we have to defend Lithuania, Poland, Finland or any of the other endless number of countries Russia has in mind conquering.
J-Pat, I have to agree with you about funding genocide. I was sympathetic to the war against Putin invading Ukraine.
I strongly object to the funding of a genocidal war targeting civilians, which is how I see the war in Gaza. No amount of sugary frosting on that bitter cupcake will make it palatable.
Where is the Movement? We can read, we can write, we can share, but the message doesn't seem to be reaching enough people. I had been having trouble putting together what had been happening, and then I found Robert Reich. Everything became so clear, but I wondered why no one else was seeing what was happening all around them. I think there needs to be a Movement to get attention to these problems.
Thom Hartmann is likewise writing hard-hitting essays against the corporatocrats & fascists that want to take full control over us, & Bernie Sanders started this movement many years ago, gathering millions of followers, which is why the corporatist powers that be in both parties & the media have been trying everything possible to suppress his movement. He periodically writes essays himself, which align very closely to what Reich & Hartmann are saying.
Hey, "Reich & Hartmann"! I like the sound of that. Wouldn't it be nice to have a progressive network to confront & oppose right-wing media like Fox, perhaps financed by the likes of billionaire Tom Steyer, and have the 2 of them convey their wisdom throughout America? Al Franken could probably help with that, too.
I agree. You described our purgatory so well that I'm copying it and putting into my folder. I will vote just in case it may still make a difference in some way, and will try to persuade those within my sphere, but I won't donate because as much as we can afford can't put a dent into what billionaires can spend to pay for what they want. I'll spend on Substacks and possibly on local races while I wait for things to deteriorate to the point that change is inevitable.
Yes, it can’t be allowed to happen again whereby a “Messiah” figure (an obsession which the left can’t shake off) gives everyone hope and takes multi millions in small donations from those who can least afford it only to then, like a Sheepdog, herd them all into “Vote Blue no matter who” lesserevilism and all the talk of “this is a movement for a revolution beyond electoral cycles yada yada yada”. Then proceeding to leave all the enthusiasm high and dry swinging in the wind while they go back to being good little Democrats and vote for all the things they said they were against and that they were shouting about when Trump did those same things. *I’m thinking of a certain white-suited young Congresswoman who was crying at the border only to go strangely silent now Biden’s doing the “Kids in cages” - just one example.* Cages which were built by OBAMA and BIDEN to start with.
Anyway, those small donations; Bernie raised 300 MILLION Dollars for his two primary campaigns. Imaging how much good could’ve been achieved through Mutual Aid and community projects, “Pop-Up” Medical Clinics, pre-school age kids clubs and libraries…. the list is endless. What did it all go on ? A performative campaign which resulted in Bernie bending the knee… again. All that time and money and enthusiasm wasted.
J-Pat is not an American. One president can not be all things to all people and the good is the enemy of the perfect.
I like the idea of a grass roots campaign. That's why I keep referring to Taylor Swift --because the youth vote can get us all that we want -- 40% of the electorate and 70% trend Democratic. Doesn't cost us anything to enlist a cadre of young people who are influencers on TicToc and Instagram and Facebook.
We don't have a "left" in this country, J-Pat. Never really did. I'm taking a course on the "Red Scare" this semester. What you say is in part the the same BS that the right wing spreads.
Daniel, you're correct about the missing "left." Most people have never had an experience of true left, mostly because our capital captains suppressed it. There seems to be no such thing as socialism or communism any more. These words have lost their power and meaning.
Yet as irrelevant as those 2 words have become, the far right loves to wave those words around describing Democrats. On the other hand, fascism is a greater threat now than it has been since WWII.
Im a dual national actually. My father is American, from New Jersey. I have spent years - plural - in the US and i can vote in both US and U.k. elections. I speak to family and friends everyday these days now that we have social media. I’m a politics & history nerd and while in the U.K. (where i am at present, working) i follow US politics very closely and actively support various Independent media platforms such as David Sirota’s The Lever, Briahna Joy Gray’s Bad Faith Podcast, Due Dissidence Podcast, RBN - Revolutionary Blackout Network, and follow The Grayzone, Glen Greenwald, Matt Tiabbi and even The Hill’s Rising and the NYT & NY Post. There are more but you get the idea. I also have a University Degree in American History and Politics. I know only too well that there is no “Left” in electoral politics in the US.
You know Taylor Swift was recently dating an honest-to-God Nazi, right? She only dumped him for this sports guy because her fans revolted. She could probably get votes but there’s nothing good that could possibly come of her entering politics. Let her stick to singing songs trashing her old boyfriends, that’s her one talent.
I consider her the most overrated singer in history, but her political leanings now are good & she's using them to influence her fans, encouraging them to vote Democratic.
I'm sure there's a lot of truth in what you say, but I also think we need to hope things will improve and agitate for action where we can. If history teaches us anything, it's that we tend not to learn from it. That said, things go in cycles and it's up to us as far as we can to try to push things the other way.
Yes, exactly. The civil rights act, for just one example, didn’t get passed because of politicians. It failed to get the votes on the floor of The House several times. It was people power, marching to the White House en masse that frightened the establishment politicians and they took the decision to give way in order to prevent mass public disorder, general strikes etc. Power concedes nothing without demands.
Voting, once an essential tool of change, has become as ineffectual as sticking a band-aid on a malignant cancer. We must insist on constitutional amendments to prohibit wealthy, influential criminals in all sectors of our country (business, politics, etc.) from buying their way out of responsibility for their crimes or be prosecuted accordingly and swiftly. This includes those at the highest levels of business and the judiciary who greedily invite and accept such bribery to prevent punishment of their 'friends' for treason and corruption. If anyone thinks the January 6 insurrection was bad and no positive action is taken by conscientious Democrats, we must remember the French and Russian Revolutions and expect no less if we truly wish to preserve the common good and the American Dream.
Yes, and no. Both parties have at times been complicit in the trends you describe. But one party is susceptible to reform. We all have to put our efforts into making that reform happen, to return power to the people. Get dark money out of politics, create the kind of single-payer health care system that works well in other industrialized nations, eliminate the Electoral College, outlaw gerrymandering, make the ultrarich pay their fair share of taxes...We know the policies that level the playing field and provide hope to counteract the loss of faith in our democratic institutions.
The key is making sure that most Democrats elected are progressive & that Democrats have the majority in the House, Senate & executive, which hasn't happened in over half a century, back when Lyndon Johnson was President, which was at the end of the era during which the standard of living at all economic levels rose the fastest in our history, our Golden Era from FDR-LBJ.
I call them the Greedy One Percent, but Keith Olson really nailed it when it comes to the complete abandonment of democracy in favor of #RepubloFascism.
And if #DonaldDuce has his way, Biff World will be brought to life. And the entropy of the species will be accelerated. Trump will single-handedly waste all of America’s greatness as his lemming legislators cower at the thought of standing up to him.
Exactly why we voters need to look closely at the character of candidates before we elect them. Read “Assessing the CHARACTER of Candidates for National Office” now in bookstores.
Todd Telford : To say nothing of the quivering. Lily livered DOJ! Fear will not enforce justice. The threats will not only continue: they will get worse if justice does not happen! Lock Him Up!!! Already!!
I agree, Laurie! 100%. The Powers that be allow donald to threaten everyone. His despicable words carry great weight among the already brainwashed. Why one set of rules for the donald and another set for the rest of us?
I blame the decline squarely on Ronald Reagan. He put an end to unions and to the fairness doctrine. Then there came Rush Limbaugh and FOX News. Trump is only the icing on the shit-cake.
The right wingers always talk about the family unit and how great it is, yet their economic policies destroy the family units. We never hear much about this on the news or from the Democratic party either. There seems to be very little money behind the majority of Americans who are left of center, and without money there is very little representation. Socialism builds a strong middle class and prevents a lot of crime. Capitalism, creates a lot of poverty and suffering and causes a lot of crime. Theoretically socialism can be sustainable but capitalism cannot be.
I see you have read Niebuhr's "Moral Man and Immoral Society". More people should read it.
As a grad student in resource economics in the early '70s, I was criticized by my (mostly Chicago school) profs as being into political economy rather than their preferred quantitative approach. Happy to say I learned to use the quantitative tools, while never giving up on the political economy approach.
Seems true to me, from my experiences. Americans have been trained by commercialism and capitalism to be helpless consumers, with amplified greed for many
I first went to the US with my husband and 2 kids to New Jersey, my husband had a job there. I was so surprised when all these locals started arriving "Welcome Wagon." I originally thought how nice then I was told by friends that it was all about money and to be sure all the cards I was given had shop names and businesses on the back.
We left NJ (it had been a mistake) and we moved to LA where my husband had another job offer.
1) In England at the time not many people had garages. In LA I saw garages jammed with 'toys/electrical stuff/bicycles/you name it it was there. I was shocked.
2. I had made friends by this time and I asked them why did they have so much stuff. They all laughed.
3. I understood that if I suggested going out to have coffee etc we would end up shopping. I have never been a great shopper.
It just seemed to me that life was so shallow people didn't seem to talk about anything except new this or that.
I also spent time in Hospital there. One time I had to wait for 4hrs (in pain) while my Doctor tried to get me admitted. I needed a kidney basin/towel etc which I had NO idea I had to pay for.
Everywhere we went it seemed money was everything.
The calls at about 6pm every evening selling something. My daughter wanting things her friends had (natural anywhere) but these were expensive things. I spent years saying NO. Eventually it got so insidious the buying. I even fell into the trap.
When GWB got in we decided to leave.
We had great friends who still live there and we keep in touch.
I still don't think most Americans understand how they are being played by the
idealisation of money.
One day we took loads of stuff from three garages to Downtown LA a place where they collected for the poor.
I hate to think how much of the memory portion of my brain, which I am sure has limited capacity, is taken up by advertising jingles for cereal, cigarettes, soft margarine, living bras, etc. Stuff is supposed to replace the happiness we lost when time with family was stolen to time at work.
Ha! I think I remember asking someone why there were so many Haemorrhoid Ads? Gloria my brain is probably as bad as yours. No Teevee now or 'phone just my computer.
Think I might have to get a simple 'phone' because am getting a bit doddery. Life in old age is not much fun.
I really didn't have much family but my Grandparents were wonderful. We were in America when both parents started having to work. Kids were left on their own after school and then came the drug sellers out of the Pizza trucks.
All sad.
