Robert Reich's writes at robertreich.substack.com. His latest book is "THE SYSTEM: Who Rigged It, How To Fix It." He is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, for which Time Magazine named him one of the 10 most effective cabinet secretaries of the twentieth century. He has written 17 other books, including the best sellers "Aftershock,""The Work of Nations," "Beyond Outrage," and "The Common Good." He is a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, founder of Inequality Media, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning documentaries "Inequality For All," streaming on YouTube, and "Saving Capitalism," now streaming on Netflix.

+  MY LINKTREE    +  SUPPORT INEQUALITY MEDIA
+  FOLLOW ON TUMBLR    +  TWITTER    +  FACEBOOK

PBS, JANUARY 13, 2020

UCTV, DECEMBER 22, 2017

CNN, DECEMBER 13, 2017

TRAVIS SMILEY, NOVEMBER 30, 2017

MORNING JOE, NOVEMBER 9, 2017

ABC, APRIL 30, 2017

ABC, FEBRUARY 26, 2017

CNN, FEBRUARY 21, 2017

CNN, FEBRUARY 2, 2017

CNN, DECEMBER 10, 2016

CNN, DECEMBER 7, 2016

CNN, DECEMBER 7, 2016

DEMOCRACY NOW!, AUGUST, 2016

C-SPAN BOOK TV, OCTOBER, 2015

COLBERT REPORT, NOVEMBER, 2013

WITH BILL MOYERS, SEPT. 2013

DAILY SHOW, SEPTEMBER 2013, PART 1

DAILY SHOW, SEPTEMBER 2013, PART 2

DEMOCRACY NOW, SEPTEMBER 2013

INTELLIGENCE SQUARED DEBATES, SEPTEMBER 2012

DAILY SHOW, APRIL 2012, PART 1

DAILY SHOW, APRIL 2012, PART 2

COLBERT REPORT, OCTOBER, 2010

WITH CONAN OBRIEN, JANUARY, 2010

DAILY SHOW, OCTOBER 2008

DAILY SHOW, APRIL 2005

DAILY SHOW, JUNE 2004

TRUTH AS A COMMON GOOD, APRIL, 2017

MUNK DEBATE ON THE US ELECTION, OCTOBER, 2016

WHY WORRY ABOUT INEQUALITY, APRIL, 2014

LAST LECTURE, APRIL, 2014

INEQUALITY FOR ALL, NOVEMBER, 2013

THE RICH ARE TAXED ENOUGH, OCTOBER, 2012

AFTERSHOCK, SEPTEMBER, 2011

THE NEXT ECONOMY AND AMERICA'S FUTURE, MARCH, 2011

HOW UNEQUAL CAN AMERICA GET?, JANUARY, 2008

  • David Brooks’ Utter Ignorance About Inequality


    Saturday, January 18, 2014
    Occasionally David Brooks, who personifies the oxymoron “conservative thinker” better than anyone I know, displays such profound ignorance that a rejoinder is necessary lest his illogic permanently pollute public debate. Such is the case with his New York Times column last Friday, arguing that we should be focusing on the “interrelated social problems of the poor” rather than on inequality, and that the two are fundamentally distinct.
    Baloney.
     
    First, when almost all the gains from growth go to the top, as they have for the last thirty years, the middle class doesn’t have the purchasing power necessary for buoyant growth.
    Once the middle class has exhausted all its coping mechanisms – wives and mothers surging into paid work (as they did in the 1970s and 1980s), longer working hours (which characterized the 1990s), and deep indebtedness (2002 to 2008) – the inevitable result is fewer jobs and slow growth, as we continue to experience.
    Few jobs and slow growth hit the poor especially hard because they’re the first to be fired, last to be hired, and most likely to bear the brunt of declining wages and benefits.
     
    Second, when the middle class is stressed, it has a harder time being generous to those in need. The “interrelated social problems” of the poor presumably will require some money, but the fiscal cupboard is bare. And because the middle class is so financially insecure, it doesn’t want to, nor does it feel it can afford to, pay more in taxes.
     
    Third, America’s shrinking middle class also hobbles upward mobility. Not only is there less money for good schools, job training, and social services, but the poor face a more difficult challenge moving upward because the income ladder is far longer than it used to be, and its middle rungs have disappeared.
     
    Brooks also argues that we should not be talking about unequal political power, because such utterances cause divisiveness and make it harder to reach political consensus over what to do for the poor.
     
    Hogwash. The concentration of power at the top – which flows largely from the concentration of income and wealth there – has prevented  Washington from dealing with the problems of the poor and the middle class.
    To the contrary, as wealth has accumulated at the top, Washington has reduced taxes on the wealthy, expanded tax loopholes that disproportionately benefit the rich, deregulated Wall Street, and provided ever larger subsidies, bailouts, and tax breaks for large corporations. The only things that have trickled down to the middle and poor besides fewer jobs and smaller paychecks are public services that are increasingly inadequate because they’re starved for money.
     
    Unequal political power is the endgame of widening inequality – its most noxious and nefarious consequence, and the most fundamental threat to our democracy. Big money has now all but engulfed Washington and many state capitals – drowning out the voices of average Americans, filling the campaign chests of candidates who will do their bidding, financing attacks on organized labor, and bankrolling a vast empire of right-wing think-tanks and publicists that fill the airwaves with half-truths and distortions.
     
    That David Brooks, among the most thoughtful of all conservative pundits, doesn’t see or acknowledge any of this is a sign of how far the right has moved away from the reality most Americans live in every day. 
    Share
    • 794 notes from other Tumblr users
    back to the top
    previous


    Discuss on Facebook


    Click for Videos

    Mastodon