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
agree costs cutting exist means money
Can we please agree that in the real world, corporations exist for one purpose and one purpose only - to make as much money as possible, which means cutting costs as much as possible?
business mean responsibility
In the early 1970s, Milton Friedman argued that corporations should not be socially responsible because they had no mandate to be; they existed to make money, not to be charitable institutions. But in the economy of the 21st century, corporations cannot be socially responsible, if social responsibility is understood to mean sacrificing profits for the sake of some perceived social good. That's because competition has become so much more intense.
school mean government
When corporations get special handouts from the government, subsidies and tax breaks, it costs you. It means you have to pay more in taxes to make up for these hidden expenses, and government has less money for good schools and roads, Medicare and national defense and everything else you need.
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.
mean coherence obscurity
I mean, you hear the word 'globalization' over and over and over again. Globalization, globalization, globalization. Rarely has a word gone so directly from obscurity to meaninglessness without any intervening period of coherence.
baby boomers encourage facing retirement
The need is there, obviously, ... Baby Boomers are facing retirement in 15 years. We have to encourage savings.
anyone far flexible labor market turns
It turns out that the labor market is far more flexible than anyone assumed,
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.
building career community company individual looser people similar skills social
The most important community for an individual will not necessarily be a company but a looser community of people with similar skills and social connections. Continually building up those skills and connections is what a career is today.
ability carry financial people possession precious work
Your most precious possession is not your financial assets. Your most precious possession is the people you have working there, and what they carry around in their heads, and their ability to work together.
al believe bit branch bush difference executive george player president whether
I don't believe that it will make any difference whether it's President George W. Bush or President Al Gore, ... The executive branch is a bit player in this economy.
admission good higher highways paid parks private public users
Much of what's called 'public' is increasingly a private good paid for by users - ever-higher tolls on public highways and public bridges, higher tuitions at so-called public universities, higher admission fees at public parks and public museums.