Life here is also disintegrating and all families now live so far apart.
Oh, you have gone through a litany of things I hate about our society.
I hate shopping. I don't like to consume. I hate waste. I hate to throw things out, so I have accumulated a lot of things in my life, the majority of which I didn't buy myself, except for the records, CDs, & foreign language dictionaries.
It's such a tragedy that the US has still not managed to get universal healthcare even though we pay twice as much for healthcare as all the many countries that do have it. And our state of mass transportation & rapid transit is deplorable long after Japan, Europe & China have developed comprehensive rapid transit throughout their territory.
That is our big problem. I was immediately repelled when I first heard the term "greed is good" coined by Reagan, which essentially replaced the concept of the "common good". Greed is definitely NOT good.
Thought it was Gordon gecko from that movie about Wall Street with the Charlie Sheen in it . Mike Douglas has Gordon gecko says greed for lack of a better word is good . Ronald Reagan was not capable of creating a catch worthy phrase of any kind except vote for me.
It was the 1929 Depression that tipped the economic system into the hands of Labor . The Depression had most of the workers unemployed and the Banks were playing Casino with Wall Street .
Worid War 2 and deep Spending by the Government ended the Depression.
Somehow VP Wallace couldn't be allowed to keep that ball rolling. Result, black Americans feel betrayed and Eleanor Roosevelt is just a name in a history book.
I am a retired from the fire service (which includes EMS, fire-life safety and more). I climbed the ranks to an executive position and had a BS degree before entering the profession. We in the ranks or retired from there, are admired even more so after 9-11. Our profession has done quite well financially and with other perks such as defined benefit pensions, at least for those of us who were paid, full-time. When I was still there the department sent me to a one-day seminar at the local state university. That seminar was about supervising in the fire service and the professor’s introductory remark, a question, was, “Thinking of Karmic Theory, what did you do in the your prior life that demanded you come back as a supervisor-manager in the fire service?” He went on: “The fire service union, the IAFF and its locals, are the strongest union in the world. So why did we choose to supervise and manage in the service?" Yet if you walk into any fire station, at least here in Florida, Fox News is playing the TVs and the conversation is about socialism taking over the country and that the lack of religion and morals have declined, etc, etc. It drives the union reps nuts. You get the picture. So go figure. The answer is right in front of my former colleagues and now even at events where my fellow retirees gather. For these reasons I no longer gather with them. They’re beyond logic. I mean, WTF are they complaining about? Talk about biting the hand that feeds! Maybe it’s PTSD. I don’t know. They need to go out into the real world and see how the rest of the middle class is doing. Considering the benefits, the fire service more resembles the upper class and not the middle. Of course I’m not going to give up what I have, but I understand what Secretary Reich is teaching-the truth.
"We must now return to the moral questions at the heart of politics and economics."
The way Republican politicians do politics, there are no morals. Instead, they are always playing mind-games. A mind can become attached to anything that attracts and captures its attention. For Republicans, what their minds are most set on is gaining more wealth and power, regardless of the consequences that anyone else may suffer. All of their success is measured in the wealth and power they hold. Mind-games are always based on fear, which leads to division, separation, antagonism, hate, greed.
Morals arise from heart-quality, not mind-games. Only politicians who have a sense of heart-quality, and especially those who have more developed heart-quality, have any real sense of moral behavior. And moral behavior only manifests through a sense of empathy, compassion and kindness towards others ... ALL others. Without a sense of morals, there can never be justice or fairness. Heart-quality results through experiences and manifestations of Love.
Daniel, I think I’m having Deja vu here. There is no “lie detector test.” The polygraph is so unreliable that it is not admissible in court (as I think you would know). It detects anxiety, so a person could be telling the truth but be nervous about the test, and thus “fail” the test. Also well-known: sociopaths are not nervous about lying, and people can be trained to control the things the polygraph measures. I am dismayed that (AFAIK) our government still uses polygraphs as part of determining or maintaining security clearances.
Only used for specific positions that have access to sensitive information or require advanced security clearances I'd say jobs like president should require it. Federal Rule of Evidence 901 provides: (a) General provision. The requirement of authentication or identification as a condition precedent to admissibility is satisfied by evidence sufficient to support a finding that the matter in question is what its proponent claims.
IMHO the real test is whether a defendant in a criminal case will volunteer to testing. I've been on all sides on this issue. When used in conjunction with other tests like the MMPI is 80- 90 % accurate.
I wrote a book about the onset of authorization of DNA. Prior to 2000 was in the same category. Lie detectors have been improved and neuropsychological testing is advanced.
As a candidate for federal office, I was tested. I like the State Department Foreign Service Officer test. https://home.pearsonvue.com/fsot. If I wanted to prove that I am better qualified, I'd offer this test, lie detector (If I passed) and challenge my opponent to do the same.
Daniel, you wrote “This isn't a criminal case!” At the risk of seeming flippant (I am not. I think of this as perhaps the most important scientific question): So what? If something like the polygraph is scientifically invalid and/or unreliable, then it is so regardless of the context in which it is used. Having a high correlation with other tests does not change that, nor does whether someone volunteers to take it. (Especially since a sociopath/psychopath, or anyone trained in defeating a polygraph would not hesitate, and would even be eager to do so since it would enhance their credibility.)
It seems that you recognize the fallibility of the polygraph when you acknowledge the possibility that you might not pass. If I am correct, you’re not confident enough in the test to put your fate on the line before knowing the result of the test.
I have been reading and studying why the US started losing factories and manufacturing and I am beginning to understand more about what happened. The decline was in the 80s and of course a lot of the reasons were what you gave, Professor Reich. What is hard for me is the fact the US dominated globally in mass scale industrial production and now we do not! I remember when then President Reagan delivered his 'trickle down' economics and how it would apparently 'trickle down' to all of us but I'm beginning to think it was just his way to allow all of the manufacturers to move their plants to places that cost much less to operate! Factories closed leaving so many without any means of support!! That was rough! I agree that the majority of us are sick and tired of the ultra rich not only being rich but using our system to work it for their benefit!!! Yes, the majority of us are sick and tired but the majority of us wonder what the hell can we do about it? I believe in unions and I would like to see more of them. The UAW won and also exposed a lot of people to the fact that the CEOs were absolutely raking it in!! I believe in mom and pop businesses, co-ops, and family farms!! I want the economy to work for us for a change!! Nobody needs billions of dollars and nobody needs to control what everyone else says and does. I've reached my tipping point and want to see change happening for the better!
He was dazzling; but James Garner said they had to feed him lines. He had mastered the SMILE AND COULD read and Deliver a Script. The Fact he Couldn’t Devine the differences between his Movie Roles and What was actually happening reality was his Greatest Utility to his Backers corporate America .
James, that was hysterical! I honestly was not thinking about the fact he was an actor before becoming President!! He really should have stuck to acting!
A biographical movie that came out in the 90s also indicated that his favorite job was as a lifeguard in a little town in Iowa. Perhaps we would’ve avoided this entire retrenchment if he had remained in Iowa.
Yes, he was an actor and a mouthpiece. That’s all the GOP (Greed Over People as someone else in the comments brilliantly stated) have needed in the WH for the last fifty years. The secretive conservative corporate money and think tanks do the planning, they only need someone in the Oval Office with a signing pen. Heather Cox Richardson does a good background of Reagan on pp. 49-55 (hardback) of Democracy Awakening.
Most people also don’t know Reagan was also once a president of the Screen Actors Guild. That’s right, a union president. Go figure.
His first elected public office was a local water district board, after a dispute when they fined him for stealing water from a neighboring water district and piping it to his property. Then he moved on to making us Californians suffer for eight years as governor. Political commentators in Sacramento for years applied the following to him: “Talked like a conservative, spent like a liberal.” (Cut taxes, spend more.) Eight years to practice on California for what he unleashed later for eight years on America.
Michael, it seems to me that Reagan, Trump and a few other republican presidents were like ventriloquist dummies sitting on the lap of the conservative corporations and think tanks!! You couldn't see the wires because they used the clear filament, but they seemed to control everything the President said and did!
Reagan, the Bushes, and Trump are marionettes with corporate puppet masters. Trump has debauched the “role” further by bowdlerizing norms and alleged crimes. Consequently, larger corporate interests are moving toward a friendlier face-Nikki Haley. As Americans, we always seem ready to identify a bête noir whom we can rant against. However, we ignore or trivialize how we have been co-opted by “the system.” WIIFM and zero sum capitalism have contorted our values and mores. As a mindless consuming engine we are fodder for global corporations-whose existence is solely to make a profit and neutralize risk (taxes and government oversight). The 14th amendment-the broadening of human rights to all citizens became a tool for corporate personhood. https://www.history.com/news/14th-amendment-corporate-personhood-made-corporations-into-people
James, Thank you for the History.com link which explains corporate personhood. Many on SubStack have asked the question of from where and when from which it originated, and the History.com article spells it out at a level an eighth grader can understand.
If the SC balance ever changes back toward the center, I’d love to see a case challenging the authenticity as precedent of Chief Justice Morrison Waite headnote to the 1886 case Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Rail Road. Even Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist in his Bellotti dissent questioned corporate personhood.
The current SC is trying to destroy the 14th as it applies to people and enshrine it for corporations - Citizens United.
We even have a même that we follow — “The golden rule” – he or she who has the gold-rules. The lopsided supreme court affirms that position. We can urge our legislatures to pass rules and regulations that can be demurred by a supreme court. Of course, that doesn’t mean that we give up. We just need to understand how integral corruption has become in our system. We need to seriously look at our values and mores that have been shaped by centuries of malefaction. It’s facile to endow one individual or group with an evil sobriquet. What is not so easy is to look at ourselves in the mirror.
Yes indeed human being is the most greedy species on earth. Yes this does not affect America, even in African countries there are very fewest people who are in power are holding the whole cake of the nation. By the way there more riches of Billy Gates in African continent only they hide a lot but continue begging for funds and donations which end u in their accounts plus few cronies around them. If one can ask why do African ministers get more salaries than even the riches nation like US, UK etc. but they still crisscross the world looking for donations? We lost humanity long long time ago.... Please we are sharing the same predicament over here, greed has taken over whereby the fewest at the top have decided to strangled the very many citizens of their nations.
I don't even think its fair to say "human beings" are the most greedy species -- it is only A FEW HUMANS that are extremely greedy. I'm sure all of us here in the comments would gladly give the shirt off our backs to help the fellow man, but there are some who wouldn't.
