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Robert Reich

Wednesday 24th of April 2024

China China has a national economic strategy designed to create more and better jobs. We have global corporations designed to make money for their sharehollders. No contest. Robert B. Reich, Beyond Outrage © 2020 Kwiple.com
Debt After 1980, debt took off. In 2001, Americans owed as much as their entire  after-tax income. The borrowing still didn't stop, especially after the Federal Reserve Board lowered  interest rates and made borrowing easier. By 2017, the typical American household owed 138 percent of it after-tax income. Robert B. Reich, The System © 2021 Kwiple.com
Greed  If you took the greed out of Wall Street, all you'd have left is the pavement. The problem is the Street's excessive power. Robert B. Reich, The System © 2021 Kwiple.com
Income inequality Even before the crash of 2008, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics at the University of Michigan found that over any given two-year stretch in the two preceding decades, about half of all families experienced some decline in income. Robert B. Reich, The System © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics The disappearance of labor's countervailing power can readily be seen in the 2015-16 election cycle, when corporations and Wall Street contributed $34 to candidates from both parties for every $1 donated by unions and all public interest organizations combined. [34:1] Business outspent labor $3.4 billion to $213 million. [16:1] All of the nation's unions together spend about $48 million annually on lobbying in Washington. Corporate America spends $3 billion. [62:1] Robert B. Reich, The System © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics In the election cycle of 2016, the richest one-hundredth  of 1 percent of Americans — 24,949 extraordinarily wealthy people — accounted for a record-breaking 40 percent of all campaign contributions. By contrast, in 1980, the top 0.01 percent accounted for only 15 percent of all contributions. Robert B. Reich, The System © 2021 Kwiple.com
Money in politics Pfizer, whose donations to the GOP in 2016 totaled $16 million, would reap $39 billion [in savings from the tax cuts passed by Congress in 2017]. [2,437:1] GE contributed $20 million and will get back $16 billion in tax savings. [800:1] Chevron donated $13 million and received $9 billion. [692:1] Not even a sizzling economy can deliver anything close to the returns on political investments. Robert B. Reich, The System © 2021 Kwiple.com
Morality What's truly immoral is not what adults choose to do with other consenting adults but what those with great power have chosen to do to the rest of us. America's problems have nothing to do with private morality. The breakdown is in public morality — abuses of public trust that undermine the integrity of our economy and democracy and have led millions of Americans to conclude the game is fixed. Robert B. Reich, Beyond Outrage © 2021 Kwiple.com
Oligarchy The core contradiction is that Americans cannot thrive within a system run largely by big American corporations, which are not organized to promote the well-being of Americans. Oligarchy is good only for oligarchs. Robert B. Reich, The System © 2021 Kwiple.com
Power  The difficulty is not that corporate power is beyond the control of the American government. It is that corporate power controls the American government. Robert B. Reich, The System © 2021 Kwiple.com
Power Unlike income or wealth, power is a zero-sum game. The more of it there is at the top, the less there is anywhere else. Robert B. Reich, The System © 2021 Kwiple.com
Public discourse The pronouns “we” and “they” are the most important of all political words. They demarcate who's within the sphere of moral responsibiity, and who's not. Someone within that sphere who's needy is one of “us” – an extension of our family, friends, community, tribe – and deserving of help. But people outside that sphere are “them,” presumed undeserving unless proved otherwise. The central political question for any na- tion or group is where the borders of this sphere of mutual responsibility are drawn. Robert Reich, Christian Science Monitor, February 15, 2014 © 2020 Kwiple.com
Selfie Shaquille O'Neal and I have an average height of six feet. Robert B. Reich © 2020 Kwiple.com
State of the union America has a serious “We” problem – as in “Why should we  pay for them ? Robert Reich, Christian Science Monitor, February 15, 2014 © 2020 Kwiple.com
State of the union  The bigget political divide in America today  is not between Republicans and Democrats. It's between democracy and oligarchy. Hearing and using the same old labels prevents most people from noticing they're being shafted. Robert B. Reich, The System © 2021 Kwiple.com
State of the union In the system we now have, power and wealth are inseparable. Great wealth flows from great power; great power depends on great wealth. Wealth and power have become one and the same. Robert B. Reich, The System © 2021 Kwiple.com
Tax revolts The tax revolts that thundered across America starting in the late 1970s were not so much ideological revolts against government – Americans still wanted all the government services they had before, and then some – as revolts against paying more taxes on incomes that had stagnated. Robert B. Reich, Beyond Outrage © 2020 Kwiple.com
 
Wealth inequality Being rich in today's America means not having to come across anyone who isn't. Exclusive prep schools, elite colleges, private jets, gated communities, tony resorts, symphony halls and opera houses, vacation homes in the Hamptons and other exclusive vacation sites all insulate them from the rabble. Robert Reich, Christian Science Monitor, February 15, 2014 © 2017 Kwiple.com