Robert Reich
Robert Reich
Robert Bernard Reichis an American political commentator, professor, and author. He served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and was Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEconomist
Date of Birth24 June 1946
CountryUnited States of America
jobs mean creating
Corporations don't create jobs, customers do. So when all the economic gains go to the top, as they're doing now, the vast majority of Americans don't have enough purchasing power to buy the things corporations want to sell - which means businesses stop creating enough jobs.
creating lasts want
Cynicism is the last refuge of those who don't want to do the work of creating a better society.
jobs creating people
We are creating a one size fits all system that needlessly brands many young people as failures, when they might thrive if offered a different education whose progress was measured differently. Paradoxically we're embracing standardized tests just when the economy is eliminating standardized jobs.
attract employers good lives outside people treat understand
Employers have to understand that if they want to attract and keep good people, they've got to treat those people as whole people who have lives outside work,
becoming foreign identities privileges reason retain shedding stop
Even if there's no way to stop U.S. corporations from shedding their U.S. identities and becoming foreign corporations, there's no reason they should retain the privileges of U.S. citizenship.
bill democracy integrity question wants
Bill Bradley wants to get democracy back for the American people. There has never been any question about his integrity or trustworthiness.
active becoming majority organized toward work
The only way back toward a democracy and economy that work for the majority is for most of us to get politically active once again, becoming organized and mobilized.
argue economic moved proven resources thereby
Some argue shareholder capitalism has proven more efficient. It has moved economic resources to where they're most productive, and thereby enabled the economy to grow faster.
belonged counted groups individual interest membership people political scientists though unions variety voices war
Political scientists after World War II hypothesized that even though the voices of individual Americans counted for little, most people belonged to a variety of interest groups and membership organizations - clubs, associations, political parties, unions - to which politicians were responsive.
against build chances coal costs expected guard hundred nuclear oil percent safe totally
No company can be expected to build a nuclear reactor, an oil well, a coal mine, or anything else that's one hundred percent safe under all circumstances. The costs would be prohibitive. It's unreasonable to expect corporations to totally guard against small chances of every potential accident.
incentives instead united worrying
Instead of worrying about who's American and who's not, here's a better idea: Create incentives for any global company to do what we'd like it to do in the United States.
education fix money thinks throw
I'm not one of those who thinks the only way to fix what's wrong with American education is to throw more money at it. We also need to do it much better.
above freedom freedoms growing ideal ignores power society time value
Freedom is the one value conservatives place above all others, yet time and again, their ideal of freedom ignores the growing imbalance of power in our society that's eroding the freedoms of most people.
costs darker goods model otherwise poorer public
Detroit is really a model for how wealthier and whiter Americans escape the costs of public goods they'd otherwise share with poorer and darker Americans.