Some HB are pure animals which in a real wild society would be met with a village posse that would run them out of town on a rail.
Interesting case of an Oklahoma town with a local attic control bully ended up dead and no one and I mean no one in town we talk about it he got a dirt 💤 nap
I too prefer to believe there are decencies and moralities inherent to humankind. Knowing what is wrong, for example. Isn't that capacity almost instinctive? Knowing what is right, though, sometimes takes thought and wisdom.
About the growth in the economy
I was an engineer - I spent decades improving productivity - in 10 years we doubled the output per man
Most of that was by working smarter - implementing good ideas
About half of the good ideas (along with some stinkers) came from the shop floor - the other half from the engineers
Not a single solitary good idea came from the executives in all the decades I was doing that
I'm certified in a project management improvement area, and we've always been told that bottom-up decisions vs top-down decisions are always the better ideas and we should strive to identify those.
FYI - i apply those project management skills and look at the world and ask, "how can we do things better?" that's what my substack is about if anyone is interested: https://unorthodoxy.substack.com/
Instead of the 'trickle down' economic theory, it should be the 'trickle up' economic theory!! Those that actually do the work almost always have the better improvement ideas!!
The Mathematics speak for themselves. In this country we have 735 Billionaires. So out 1 out of every 450,000 people is a billionaire. The bottom 60% of the country share $1 out of every $100 the country makes. The Billionaires share a portion of the other $99. So you take 60% of that 450,000 and you get 270,000 people. Those bottom 60% most likely cannot afford a house on a single income. How many houses does a billionaire need to live in? One. How many Houses would the 270,000 need? Assuming 3 people per household. 90,000. Stop robbing the income of the bottom 60% and you would have 90,000 single income folks able to afford to buy one house. Would this not put a great need for construction. or renovation of houses? It would. There is only so much ONE billionaire or millionaire needs as a single individual. If that money stayed in the bottom 60% where it is rightfully is earned the money desperate poor, middle and upper middle class could afford and consume 270,000 more things than that lousy 1 billionaire.
Sing that out loud, Bill!! Everyone needs to hear that! You explained it so well. Absolutely no one needs more than one house but so many cannot afford even one! If it were not for the help of my fantastic children, I would be homeless! Billionaires do not need it but they want it and apparently the way things are now they will get whatever they want and to hell with the rest of us!!
Thank you. All this information I have gotten from Robert Reichs classes and his various post/videos.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOLArO56vjuoeaIPzKQibBDbx2m_Rfsit&si=v8WMRkkQQ00TvY76
There is one of the videos divides up income distribution into 5 groups of 20%. People usually think OK how much of the pie do the poor 20% have 10% Middle class 15% upper middle 20%? Spoilers 60% shares 1% of all the pie. So 200 million people have to fight each other for 1% of the money. It makes perfect sense why we are setup to hate the upper class or the poor or other races or other religions. It is to distract from that simple fact of us having to share 1% and a very small amount of people getting the lionshare of the pie.
I sincerely hope Professor Reich will continue to educate us and keep us talking about ways to improve our country!!
It consistently escapes me how enormous corporations cannot seem to understand that when the Common Good is supported by everyone - EVERYONE does better and Corporate Profits INCREASE. Let's evolve, shall we?
Agreed we see it with the SMALL amount of money that's been put back into the pockets of ordinary Americans. It has had an outside effect on surging the economy. The most common thread and refrain I hear in the corporate world boiled down simply is "That's just the way things are". The most lazy and unintelligent answer I have ever heard.
Sadly, that answer is taught by rote -- worst of all, to children:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_1gdx4DKbk
But corporations get more because of the power they have to charge more. So they have no reason to give it up.
Change that word Corporations to Monopoly Corporations.
Agree, Lynn. A by-product of Corporate power is lessening of product safety. If an engineer designs a flaw in placement of a gas tank in an auto so that in a minor fender bender the car explodes into flame - that's ok - a few peons die and eventually they may have to recall, by then thy've made a fortune.
This has been the ongoing blind spot for all the time I've paid attention (my whole life). The rich do not understand that "the rising tide lifts all boats." This is the metaphor I heard in my twenties. When there's plenty of money all around, the rich will continue to get richer, and so will everyone else. If I have enough money to buy a Tesla, Elon Musk will continue to get rich. He should give away free electric cars for the next three years and see what it does for the environment.
We have proof of that in our own history. The era in our history where we improved our standard of living fastest at all economic levels was from FDR-LBJ when our tax system was its most progressive, unions strengthened, many important social programs were instituted, including Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid, & we as a united nation were able to meet any challenge we faced, none of which is true today. As a result, we became the top nation in the world in most measures of prosperity and well-being.
True, but it's more important for them to have a much larger piece of a much smaller pie than it is for them to share an abundance of wealth in a much larger pie, even though they benefit, too. That is the sad state of their sick, selfish, avaricious greed.
The corporate focus on short-term gains drives a lot of this. "Today is the first day of the rest of the quarter."
Yes, but the people who build the giant multi-million dollar yachts for the billionaires would go out of business! How cruel!
I will purchase the smallest violin and play it for them!
Bravo, Bill! While this brings to mind the sinking of the Titanic, perhaps if enough violinists unite, the ship captains will be alerted to the importance of the Common Good and avoid the looming iceberg!
More people who have enough money in their pockets to spend on more than their most basic needs means more money going through the local economy, which helps small business.
We have a lot of politicians, especially Republican, who claim they care about small businesses, but they are against policies that are beneficial to small business that don't help big business more.
To he/she who has the most corporate lawyers (and inside information from polticians) goes the small business stimulus the fastest.
Yep, funny how it always happens that way!
If you would take the wealth of billionaires in this country and distribute it among the US population how much would everyone get? According to my calculation less than $ 20,000.- . I asked my friends recently what they think Americans would do with this money. The unanimous answer was: they would piss it away.
Distributed among every person? So, a family of four would get $80,000. That's a new car to replace the clunker with money left over. Or paying off credit card debt. Or rent payments for years. Braces for little Suzy so she can feel more confident and have a successful and productive life.
The point is that there would be no savings. Without savings there would be no investments and without investments our economy would decline and we would join the ranks of the poor.
Who would invest in the economy. Who would promote the not for profit sector like symphonies or museums. The entertainment industry including sports are thriving.
You really miss the point. Read Reich's article again. The problem is the system. The benefits of his corrections compound every day. Instead of a lump sum payment, the lower and middle classes would receive increasing increments of benefits every day of their lives. That includes intangibles like financial regulation and the never-ending war against political corruption and fascism.
You and your friends certainly have a low opinion of the American people. I think most people would find lots of useful and helpful things to do with their $ 20,000.
Happens all the time. I see it in working with estates and income taxes. The money goes to many wrong things. But I do agree that billionaires do not pay enough in taxes on their wealth. Stop the capital gains tax on dividends and pay ordinary income tax and that would level the tax quickly.
The US savings rate is notoriously low, the lowest of the high income countries. Without savings there can be no investments. Without investments we would all be poor. Our income would decline.
Robber Barron Andrew Carnegie says as much in much less flattering words in "The Gospel Of Wealth". His idea which has been adopted by the robber barons of yesterday and today is to win as much money as possible by any means necessary and then giving it all back before you die (except most of todays folks only give back the minimum and leave the rest to their inheritors TAX FREE). What gives the ultra wealthy any say in how we spend our money? The idea that only the wealthy can decide what is good for everyone else has gotten us into this inequality he'll hole we are in now. Even if we just....pass it away.
For one $20k could pay off or into a lot of student loans debt. So, for those with school loan debt that money could be allocated by law law to pay into that debt instead of a personal check.
For others it could be forced to go towards their
social security. We need more out-of-the-box thinking. We've had enough of the same old corporatists in power.
Bingo, "That's just the way things are" only benefits those in power already.
You mean by that spend it, but not on the things that you and your friends would prefer. Your choice of words reveals an attitude.
I think you are missing the point of the article.
Thanks to Ronald Raygun, the trickle down theory showed its ugly face and with the mango madman, it has become beyond repulsive.
You are absolutely right. In my career (retired now), my bosses didn't want to know how I was creating what we needed. They were frequently annoyed when I wanted to discuss possible improvement to the process.
Peggy Freeman : wealth certainly 'trickles' up, not down, as things are now.
The problems is the "trickle" it should gush like a waterfall
I prefer "gush up", Peggy. It may trickle down in nanometer form droplets, but it gushes up for the top tier.
That sounds about right!
Trickle down economic theory has been aptly described by Mr. Black as piss on your foot economics.
That was hilarious!! I like that description!!
Leftie Fact Check, it means that as the middle class and lower income begin to succeed and are able to live life comfortably on their wages then that prosperity could eventually 'trickle up' to the richer class. Of course, it would take decades for the rich to see any income from that. Much like the decades it took for the middle and lower income classes to benefit from the 'trickle down' effect. Oh wait, the middle and lower income classes have NEVER benefited from the 'trickle down' economics because the rich kept it and began devising ways to ALWAYS keep it and get more, more, more!!
Try telling that to Liz Truss - shortest ever reigning British PM! Much like the GOP economists she believed that by cutting benefits to the poorest, you could use the money to give generous tax cuts to the wealthiest, who would then grow the economy and all would be better. Only the markets didn't believe her and the run on sterling forced the Bank of England to raise interest rates making everyone much worse off than before, especially if like most people they had a massive mortgage on an over-priced house...
I laughed when I heard Times Radio talking about Ukraine and Russia and they mentioned Liz Truss and that she would support a Republican presidential candidate for 2024. So the lady who wanted to give tax breaks for the rich during war time would support Trump or his wanna be vice presidential candidates. I said bring her to the states she can hang with MJT and Boebert. She would fit right in with MAGA. Brexit/MAGA. MAGAxit? MAGexit? BrAGA?
How would anyone with at least one functioning brain cell think that giving tax cuts to the rich and taking benefits away from the poor would be a good thing? The wealthiest aren't going to 'grow' the economy. Hard working people do that!!
True, I look at it this way. The leftie fact checker keeps us sharp to reply with information and knowledge. Usually what follows (when they can't dispute it) is name calling....
All I got from him today was.....crickets!!
i tried that trickle down during halloween - it was a failure - the first greedy criminal came along and stole it all (bowl and all) and the poor innocent kids kept coming to get their share . but left empty handed.
lol - he was probably dressed in a business suit and tie with a business card.
