Robert Reich: The wealthy have broken society by siphoning all its money to themselves

[marmar]

(Salon) Robert Reich, the Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton, published an essay in the most recent American Prospect in which he argues that the wealth inequality isn’t a problem because of current economic policy, but because the financial elite starting rigging the game against the middle- and lower-class half a century ago.

Debates between those on the left and the right about the merits of government intervention versus the free market distract people from the real problem, Reich said, which is how different the market is than it was 50 years ago.

“Its current organization is failing to deliver the widely shared prosperity it delivered then,” he explains, because it’s no longer designed to reward hard work. Everything from intellectual property rights to basic contract laws has been altered at the behest of corporate interests, creating a system in which — if functioning properly — money is siphoned from the bottom up.

The entry-level wages of female college graduates have dropped by more than 8 percent, and male graduates by more than 6.5 percent. While a college education has become a prerequisite for joining the middle class, it is no longer a sure means for gaining ground once admitted to it. That’s largely because the middle class’s share of the total economic pie continues to shrink, while the share going to the top continues to grow. .............(more)

http://www.salon.com/2015/04/30/robert_reich_the_wealthy_have_broken_society_by_siphoning_all_its_money_to_themselves/

[The2ndWheel]

1. Obviously 50 years ago there wasn't widely shared prosperity

Civil rights were barely a thing. Women hadn't entered the work force at the same level. Add more people to the work force though, and each individual person is needed less. It's the same with global labor issues. As the rest of the world opens up, Americans of every sex and color are needed less, as either producer or consumer. On top of that, if you add in advancing technological automation, humans in every part of the world are needed less.

As to the siphoning of profits for a small percentage, that's no different than what we humans are doing in relation to the rest of life on the planet. Civilization is a resource concentration mechanism. We privatize the wealth of the planet for our species, and socialize the costs of our actions to whatever life stands in the way of our progress. In those terms, human beings are the 1%.

We're not going to give up those advantages voluntarily, so it's not so hard to see why the other 1% won't either.

[SusanCalvin]

5. You're right, but

that doesn't mean we have to keep behaving that way.

[harun]

2. Reich really needs to run. His writing lately has been spot on.

[FlatBaroque]

4. sanders campaign?

They are both repeating a similar message

[Jefferson23]

3. Concise, that's it in a nutshell. n/t