Robert Reich: Free Enterprise on Trial (the system is "rigged in favor of those at the top")

[highplainsdem]

http://robertreich.org/post/15978350528

Mitt Romney is casting the 2012 campaign as “free enterprise on trial” – defining free enterprise as achieving success through “hard work and risking-taking.” Tea-Party favorite Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina says he’s supporting Romney because “we really need someone who understands how risk, taking risk … is the way we create jobs, create choices, expand freedom.” Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donahue, defending Romney, explains “this economy is about risk. If you don’t take risk, you can’t have success.”

Wait a minute. Who do they think are bearing the risks? Their blather about free enterprise risk-taking has it upside down. The higher you go in the economy, the easier it is to make money without taking any personal financial risk at all. The lower you go, the bigger the risks.

-snip-

To the extent free enterprise is on trial, the real question is whether the system is rigged in favor of those at the top who get rewarded no matter how badly they screw up, while the rest of us get screwed no matter how hard we work.

The jury will report back Election Day. In the meantime, Obama and the Democrats shouldn’t allow Romney and the Republicans to act as defenders of risk-taking free enterprise. Americans need to know the truth. The only way the economy can thrive is if we have more risk-taking at the top, and more economic security below.

[FreakinDJ]

1. economy can thrive is if we have more risk-taking at the top, and more economic security below

what I have been saying all along - except our current tax policy doesn't support this

[Magoo48]

2. "Free Enterprise" is an extremely inaccurate term at best, a term coined for suckers. IMO

The "free" generally means that someone is free to take a financial ass whuppin'.

[xchrom]

3. Du rec. Nt

[HughBeaumont]

4. Just ask the S & L scandal participants how "risky" their venture was.

Once Reagan opened the doors to Thriftapalooza, the Wall Street pirates took full advantage, investing in high-yield instruments using mostly senior citizen/future retiree capital, which of course meant little to no personal risk to the players.

Then the economy went belly up, but who got the 1.2 Trillion dollar bill for the S & L shenanigans? DA TAXPAYERSS!

With the exception of Charles Keating, the players and greased politicians involved (John McCain being one of them) mostly got away with their crimes, as they usually do.

Nothing's changed and nothing is going to change. This is a rip-off, kleptocratic plutonomy that's going to turn supremely ugly if the Romneys of the world don't get taken to task.