I actually did this. I let the kids choose what they took out of the bowl. Despite my encouragement to take more because I had too much, none of the kids would take more than one treat. We tend to believe that all people are greedy but I think this is learned behaviour. Kids have an innate sense of fairness.
If you want the treats to be equitably distributed, you'll have to dole them out yourself, as used to be the custom.
Rat, rotten, no goods. No morals!
Yeah, that's why democracy is better than autocracy---if you have an informed electorate.
and how are we supposed to stay informed when our politicians are allowed to lie to us , even when they are on the floor and especially when they are on camera ? if information is the currency of a democracy - we are left penny poor by our politicians/media and the internet.
Musk and Zuckburger and Google like Hunt brothers cornering the market on silver.
Professor Reich is informing us. Send these classes to everyone.
Nailed it. According to the Bible, it was a lie that started all the trouble. Even if you think the Bible is the lie (because the Liar so insists), that lies are at the root of all evil is an essential understanding.
According to the Bible, we cannot remove the Liar. And far too many love the lies, because they stroke their ego or profit them. Only the Creator can rescue us. And that is His promise. But the Liar has us scoffing “where is this promised coming of his?” Read the answer at 2 Peter 3 (the whole chapter.)
many choose the comfortable lie over the uncomfortable truth. prayer is a tool for fools . it condones inaction. perfect example would be the "thoughts and prayers". mantra we see after every mass shooting.
So how to convince the voters who vote down even well-vetted, moderate asks at the ballot box? RMR
I just posted a detailed blueprint solution that addresses the root cause of the problem. I too, have 45 years of experience in process improvement. Improvement. The book addresses the true root cause with a realistic solution and a plan. You can read it for free at https://endpoliticsnow.com/
good luck on collaborartive democracy.
i was co-chair for the northern ca. green party because of Ralph Nader . the dems and republicans had taken over the debates (COPD)from the league of women voters and wouldnt even allow Ralph into the parking lot (and he had a ticket!) heck - the last 3rd party candidate allowed in the debates was Ross Perot (but i digress)
I love Ralph Nader tò.
It wasn’t until I was recently I an auto dust up that I understood from the gut and the heart how much I owed him! Thank God and RalphNader for seatbelts. What an undertaking, unimaginable without Ralph Nader! (Just imagine if Trump gets in he’l probably make them illegal?)
I’m fine , it was the other person I was worried about she did a 360 head on into a gigantic utility pole and when I heard the crash I ran to the car ill with what I thought I would have to witness when the door was opened by a nearby neighbor!
He helped her out and she a little dazed but absolutely perfect, not a scratch, she shook herself , looked around, and then smiled at us! In her early 20’s !! It was the airbag - it worked perfectly! The car was totaled.
"Growth in the economy" --
I am from the Rust belt. I still grieve for the Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroads, Youngstown Sheet and Tube, Shenango China, Johnson Bronze Co, Pennsylvania Engineering and Mesta Machine, the "geese" that laid the golden eggs, our manufacturing sector. Killed by tax policy, by monopolistic unfair competition, by foreign intrigue.
Like Robert's family I also grieve for my family's businesses, Baron Hardware, The Brewster Company, and the shop keepers and store owners from my childhood - lost because industry dried up and because "big fish" like the Waltons and Bezos and Bill Gates could tilt the playing field.
I relocated. In my home town there are lawyers who still live with their mothers, who average less money than entry level lawyers make in DC or NY. They are addicted to "place." I guess I stayed with the government because I was concerned with job security. I would not have taken the test for the judicial register without my wife's prodding. I took a 50% cut in pay to take the job.
There were times when I was grateful. In 1992 during the Savings and Loan crisis, two lawyers I knew went to the top of then the highest building south of Philadelphia and jumped. Business is mostly luck. take what you need, you think will last
But whatever you wish to keep, you better grab it fast
Yonder stands your orphan with his gun
Crying like a fire in the sun
Look out the saints are comin’ through
And it’s all over now, Baby Blue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4HW33SgZlM
It seems to me that "production" needs to account for human cost. What does society do with widget makers, buggy whip workers, and coal miners?
Daniel Solomon: Nice Dylan reference .
Be careful what you wish for: all those industries use PFAS and will dump their leftovers in your drinking water . Ask me how I know. That stuff is nearly impossible to deal with.
😭😭😭 so many have perished after the Midwest plummeted. I’m sorry. Our family were so low on the totem pole that we survived. Now what...and we do need to account for human loss. The 1% must be held to account.
Youngstown was both Murdertown USA and the suicide capitol of the world after Sheet and Tube, McDonald Works and J&L went under.
Exactly, Duncan! The people actually doing the work could come up with the best ideas because they were frontline!! The executives did not have a clue and I feel even now the CEOs are clueless about their companies and actually depend on the very people they screw over in order to get richer!!
The Only Justification I’ve heard for outsized bonuses is the Eequivalent of the DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS.
ie that the compensation customer in industry..,
Custom
Agreed. Think of Xerox when they allowed Apple to steal their interactive mouse. The executive suite and bean counters at Xerox didn’t see a business purpose, while the computer engineers at the Xerox’s California lab were incensed.
How’s Xerox doing today? Its market capitalization is $1.7 billion, and Apple: $2.95 trillion...:)
Microsoft stole most of its software ideas from other companies. Windows was initially a ripoff of Apple's computer mouse driven interface system (which I believe they stole from Xerox as noted above). Microsoft is now a huge company, and most of the companies they stole from are long gone out of business.
I remember using a wooden box mouse in 1970. Steal?
I once met this old timer at a party in the 80's who bragged to me he did the very first computer simulation. He simulated a tank battle, Considering his age and that he worked at Los Alamos near its beginning days I thought yeah, he probably was one of the first. Alhough simulation of nuclear denotation came first.
http://www.wired.com/2015/01/tech-time-warp-week-1977-tablet-computer-took-entire-room/
Loved the post today Mr. Reich but I would also like to talk about the biggest budget problem - appraisal fraud and 2008 housing crisis. Today on NPR - seniors who can't afford housing. Why? It goes back (way back) to the housing accounting fraud crisis of 2008, 90s, texas, and probably further. (Bill Black How to Rob a Bank is to Own One) - side note, where can I buy one??? ;) lol.
Yes, the student loans are a crisis! Employers require a degree. College students pass 120 credit hours of classes more than 160 tests + research papers, essays etc. We are not lazy. We didn't expect "something for nothing". We put in the time and we expect to get what was promised.
If the government has the money to "forgive" Wall Street pandemic loans, then they have the money for much more.
Ditto for my company! The ideas from upper management always involved reducing staff (firing or layoffs), capping salary, or reducing/eliminating benefits to lower costs and increase profit! I am also an engineer.
Deming method? https://smallbusiness.chron.com/deming-management-method-74172.html
One method of investing is to identify "fat" companies that will "cut the fat."
I worked for the government during Al Gore's "Reinventing government." At the time I was at SSA. It was a disaster. My experience was that DOL was far more receptive to "user input" and I moved on....
If I were king, I'd cut most management. Too many chiefs not enough Native Americans (you know what I mean.) My wife and I were on the cutting edge because we acquired computer knowledge at a time when computer memory was more expensive than human capital and the government was privatizing. I was not a computer programmer, but from what I understand SSA is still using some programs that I designed to speed up my docket and do word processing. Many staff members complained that I cut out the "middleman," i.e. steps that required compiling the records.
Mu uncle was chief appraiser when they privatized and he lost most of his staff. The government paid former GS 12, 13 employees who made about $60,000 per as government employees, hundreds of thousands per as government contractors.
My office lost its docket section to privatization. Some of my cases involved top secret documents, similar to the Trump Miami case. Imagine the risk!!!!
When my wife worked for the court the outside company that got the contract to copy documents was Pakistani! National security?
At ACUS we had projects to make processes uniform. https://www.acus.gov/page/guidance-documents
Because many of my cases were at "remote sites" (How about Iraq and Afghanistan) I worked out methods (out of self defense) to held hearings, first via phone, later by what is now Zoom.
What really is the American Dream? Is it a tangible entity which is available to everyone or is it just an idea beyond the reach of the average American. No matter what the thought actually represents it is the driving force behind the engine that runs this country. It's the primary reason why immigrants across the globe attempt to relocate to this country. To some of us the idea has been lost because of the desire to obtain personal wealth and social power. But to those on the outside looking in what we have here as Americans represents everything they ever wanted as oppressed refugees. Why is our lifestyle so objectionable to us but so desirable to others? Maybe we need to see life through their eyes in order to appreciate what we actually have.
I agree, Donald, but what happens when those on the outside finally make it here? They are subjected to camps out in the desert, told they aren't wanted here. I think their eyes open up pretty quickly to the fact that on the people level, they are on the bottom rung!! I do appreciate what I have but I want to see everyone be able to live comfortably - to live free of fear, hate, and bigotry. I think Americans need to work harder to reach a place where the American Dream is absolutely real and obtainable!
You bought into the idea that hard work obtains success. That idea is what Reich is explaining is not reality for the majority any more. The people who fail because the system is rigged are blamed as though it is their fault. Capitalism couldn't continue without victim blaming being part of the system.
Gloria, there really shouldn't be victim blaming. I do agree that people try very hard to work and get ahead. It really isn't their fault that the system is not working for them. All of us need to work hard to change the system not blame the people!
Thank you. Now I understand what you mean.
Hence the existence of working class, which has always been there, feudalism on up. Some people just want enough to climb the Maslow pyramid one step, and are happy with that if it can be attained. Pooling our resources by way of taxation, many if not most advances have been government subsidized. Giving credit, in the form of money, to the masters of war so that they can exploit what belongs to all taxpayers, doesn't that fit some definition of taxation without representation?
Peggy--Many have become fat and lazy, fighting takes energy, and they save that for their video games.
Ah yes! Video games have ruined those younger than me!
Peggy--Kids under the age of 18 shouldn't be allowed to possess a smart phone. All they need is a basic form of communication for emergencies.
Peggy--And do away with the stupid practice of texting. All texting does is divert someone's attention from what they should be doing to something that might cost them their lives, and sadly for many that's exactly what it did. Let's go back to the old days when people used to talk to one another.
Or is it more like a candle's flickering flame to an unsuspecting moth.
