It seems that Allan Meltzer hasn’t learn the lessons of the Reagan years and seems if his true to his articles will follow the typical talking points. As for Reich at the gym i saw him talking about the tax-cuts that obama gave that many Americans(and the AstroTurf tea-party ) are not aware of

* The Fed’s Anti-Inflation Exit Strategy Will Fail
* Professional Biography
* Testimony, House Financial Services Committee
* Why Capitalism
* Why Obamanomics Has Failed
* Regulatory Reform and the Federal Reserve

Mr. Ashbrook,

Please ask Mr. Reich if he supports tariffs on Chinese imports to support and encourage domestic manufacturing. As was clearly demonstrated by the destruction of our rare-earth metals industry, the Chinese strategy is to dump product, wipe out competitors, gain monopoly power, and then set quotas to restore prices. Ironically, they’re the ones playing hardball, while we’re standing around with our thumb in our mouth holding a ping pong paddle.

And please don’t rehash that tired old Smoot-Hawley argument. No one’s advocating ANY tariffs against first-world trading partners who let their currencies float, honor intellectual property, respect workers’ rights, and respect the environment.

Further, China should be told that it can cash in its nearly 1 Trillion in US debt holdings for American-made products.

What would Robert Reich suggest we do to defuse the Tea Party timebomb, or at least to broaden the appeal of cooperation that might serve to lead America in a humane direction once again.

If I had the money I would move to Canada.

What amazes me is while we all sit here typing over in France the whole country is going nuts over changes in the retirement age. Could you imagine if we had protests that shut down the country that demanded that we have a decent single payer health care system. I can’t…

• I am 72, a retired schoolteacher with precious little wisdom in matters of economics.
Last year, I watched a FRONTLINE (PBS) presentation of the cause of our economics collapse. I understand that one woman, Brooksley Born,in 1997, as Chairperson of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission warned that the deregulation of the business and financial processes was leading to a catastrophe for the American people. The Presidential advisory group (Alan Greenspan, Robert Rubin, Tim Geitner, Larry Summers, Arthur Leavitt and Bill Clinton himself), dismissed her warnings and claimed that doing what she suggested would cause the greatest financial disaster for the economy. They persisted in arguing against this solo critic with disrespect. They counseled that she should be removed, and eventually helped to bring about her departure while still maintaining her belief.
She was right, they were ALL wrong. Yet only two ever admitted their error publically: Alan Greenspan, who shamefacedly and reluctantly admitted his mistake, the greatest of his life, before a Senate Subcommittee, and then retired. Secretary Arthur Leavitt later testified to his error, that he wished that he had known her better before falling in with the group against her.
Brooksley Born was awarded the Profiles in Courage Medal, but otherwise has kept a low profile, while the non-apologetic “Wise Men”(cf Time Cover story) have been appointed as President Obama’s closest financial advisors as they try to undo the damage their previous advice to “Let the Market itself do the regulating”.
Is it any wonder that so few people struggling to survive the “collateral damage” of their thinking and policies have such little TRUST in anything they say. President Obama has thousands of would be advisors, but very few genuinely trustworthy. He should call upon the one who might help us all, Brooksley Born, to come out of her private life to advise us with the wisdom we so desperately need.
Lkewise,Robert Reich should be returned to his full advisory capacity before the oligarchy makes its next move.

I’d like to suggest an alternate title(s) to today’s show.

“Equality and Capitalism”

or

“Equality and Plutocracy”

Charlie Mc – I also saw that show and was stunned and amazed when the President selected so many of those who ignored Ms. Born’s warnings and helped cause our recent financial downfall. The best thing this administration could do is to let the rest of these “financial geniuses” (I use this term very lightly) go elsewhere, and replace them with the folks who actually care about the American Public’s well-being. Mr Summer’s departure was totally welcome as was Mr.(Foul-mouth) Emanual. Next up(hopefully) Tim G.

Carlo, How to pay for them?
Think for a moment of a family on a island, is there anything called debt? We work and receive pay, the idea is to trade work today for sustenance tomorrow. That can be called debt but to the island family does it really matter? Now change it to a business model where debt is real, work today and eat today, no work no food. This destroys any hope of retirement or disability. That is what is really at stake in our economic calculus today.
We are in a huge country with vast resources, if we quit wasting them and work together like the island family we can survive, if we start killing our elderly and disabled the whole society breaks down. (not literally just in effect by withholding sustenance)
Debt is not the problem; not working, the loss productivity is our unraveling.
I propose a jobs program for our youth, A revived CCC that helps with infrastructure and education, giving work experience to our youth and building our society.

Would you rather live in a business or a family?
That is the choice we face as a nation.
Debt is a red herring.

Larry Summers out, Robert Reich in!

Robert Reich is a partisan hack. Our country doesn’t need party politics; it needs history taught and a restoration of American values and aspirations.

Robert Reich is a partisan hack. Our country doesn’t need party politics; it needs history taught and a restoration of American values and aspirations.
Posted by Brandstad

And you are, what? Not a partisan hack? Please spare me your romper room philosophy.

Robert Reich and Paul Krugman should be Barack’s primary advisors on the economy.

Inequality is a problem by itself. What really matters most, however, is the timidity of politicians who profess caring about “regular folks,” and the limitless pasivity of the populace.

If our perverted electoral system weren’t so prohibitively expensive, perhaps the moderate & liberal pols would have more courage. The frightening thought is that Citizens United will make things worse. If our fellow Americans would actually read and think, instead of watching Fox, perhaps we could get the Dems to move past Disaster Messaging, but now, I am quite pessimistic about halting the current trajectory.