It is because we appreciate the American lifestyle that we must fight for it!
Define the American lifestyle.
I've always felt safe going to sleep in the clean bed I've always been privileged to have, in my very own bedroom where I also keep my clean clothes. I've always had enough to eat, and good shelter from the weather. As an adult, I've always had my own car and I've driven all over, in my dozen-plus cars, one after the other. I've always had an indoor toilet, hot and cold running water and could take a bath whenever I wanted to. I've been privileged to own tools made for creativity and had the time to use them, to write and paint. I've spent many years being aware of trees; I've written poetry. I've shared meaningful friendships. I've flown across the waters.
Nic--That was the old school of thought, today it might be difficult to find a MAGA crowd that would agree with you.
Beautifully said, Donald!
: ) Thanks
Santos said he will name names in an effort to get even. Who in their right mind will believe a word that comes out of that woman's mouth.
Hey George, there is a God and like Satan you've been thrown out.
Where I work, ideas are not solicited from the technicians. Experience & expertise are ignored or dismissed. Upper level managers who have had no experience in the kind of work that a project entails do all the planning, never including those people who do have the experience in the planning, & as a result, things are done very inefficiently & have to be redone over & over.
TRUTH Management DeadHeads claim all the Glory For All of the shop rats innovations for better easier methods of work the Shop Guys think Up.
Labor is the number one target 🎯 of reducing costs ; while simultaneously Shop people are the source of most of the productivity improvements.
Mary Barra of General Motors got $26 Million Dollar bonus 💰.
Did she improve anything ???
Before GM went bankrupt There were Billions floating around their financial system totally un accounted For.
Hard to believe but true.
Buy their engines not their cars...
My comment (above or below) is was meant as a reply to yours.
Like you, I’m a retired engineer, 35 years with one company. In that time, I had five really good ideas. Everything else I accomplished came from listening to the guys in the control rooms. Either taking their ideas and implementing them, or listening to what they saw and heard and relating that to an underlying cause. They usually knew where the problem was and just needed someone to add the engineering vocabulary.
G.O.P. = Grand Oligarchy Party
When the Republicans get back in power they will
Mandate the following bills:
* Eliminating the Entitlement Programs, social security, Medicare, etc…..
* Repealing the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)
* Promoting voter suppression
* Eliminating all gun laws
* Locking up political opponents
* Completely outlaw abortion
* Punishment for the woman who has one
* Eliminating LGBTQ
* Deport all undocumented immigrants
* Establishment of Christian Nationalism
* More tax cuts for the rich 🤑
Keith Olson ; Also, they will establish a kangaroo court system and destroy the Constitution, or change it so much it will be unrecognizable. Voting will be a bigger joke than it has ever been, if it is even a thing. Ultimately, it will be Ronald Reagans' "Work or starve" economy, for the majority.
Ultimately it's becoming "work AND starve."
Gloria J Maloney :good point! That is happening now,in some places.
....in Wisconsin, legislative elections already have been a joke for the last 12 years. In the last several elections teh (R)s maintained and even gained power even though they received less than 50$% of the total statewide vote (last election with only 46%). It has come to the point that the state may as well save time, bother, and money and stop holding legislative elections as the outcome (thanks to the most extreme gerrymandering in the country) will always end up with the same result election after election.
This is why gerrymandering needs to be abolished nationwide at both the congressional and state level as state legislatures are who control voting and election regulations as well as draft voting laws which have a direct impact at large federal races as well.
Ohio is right there. North Carolina too. I was reading somewhere recently how NC republicans have created a special, secret police force????
“Work or be fired”. Even as a 12 year old, I believe I remember St Ronnie saying these words to the air traffic controllers.
Not disagreeing with you, Laurie, but questioning how the Rs can change the Constitution absent a 3/4 majority of states passing amendments?
You make the assumption they would follow the Constitution in order to dump it. They've proven that, no matter how much they try to attach themselves to the Constitution & even insist we're a constitutional republic (which we are), & not a representative democracy (which we also are), they are willing to ignore or betray the Constitution whenever it suits their purposes.
No argument there, Jaime. Bad idea to ever assume the autocrat-wannabes would ever follow the rules....
Denise Donaldson ; Since when has TFG needed to follow the rules? He has mentioned ripping up or tossing the Constitution.
Denise Donaldson : They can just end it, I guess, the same way that tfg interfered with the Mueller investigation and installed "A G" Bill Barr, and messed with our intelligence official, telling her that she may have to "go through some things" if she did not leave her post in Europe (or where ever she was), and on and on. He has stated that he wants to make some big changes in government, the FBI : everything he does not like. He will " go after" anyone he does not think is sufficiently loyal.. most likely,, get rid of anyone opposing him, like Putin did and still does ( think Navalny).He jailed Navalny for even more time recently.. He loves Putin and thinks he is a genius.
I'm sure Agent Orange and his minions would continue as they've done before, only worse. I was trying to bring out that they have no chance of legally changing the Constitution. It's not a question of just arbitrarily changing things. Meaning that they'd have to be in blatant violation of Constitutional laws to do many of the things they'd do, if they'd proceed as advertised. That fact wouldn't make any difference to the MAGAs, of course, but it might galvanize any conservatives who aren't cult members.
Denise Donaldson ; I think you are right ; Look at recent developments in the case where Jack Smith is requesting a 'speedy trial' in tfg's attempt to again assert some kind of immunity in the D.C. case.
And I read that SCOTUS has taken notice of Smith's filing. Could it be that the MAGA six will do the right thing? If so, I'm buying a lottery ticket....
Denise : yes, One would certainly hope it could galvanize some conservatives and awaken anyone with any perception at all, no matter their political stance. Look at retired Judge, J. Michael Luttig ; He is no wild eyed political extremist: But he has been on a campaign to educate everyone who can listen about the gravity of this current Constitutional crisis. This is the biggest deal for our young Democracy 'experiment' in a long time. A grave threat.
Exactly so, Laurie. I've been following Judge Luttig's articles since the J6 Committee hearings. A most impressive man, especially because of his willingness to call out the Rs for their illegal maneuvers.
Yes, again, another big hurdle for our Democracy. We have once again come to the brink of Civil War !
We have already endured the Jan 6th breaching of our hallowed Capitol halls; and insurectionist thirst for bloody physical actions.
Can we muster up the actions necessary to deter if not defeat any such further attempts on our freedoms? In God's name I certainly hope so.
G.O.P. = Greed Over People.
I enjoy wearing this great reminder in front of Republicans: t.co/KLS4Wyl6Eo
As far as the Republicans are concerned, we just wish they "Woke" up
I am suprised they haven't yet outlawed- again - the Theory of Evolution due to its basis on the premise of "Out of Africa" to the rest of the contentents.
How many white children will be spared that revelation and be better citizens later in life because of it?
Thank you for this warning so clear.
Once again the GOP is using their version of GOD to justify their repression of the masses and awarding the "kings". Money is their true GOD.
And, once again the sheeple are falling for the religious excuses around false morality and embracing Theocracy.
Sheeple and hate clones like Fascist Theocracy as they can just do as their told and not think for themselves.
The Oligarchy blame something, the hate clones attack while the sheeple stand by and then the Oligarchy pick a new target. Rinse, repeat.
Thankfully, not all versions of God are Theocracy that is White ' Christian' Nationalism, complete with 'sheeple'! We don't have to tolerate the intolerable. Freedom of/from religion is an important part of our Constitution. ("If we can keep it").
"If we will keep it."
Benjamin Franklin was asked, upon leaving the constitutional convention, "What form of government do we have?"
"A republic, if you'll keep it," he replied.
If he didn't use "will" instead of "can", I still want to believe it was that we WILL keep it, by our choice and actions. "Can" implies weakness; "will" gives us the vision of heroism and the proper behavior toward freedom.
Freedom FROM is freedom OF.
That is so very scary!! You have written the platform they will run on!
Also ban contraceptives
Remove all environmental laws & regulations on corporations
Further lower corporate taxes
Make voting based on wealth: 1 vote per million dollars of wealth.
Just about any other dystopian idea that benefits corporations & the ultrawealthy & reduces democratic rights.
Beautifully outlined. Sadly true. Welcome back to the future....................unless we can stop it..
Couldn't have been outlined any better!
Trump is already screaming most of these points !!!
A wet dream.
To all the hard working middle class Americans, it’s your time to take action against the greedy American oligarchs!
Unionize
What about the, ''soft non-working people'' like myself and other old and disabled people?? I would guess all of us will just starve to death or be homeless. And some wonder why i HATE and despise these damn Fascist SOB's. so very much. The Fascist GQP always says that Social Security is an entitlement program, but it isn't an entitlement program at all. We paid into it all of our working lives and we paid for it through deductions from our paychecks. According to Nancy Altman at the ''Social Security Works'' organization, Social Security does not contribute a single cent to the damn budget deficit. If these greedy low life rich people paid into the program like we have to, Social Security would be solvent for decades to come.
Believe me, there is NO ''Common Good'' in these greedy, heartless, cruel, evil and corrupt Fascist GQP rotten bungholes. May they rot in hell for all i care.
You are right, John. I paid into Social Security all of my working life and the GOP is not going to make me feel guilty for using it now. The GOP does not have any interest in the common good anymore, just greed and corruption and power!
Cut social security and increase the "Defense Budget". Keep the industry fed. Eisenhour warned the people at the time.
Phil, i was watching a program the other night about how most UFO sightings were actually deep, dark, covert secret black project vehicles that were manufactured here in the United States. They did show that clip of Eisenhour making that statement in 1955 that said, '' We should all be aware of the increasing threat of the Military/ Industrial complex'' His granddaughter was also on that program and she actually resembles him a good bit in her facial features.
Speaking the truth, John! The GOP wants to gut Social Security, and see the elderly living on the street and eating cat food, like it was before the program existed. Their idea that somehow we should all work until we drop dead to support the wealthy is pure bs! Once you become too disabled, that somehow your family can take care of you- more bs! They are barely able to make ends meet, due to the flat wage "curve" since the 70's.
Walter, Completely agree, except have you checked out the price of cat food? The cans keep getting smaller and more expensive. Pay more, get less. It’s the American corporate way.
And use your power of the purse. Boycott the corporations at the top:
Amazon, Walmart, Twitter. Starbucks, autos run on fossil fuel. Speaking of which: Tesla owns 60% of the charging stations in our country; time to get more, and enforce more, anti-trust laws.
I forgot Chase Bank and Wells Fargo.
how about the hedge funds, banks ,holding companies that are buying up all of the homes in the united states at fire sales because of covid ? we have monopoly laws on the books but our politicians are beholden to the rich them to keep themselves in power . they are selling us out and supporting them at every turn. the trumper party has no platform other than supporting trump and the rich at the cost of us all. they will gladly burn us to the ground and rule over our ashes
yes, more on those wonderful hedge fund managers, esp the retired ones. How many hedge fund managers does it take to sink American democracy ?
Carole, I think if we did that, we would begin to see the stirrings of change!! It would mean for a lot of Americans to make sacrifices that many do not want to make but it would definitely make the corporations sit up and take notice!!!
There was some of that "anti consumerism" in the 60's. It rattled the hard right, for sure! They never really got over it!
They should be rattled. They have no idea what the majority of the people want. They march to the beat of a totally different drum!! May we rattle them and rattle them and rattle them!!!
I hope they continue not getting over it. I remember when Chase Bank was pressured into no longer funding apartheid in South Africa.
Yes! And we could stop feeling so powerless.
Carole, our power is our voices. We must never stop defending Democracy at every level!! We need to lift our collective voices to say enough is enough!! Tell everyone - Go to the polls and vote!! That is our voice!
Great advice Carole. I’ve been boycotting those companies for years! It isn’t that difficult. Let’s allow our dollars to speak for us!
I have not darkened the door of our local Walmart in 15 years. It is a lonely protest that has not harmed them, and inconvenienced me. Getting people to boycott these commercial giants is nigh impossible as they do deliver good enough, cheap enough products to customers. We Americans are caught in the endless loop of consumerism that sustains these massive corporations. Do I really "need" a microwave to reheat my food, or can I use a stove as I did until I was an adult in my 30's? Small example.
Great example. Don't give up!!
In a gig economy, our "union" has to be the Democratic Party.
In solidarity! We would be trying to form " a more perfect union" May we succeed! We must be part of the solution or risk being the problem!
What happened? Rapacious finance capitalism, neoliberalism and the betrayal of the middle class and working class by those who decided profits were more important than societal progress, stability and prosperity, signing away millions of good paid skilled jobs to go where the labor is cheaper, without health and safety protections and without representation by trade unions. Meanwhile setting about destroying the trade union movement at home. It began in the 1970s and all the graphs show up until then - Reagan & Thatcher - wages rose year on year alongside productivity, then the two lines on the graph suddenly show a huge gap which only gets wider and wider as years go by. This continued through Bush, Clinton, Bush 2, Obama, Trump and now Biden because neoliberal supply-side economics is the “holy” consensus within both parties - blue and red. Just like the Bi-Partisan (ruinous) foreign policy consensus that eat up trillions of dollars through war after illegal war, while the duopoly in Washington all eagerly vote for more funding for the kind of death and destruction which has made the US less safe, not safer as we were told. Ignoring the tens of thousands of deaths each year from lack of healthcare and millions either uninsured or underinsured, the second most common cause of bankruptcy being medical debt. 25% of the worlds prison population whilst the US makes up only 5% of the world’s population. Homelessness visible in every city, along with boarded up homes. Only a sick society allows these things. That is what happened to the American Dream and neither party - red or blue - represents the wishes and needs of the american people anymore, but are in hock to oligarchs, big pharma, tech, insurance, military industrial complex and more lobbyists on Capitol Hill than there are Congressional Representatives. Sadly i don’t see us voting our way out of this purgatory.
J-Pat ; I'm not giving up, and I know that I am not alone!
Never give up, Never surrender!!!
Oh, i’m not giving up. I just will no longer play along with their game of the non-democratic duopoly, hoping for the least worst thing to happen by voting for the “Lesser Evil” - which is looking more and more ridiculous with every day of both of the Wars Biden is funding and supporting, one of which is a genocide.
J-Pat : Joe Biden is trying to prevent more civilians getting killed. He has done diplomacy to get hostages released. He has told Netanyahu that deliberate killing of innocents will end any weapons support as will the development of more settlements. It's a challenge to help in this war. Hamas hides behind human shields. I do not believe that President Joe Biden wants genocide for Israelis or Palestinians.
I also think we need to keep the pressure on any way we can. There's definitely been a change in tone from Blinken, and I'm sure voices have been raised behind closed doors as of course they needed to be. What's important is that strings get attached to future aid so that a political solution can be found to end all the carnage for good, and undermine support for groups like Hamas.
1 of those wars is the most important conflict for us to have become involved in, perhaps the only one, since WWII, & if anything, we should be more robustly supportive of Ukraine than we already are. It's a perfect example of a nation having been attacked with no provocation whatsoever in a truly existential battle, as Russia has actually already declared its genocidal intentions against Ukraine. Russia's obsession with building empire goes back centuries, in fact to its inception. Being by far the largest country in the world isn't good enough for them. This is truly a great investment for the US, because our greatest enemy weakens without the expense of our lives or those of most of our European allies, & this is much less expensive for us than if we let them take over Ukraine & move onto their next neighbor to invade, & we have to defend Lithuania, Poland, Finland or any of the other endless number of countries Russia has in mind conquering.
J-Pat, I have to agree with you about funding genocide. I was sympathetic to the war against Putin invading Ukraine.
I strongly object to the funding of a genocidal war targeting civilians, which is how I see the war in Gaza. No amount of sugary frosting on that bitter cupcake will make it palatable.
That being said, I firmly support Biden and will without doubt vote for him and encourage all those I may have influence over to do the same!
Where is the Movement? We can read, we can write, we can share, but the message doesn't seem to be reaching enough people. I had been having trouble putting together what had been happening, and then I found Robert Reich. Everything became so clear, but I wondered why no one else was seeing what was happening all around them. I think there needs to be a Movement to get attention to these problems.
Thom Hartmann is likewise writing hard-hitting essays against the corporatocrats & fascists that want to take full control over us, & Bernie Sanders started this movement many years ago, gathering millions of followers, which is why the corporatist powers that be in both parties & the media have been trying everything possible to suppress his movement. He periodically writes essays himself, which align very closely to what Reich & Hartmann are saying.
Hey, "Reich & Hartmann"! I like the sound of that. Wouldn't it be nice to have a progressive network to confront & oppose right-wing media like Fox, perhaps financed by the likes of billionaire Tom Steyer, and have the 2 of them convey their wisdom throughout America? Al Franken could probably help with that, too.
The Democratic Party represents the people more than the Republican. Distinctions must be made if progress is to be made.
I agree. You described our purgatory so well that I'm copying it and putting into my folder. I will vote just in case it may still make a difference in some way, and will try to persuade those within my sphere, but I won't donate because as much as we can afford can't put a dent into what billionaires can spend to pay for what they want. I'll spend on Substacks and possibly on local races while I wait for things to deteriorate to the point that change is inevitable.
Yes, it can’t be allowed to happen again whereby a “Messiah” figure (an obsession which the left can’t shake off) gives everyone hope and takes multi millions in small donations from those who can least afford it only to then, like a Sheepdog, herd them all into “Vote Blue no matter who” lesserevilism and all the talk of “this is a movement for a revolution beyond electoral cycles yada yada yada”. Then proceeding to leave all the enthusiasm high and dry swinging in the wind while they go back to being good little Democrats and vote for all the things they said they were against and that they were shouting about when Trump did those same things. *I’m thinking of a certain white-suited young Congresswoman who was crying at the border only to go strangely silent now Biden’s doing the “Kids in cages” - just one example.* Cages which were built by OBAMA and BIDEN to start with.
Anyway, those small donations; Bernie raised 300 MILLION Dollars for his two primary campaigns. Imaging how much good could’ve been achieved through Mutual Aid and community projects, “Pop-Up” Medical Clinics, pre-school age kids clubs and libraries…. the list is endless. What did it all go on ? A performative campaign which resulted in Bernie bending the knee… again. All that time and money and enthusiasm wasted.
J-Pat is not an American. One president can not be all things to all people and the good is the enemy of the perfect.
I like the idea of a grass roots campaign. That's why I keep referring to Taylor Swift --because the youth vote can get us all that we want -- 40% of the electorate and 70% trend Democratic. Doesn't cost us anything to enlist a cadre of young people who are influencers on TicToc and Instagram and Facebook.
We don't have a "left" in this country, J-Pat. Never really did. I'm taking a course on the "Red Scare" this semester. What you say is in part the the same BS that the right wing spreads.
The decision is democracy vs Fascism.
Daniel, you're correct about the missing "left." Most people have never had an experience of true left, mostly because our capital captains suppressed it. There seems to be no such thing as socialism or communism any more. These words have lost their power and meaning.
Yet as irrelevant as those 2 words have become, the far right loves to wave those words around describing Democrats. On the other hand, fascism is a greater threat now than it has been since WWII.
Im a dual national actually. My father is American, from New Jersey. I have spent years - plural - in the US and i can vote in both US and U.k. elections. I speak to family and friends everyday these days now that we have social media. I’m a politics & history nerd and while in the U.K. (where i am at present, working) i follow US politics very closely and actively support various Independent media platforms such as David Sirota’s The Lever, Briahna Joy Gray’s Bad Faith Podcast, Due Dissidence Podcast, RBN - Revolutionary Blackout Network, and follow The Grayzone, Glen Greenwald, Matt Tiabbi and even The Hill’s Rising and the NYT & NY Post. There are more but you get the idea. I also have a University Degree in American History and Politics. I know only too well that there is no “Left” in electoral politics in the US.
You are confused and so are most of your sources. BS.
Ad hominem attacks are the last resort of those whom are wrong, or “confused”. My “sources” are facts.
Now you're speaking my language. Add to the youth vote older black voters.
You know Taylor Swift was recently dating an honest-to-God Nazi, right? She only dumped him for this sports guy because her fans revolted. She could probably get votes but there’s nothing good that could possibly come of her entering politics. Let her stick to singing songs trashing her old boyfriends, that’s her one talent.
I consider her the most overrated singer in history, but her political leanings now are good & she's using them to influence her fans, encouraging them to vote Democratic.
Sources?
I guess you look gift horses in the mouth.
Channel Taylor Swift. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10227578125173481&set=a.2177836920222
https://www.npr.org/2023/09/22/1201183160/taylor-swift-instagram-voter-registration
https://www.instagram.com/p/CGDjbq-jhtK/?hl=en
Trump is good at getting votes too. I don’t know if you even know what your point is.
I'm sure there's a lot of truth in what you say, but I also think we need to hope things will improve and agitate for action where we can. If history teaches us anything, it's that we tend not to learn from it. That said, things go in cycles and it's up to us as far as we can to try to push things the other way.
Agreed we won’t vote our way out, J-Pat. Time to emulate the great movements of US History. Unite and organize in collective action.
Yes, exactly. The civil rights act, for just one example, didn’t get passed because of politicians. It failed to get the votes on the floor of The House several times. It was people power, marching to the White House en masse that frightened the establishment politicians and they took the decision to give way in order to prevent mass public disorder, general strikes etc. Power concedes nothing without demands.
Voting, once an essential tool of change, has become as ineffectual as sticking a band-aid on a malignant cancer. We must insist on constitutional amendments to prohibit wealthy, influential criminals in all sectors of our country (business, politics, etc.) from buying their way out of responsibility for their crimes or be prosecuted accordingly and swiftly. This includes those at the highest levels of business and the judiciary who greedily invite and accept such bribery to prevent punishment of their 'friends' for treason and corruption. If anyone thinks the January 6 insurrection was bad and no positive action is taken by conscientious Democrats, we must remember the French and Russian Revolutions and expect no less if we truly wish to preserve the common good and the American Dream.
A conservative SC allowed that garbage. If working class idiots would stop voting republican, that wouldn’t have happened.
Yes, and no. Both parties have at times been complicit in the trends you describe. But one party is susceptible to reform. We all have to put our efforts into making that reform happen, to return power to the people. Get dark money out of politics, create the kind of single-payer health care system that works well in other industrialized nations, eliminate the Electoral College, outlaw gerrymandering, make the ultrarich pay their fair share of taxes...We know the policies that level the playing field and provide hope to counteract the loss of faith in our democratic institutions.
The key is making sure that most Democrats elected are progressive & that Democrats have the majority in the House, Senate & executive, which hasn't happened in over half a century, back when Lyndon Johnson was President, which was at the end of the era during which the standard of living at all economic levels rose the fastest in our history, our Golden Era from FDR-LBJ.
I call them the Greedy One Percent, but Keith Olson really nailed it when it comes to the complete abandonment of democracy in favor of #RepubloFascism.
And if #DonaldDuce has his way, Biff World will be brought to life. And the entropy of the species will be accelerated. Trump will single-handedly waste all of America’s greatness as his lemming legislators cower at the thought of standing up to him.
Exactly why we voters need to look closely at the character of candidates before we elect them. Read “Assessing the CHARACTER of Candidates for National Office” now in bookstores.
The destruction of critical thinking by the GOP eliminates the ability to choose rationally, leaving only fear, hate, gullibility.
For the next election the only character that I will evaluate is that the candidate is not a Republican. The reason behind that aught to be obvious.
Yes!
Todd Telford : To say nothing of the quivering. Lily livered DOJ! Fear will not enforce justice. The threats will not only continue: they will get worse if justice does not happen! Lock Him Up!!! Already!!
I agree, Laurie! 100%. The Powers that be allow donald to threaten everyone. His despicable words carry great weight among the already brainwashed. Why one set of rules for the donald and another set for the rest of us?
I like the reference to lemmings. That is the new name for Trumpers.
Hey Todd ; Who is Biff? wasn't that a character in the movie, 'Home Alone' ; The older brother of Kevin?
Biff Tannen was the nemesis in the Back to the Future series. In the sequel he ran a casino. Some say he was modeled after Trump. Imagine that.
Phil H : Thanks for this!
Back to the Future
He’s not winning ANYTHING after the primary !!!
I blame the decline squarely on Ronald Reagan. He put an end to unions and to the fairness doctrine. Then there came Rush Limbaugh and FOX News. Trump is only the icing on the shit-cake.
Add the tax code of 1952 (i.e. built in depreciation, accelerated depreciation), OPEC fixing energy prices, and the reduction in capital gains taxes.
Bingo!
1) Corporate cutizenship must go .
2) Corp access to government must end .
3) Lobbyism must be outlawed .
4) All political donations abolished .
5) Anti-trust/monopoly laws strengthened.
6) Citizens United recinded .
7) Government financed education .
8) Democracy over Corptocracy .
9) WE THE PEOPLE over WE THE CORPS.
10) Reinstate a free & honest media .
11) Incarcerate djt .
IPSO FACTO ! !
Separation of Corporation & State
Don't overlook fixing the Supreme Court.
It’s called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it. George Carlin
I miss George Carlin. Someone is selling t-shirts that say that.
Thank you for quoting George Carlin.
The right wingers always talk about the family unit and how great it is, yet their economic policies destroy the family units. We never hear much about this on the news or from the Democratic party either. There seems to be very little money behind the majority of Americans who are left of center, and without money there is very little representation. Socialism builds a strong middle class and prevents a lot of crime. Capitalism, creates a lot of poverty and suffering and causes a lot of crime. Theoretically socialism can be sustainable but capitalism cannot be.
Oops, you let the cat out of the bag.
I think the GOP ripping apart American families, as opposed to individuals, is a good angle.
I see you have read Niebuhr's "Moral Man and Immoral Society". More people should read it.
As a grad student in resource economics in the early '70s, I was criticized by my (mostly Chicago school) profs as being into political economy rather than their preferred quantitative approach. Happy to say I learned to use the quantitative tools, while never giving up on the political economy approach.
Reminds me of the intro to Piketty's book where he talks about certain areas were really not of interest to economists here in America. Imagine that.
GREED is truly the most terrible challenge of our times, and capitalism is its tool, its means to power and more greed.
Greed is a (contagious) mental illness, an unfillable hole, a hunger that denies justice, a brutal expression of broken egos.
Greed is having a million times as much as the poor and still feeling you don't have enough.
Greed consumes the earth without respite, and is a cancer on humanity.
Greed destroys us and our children and their future.
Greed is death.
Yes and the American people have been the MOST greedy.
Seems true to me, from my experiences. Americans have been trained by commercialism and capitalism to be helpless consumers, with amplified greed for many
market values have invaded every sphere of emotional and intellectual life.
https://scholar.harvard.edu/sandel/markets-morals
Yes, very interesting articles. I am 71, and I would happily go back to the 1950s, except for the medicine!
Please explain.
I first went to the US with my husband and 2 kids to New Jersey, my husband had a job there. I was so surprised when all these locals started arriving "Welcome Wagon." I originally thought how nice then I was told by friends that it was all about money and to be sure all the cards I was given had shop names and businesses on the back.
We left NJ (it had been a mistake) and we moved to LA where my husband had another job offer.
1) In England at the time not many people had garages. In LA I saw garages jammed with 'toys/electrical stuff/bicycles/you name it it was there. I was shocked.
2. I had made friends by this time and I asked them why did they have so much stuff. They all laughed.
3. I understood that if I suggested going out to have coffee etc we would end up shopping. I have never been a great shopper.
It just seemed to me that life was so shallow people didn't seem to talk about anything except new this or that.
I also spent time in Hospital there. One time I had to wait for 4hrs (in pain) while my Doctor tried to get me admitted. I needed a kidney basin/towel etc which I had NO idea I had to pay for.
Everywhere we went it seemed money was everything.
The calls at about 6pm every evening selling something. My daughter wanting things her friends had (natural anywhere) but these were expensive things. I spent years saying NO. Eventually it got so insidious the buying. I even fell into the trap.
When GWB got in we decided to leave.
We had great friends who still live there and we keep in touch.
I still don't think most Americans understand how they are being played by the
idealisation of money.
One day we took loads of stuff from three garages to Downtown LA a place where they collected for the poor.
There is a lot more I could add but I won't.
I hate to think how much of the memory portion of my brain, which I am sure has limited capacity, is taken up by advertising jingles for cereal, cigarettes, soft margarine, living bras, etc. Stuff is supposed to replace the happiness we lost when time with family was stolen to time at work.
Ha! I think I remember asking someone why there were so many Haemorrhoid Ads? Gloria my brain is probably as bad as yours. No Teevee now or 'phone just my computer.
Think I might have to get a simple 'phone' because am getting a bit doddery. Life in old age is not much fun.
I really didn't have much family but my Grandparents were wonderful. We were in America when both parents started having to work. Kids were left on their own after school and then came the drug sellers out of the Pizza trucks.
All sad.
Life here is also disintegrating and all families now live so far apart.
I do hope you are doing better than me.
Best wishes
Same to you.
That's an apt way to describe it!
The super-rich in America especially, have paid politicians to distort laws and tax collection obscenely in their favour. Shameful
Oh, you have gone through a litany of things I hate about our society.
I hate shopping. I don't like to consume. I hate waste. I hate to throw things out, so I have accumulated a lot of things in my life, the majority of which I didn't buy myself, except for the records, CDs, & foreign language dictionaries.
It's such a tragedy that the US has still not managed to get universal healthcare even though we pay twice as much for healthcare as all the many countries that do have it. And our state of mass transportation & rapid transit is deplorable long after Japan, Europe & China have developed comprehensive rapid transit throughout their territory.
Channels Putin.
Nicely said.
In some circles they are called “hungry ghosts” !
Outstanding comment!
That is our big problem. I was immediately repelled when I first heard the term "greed is good" coined by Reagan, which essentially replaced the concept of the "common good". Greed is definitely NOT good.
Thought it was Gordon gecko from that movie about Wall Street with the Charlie Sheen in it . Mike Douglas has Gordon gecko says greed for lack of a better word is good . Ronald Reagan was not capable of creating a catch worthy phrase of any kind except vote for me.
Well, regardless of who originated it
-- & you're probably right -- that became a motto & theme for the Reagan administration.
It’s a one way street.!!!
It was the 1929 Depression that tipped the economic system into the hands of Labor . The Depression had most of the workers unemployed and the Banks were playing Casino with Wall Street .
Worid War 2 and deep Spending by the Government ended the Depression.
Unions were strong .
Somehow VP Wallace couldn't be allowed to keep that ball rolling. Result, black Americans feel betrayed and Eleanor Roosevelt is just a name in a history book.
Always wondered why Wallace was dumped.
Unkown to me , Thank You for pointing that out.
J
I am a retired from the fire service (which includes EMS, fire-life safety and more). I climbed the ranks to an executive position and had a BS degree before entering the profession. We in the ranks or retired from there, are admired even more so after 9-11. Our profession has done quite well financially and with other perks such as defined benefit pensions, at least for those of us who were paid, full-time. When I was still there the department sent me to a one-day seminar at the local state university. That seminar was about supervising in the fire service and the professor’s introductory remark, a question, was, “Thinking of Karmic Theory, what did you do in the your prior life that demanded you come back as a supervisor-manager in the fire service?” He went on: “The fire service union, the IAFF and its locals, are the strongest union in the world. So why did we choose to supervise and manage in the service?" Yet if you walk into any fire station, at least here in Florida, Fox News is playing the TVs and the conversation is about socialism taking over the country and that the lack of religion and morals have declined, etc, etc. It drives the union reps nuts. You get the picture. So go figure. The answer is right in front of my former colleagues and now even at events where my fellow retirees gather. For these reasons I no longer gather with them. They’re beyond logic. I mean, WTF are they complaining about? Talk about biting the hand that feeds! Maybe it’s PTSD. I don’t know. They need to go out into the real world and see how the rest of the middle class is doing. Considering the benefits, the fire service more resembles the upper class and not the middle. Of course I’m not going to give up what I have, but I understand what Secretary Reich is teaching-the truth.
"it's the media, stupid"
"We must now return to the moral questions at the heart of politics and economics."
The way Republican politicians do politics, there are no morals. Instead, they are always playing mind-games. A mind can become attached to anything that attracts and captures its attention. For Republicans, what their minds are most set on is gaining more wealth and power, regardless of the consequences that anyone else may suffer. All of their success is measured in the wealth and power they hold. Mind-games are always based on fear, which leads to division, separation, antagonism, hate, greed.
Morals arise from heart-quality, not mind-games. Only politicians who have a sense of heart-quality, and especially those who have more developed heart-quality, have any real sense of moral behavior. And moral behavior only manifests through a sense of empathy, compassion and kindness towards others ... ALL others. Without a sense of morals, there can never be justice or fairness. Heart-quality results through experiences and manifestations of Love.
How does a "heart quality" person get elected?
You have to be able to identify them. Among senators, that would be Jeff Merkley, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker & Sheldon Whitehouse.
I like the MMPI and lie detector tests.
Daniel, I think I’m having Deja vu here. There is no “lie detector test.” The polygraph is so unreliable that it is not admissible in court (as I think you would know). It detects anxiety, so a person could be telling the truth but be nervous about the test, and thus “fail” the test. Also well-known: sociopaths are not nervous about lying, and people can be trained to control the things the polygraph measures. I am dismayed that (AFAIK) our government still uses polygraphs as part of determining or maintaining security clearances.
This isn't a criminal case!
Only used for specific positions that have access to sensitive information or require advanced security clearances I'd say jobs like president should require it. Federal Rule of Evidence 901 provides: (a) General provision. The requirement of authentication or identification as a condition precedent to admissibility is satisfied by evidence sufficient to support a finding that the matter in question is what its proponent claims.
IMHO the real test is whether a defendant in a criminal case will volunteer to testing. I've been on all sides on this issue. When used in conjunction with other tests like the MMPI is 80- 90 % accurate.
I wrote a book about the onset of authorization of DNA. Prior to 2000 was in the same category. Lie detectors have been improved and neuropsychological testing is advanced.
As a candidate for federal office, I was tested. I like the State Department Foreign Service Officer test. https://home.pearsonvue.com/fsot. If I wanted to prove that I am better qualified, I'd offer this test, lie detector (If I passed) and challenge my opponent to do the same.
Daniel, you wrote “This isn't a criminal case!” At the risk of seeming flippant (I am not. I think of this as perhaps the most important scientific question): So what? If something like the polygraph is scientifically invalid and/or unreliable, then it is so regardless of the context in which it is used. Having a high correlation with other tests does not change that, nor does whether someone volunteers to take it. (Especially since a sociopath/psychopath, or anyone trained in defeating a polygraph would not hesitate, and would even be eager to do so since it would enhance their credibility.)
It seems that you recognize the fallibility of the polygraph when you acknowledge the possibility that you might not pass. If I am correct, you’re not confident enough in the test to put your fate on the line before knowing the result of the test.
Regards,
Harry
You miss the threat.
I have been reading and studying why the US started losing factories and manufacturing and I am beginning to understand more about what happened. The decline was in the 80s and of course a lot of the reasons were what you gave, Professor Reich. What is hard for me is the fact the US dominated globally in mass scale industrial production and now we do not! I remember when then President Reagan delivered his 'trickle down' economics and how it would apparently 'trickle down' to all of us but I'm beginning to think it was just his way to allow all of the manufacturers to move their plants to places that cost much less to operate! Factories closed leaving so many without any means of support!! That was rough! I agree that the majority of us are sick and tired of the ultra rich not only being rich but using our system to work it for their benefit!!! Yes, the majority of us are sick and tired but the majority of us wonder what the hell can we do about it? I believe in unions and I would like to see more of them. The UAW won and also exposed a lot of people to the fact that the CEOs were absolutely raking it in!! I believe in mom and pop businesses, co-ops, and family farms!! I want the economy to work for us for a change!! Nobody needs billions of dollars and nobody needs to control what everyone else says and does. I've reached my tipping point and want to see change happening for the better!
Ronald Reagan’s expertise was in communicating with chimpanzees and selling cigarettes.
He was dazzling; but James Garner said they had to feed him lines. He had mastered the SMILE AND COULD read and Deliver a Script. The Fact he Couldn’t Devine the differences between his Movie Roles and What was actually happening reality was his Greatest Utility to his Backers corporate America .
James, that was hysterical! I honestly was not thinking about the fact he was an actor before becoming President!! He really should have stuck to acting!
A biographical movie that came out in the 90s also indicated that his favorite job was as a lifeguard in a little town in Iowa. Perhaps we would’ve avoided this entire retrenchment if he had remained in Iowa.
@Peggy and James. See my comments above.
Yes, he was an actor and a mouthpiece. That’s all the GOP (Greed Over People as someone else in the comments brilliantly stated) have needed in the WH for the last fifty years. The secretive conservative corporate money and think tanks do the planning, they only need someone in the Oval Office with a signing pen. Heather Cox Richardson does a good background of Reagan on pp. 49-55 (hardback) of Democracy Awakening.
Most people also don’t know Reagan was also once a president of the Screen Actors Guild. That’s right, a union president. Go figure.
His first elected public office was a local water district board, after a dispute when they fined him for stealing water from a neighboring water district and piping it to his property. Then he moved on to making us Californians suffer for eight years as governor. Political commentators in Sacramento for years applied the following to him: “Talked like a conservative, spent like a liberal.” (Cut taxes, spend more.) Eight years to practice on California for what he unleashed later for eight years on America.
Michael, it seems to me that Reagan, Trump and a few other republican presidents were like ventriloquist dummies sitting on the lap of the conservative corporations and think tanks!! You couldn't see the wires because they used the clear filament, but they seemed to control everything the President said and did!
Yep that’s where JimGarner quote comes from. Dump as a rock.
Reagan, the Bushes, and Trump are marionettes with corporate puppet masters. Trump has debauched the “role” further by bowdlerizing norms and alleged crimes. Consequently, larger corporate interests are moving toward a friendlier face-Nikki Haley. As Americans, we always seem ready to identify a bête noir whom we can rant against. However, we ignore or trivialize how we have been co-opted by “the system.” WIIFM and zero sum capitalism have contorted our values and mores. As a mindless consuming engine we are fodder for global corporations-whose existence is solely to make a profit and neutralize risk (taxes and government oversight). The 14th amendment-the broadening of human rights to all citizens became a tool for corporate personhood. https://www.history.com/news/14th-amendment-corporate-personhood-made-corporations-into-people
James, Thank you for the History.com link which explains corporate personhood. Many on SubStack have asked the question of from where and when from which it originated, and the History.com article spells it out at a level an eighth grader can understand.
If the SC balance ever changes back toward the center, I’d love to see a case challenging the authenticity as precedent of Chief Justice Morrison Waite headnote to the 1886 case Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Rail Road. Even Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist in his Bellotti dissent questioned corporate personhood.
The current SC is trying to destroy the 14th as it applies to people and enshrine it for corporations - Citizens United.
WIIFM ranks up there with Gordon Grecko’s “greed is good “.
Peggy that’s all Ronald Regan did do live theater the role of a lifetime.
Scared the hell out of the Russians because they realized he would do what ever the Script would have him Do.
We even have a même that we follow — “The golden rule” – he or she who has the gold-rules. The lopsided supreme court affirms that position. We can urge our legislatures to pass rules and regulations that can be demurred by a supreme court. Of course, that doesn’t mean that we give up. We just need to understand how integral corruption has become in our system. We need to seriously look at our values and mores that have been shaped by centuries of malefaction. It’s facile to endow one individual or group with an evil sobriquet. What is not so easy is to look at ourselves in the mirror.
Before that he was a lifeguard. And eating jellybellies. Stop him there, he might've been an OK guy.
I wonder if the Chinese are going to undersell American cars and dominate the EV market. The signs are there.
Yes indeed human being is the most greedy species on earth. Yes this does not affect America, even in African countries there are very fewest people who are in power are holding the whole cake of the nation. By the way there more riches of Billy Gates in African continent only they hide a lot but continue begging for funds and donations which end u in their accounts plus few cronies around them. If one can ask why do African ministers get more salaries than even the riches nation like US, UK etc. but they still crisscross the world looking for donations? We lost humanity long long time ago.... Please we are sharing the same predicament over here, greed has taken over whereby the fewest at the top have decided to strangled the very many citizens of their nations.
I don't even think its fair to say "human beings" are the most greedy species -- it is only A FEW HUMANS that are extremely greedy. I'm sure all of us here in the comments would gladly give the shirt off our backs to help the fellow man, but there are some who wouldn't.
unfortunately, those are the few in power.
Some HB are pure animals which in a real wild society would be met with a village posse that would run them out of town on a rail.
Interesting case of an Oklahoma town with a local attic control bully ended up dead and no one and I mean no one in town we talk about it he got a dirt 💤 nap
Out of
I too prefer to believe there are decencies and moralities inherent to humankind. Knowing what is wrong, for example. Isn't that capacity almost instinctive? Knowing what is right, though, sometimes takes thought and wisdom.