Clarence Thomas’s Wife Asks Anita Hill for Apology

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/us/politics/20thomas.html?_r=1&hp

This woman is a real piece of work.
How are her political activities not something that compromises Justice Thomas’s position on the Supreme Court?

Wake up, Americans!

I have been really baffled why it is so unpopular when someone suggests a redistribution of wealth. After all, 99% of people will benefit from that! Do they really all believe they would be billionaire one day? Absolute socialism is bad. But uncontrolled capitalism is worse. We need a balance of both elements.

I have been saying this ever since Citizens United,

“They may have all the money,
But we have all the votes!”

It’s a shame all their money is now going to be able to drown our votes, thanks to Citizens United.

TOM- Another guest referencing the importance of Citizens United. I have asked this question here every time it comes up and you never put it to them:

Isn’t Citizens United a First Amendment victory, and doesn’t it put the onus on Congress to pass REAL campaign finance reform, lest our democracy go to hell in a handbasket.

There were ninety and nine that safely lay
In the shelter of the fold
But one was off in the hills away
Buying up all of the gold

Media coverage of political campaigns is partly to blame for the power imbalance. There are 7 candidates for New York State governor, but I hadn’t even heard of 5 of them until recently because media doesn’t consider them legitimate candidates because they don’t have large financial backing.

I think the very idea of “jobs” has made us into thumb-suckers. Where is the independence in that? “Tell me what to do; figure out a way to pull in money; train me; tell me where to live.”
Waiting for Jobs? Waiting for Godot.
We have to focus on staying in place and figuring out what our neighbors need that we are uniquely suited to provide. A homestead representing a living and family traditions of service.
Allow jobs, sure, but not as the objective of free-thinking people.

can I vote for you for president?

RR is correct.

Are voters so angry they can’t think? Some say so. The ads tell us to be angry, trigger-happy in votes.
Why small government? When the size of the pie that goes right back to you the voter (Medicare and Social Security) seems not to be the object of Tea Party anger? More likely the money behind the Tea Party is corporate and is looking for smaller government because they can do all the governing themselves, regulate themselves, without the hassle of democratic process. And cheaper to them the corporations.

This sounds a whole lot like redistribution of wealth. The Constitution guarantees us an equal opportunity not an equal outcome. We have the right to prosper and keep the fruits of our labors. This was central to the founding fathers’ vision for this country. We need to get back to that vision. I say NO to redistribution of wealth.

Fine; how about a redistribution of opportunity?

Who cares who sponsors the ads? We need to start thinking for ourselves at some point, why not now? I am a little poor guy who works on government jobs, and I can tell you that it is an incredibly wasteful way to spend money, and with each regulation, it becomes more wasteful.

I can’t believe people still listen to this little man. He seems to think that all the cash belongs to the government, and that it is the job of the government to take funds away from people by force and give it to others just because they vote that way.

He doesn’t even mention the core problem – the Federal Reserve Bank.

The government is the least efficient place to have money, and most of our problems since before both of the World Wars, and the first great depression, are rooted in the fact that government has been increasingly interfering with our various transactions over the past decades.

Maybe we should get rid of all government assistance here, and tax any product that comes from a company which receives any government assistance from any country in the world, or from any company who’s workers receive any government assistance.

Abel, You say, “The prolonged income disparities have left us with the most unequal distribution of wealth in our country’s history.”

Not true, BECAUSE your statement does not look at the CENTURIES when African-American slaves were paid NOTHING for their extraordinary labor, and then after Emancipation when way too many African-Americans were exploited by the peonage system described in Slavery By Another Name.

We ARE in a terrible, terrible situation — I think we agree on that.

But, if we “mis-remember” the economic systems of our country’s past, we won’t have the skills to properly assess and solve our current problems, or to assess solutions for the future.

Thanks!

Wait a minute… teachers unions are responsible for income inequality?

Come on. Gimme a break. What nonsense.

Please ask your second guest if the public schools have failed than how are the public schools in China and all the other countries doing better than the U.S. not failing.

The first business law we need in this country is :If you do business in the US, you pay tax in the US.

I’d also add that if any business has an office in one of the places like the Grand Cayman Islands, they should have to show their factory in the Grand Cayman Islands or be subjected to US taxes.

***

In 2007 Billionaire Warren Buffet testified in front of Congress that he thought it was ridiculous that he paid taxes at a significantly lower rate than his secretary’s assistant who was only making $60K a year. Then some of Warren’s contemporaries more than hinted that perhaps Warren was suffering from dementia.

There is a movement among some of the wealthiest people to be taxed more, like the owner of the Hawaiian Tropic tanning products company, that say they want to be taxed more; I wonder why more attention isn’t be paid attention to them in the media?

The first business law we need in this country is :If you do business in the US, you pay tax in the US.

I’d also add that if any business has an office in one of the places like the Grand Cayman Islands, they should have to show their factory in the Grand Cayman Islands or be subjected to US taxes.

***

In 2007 Billionaire Warren Buffet testified in front of Congress that he thought it was ridiculous that he paid taxes at a significantly lower rate than his secretary’s assistant who was only making $60K a year. Then some of Warren’s contemporaries more than hinted that perhaps Warren was suffering from dementia.

There is a movement among some of the wealthiest people to be taxed more, like the owner of the Hawaiian Tropic tanning products company, that say they want to be taxed more; I wonder why more attention isn’t be paid attention to them in the media?

Scott Burns
Jamestown, NY
WBFO Buffalo NPR

Did your guest honestly just assert that American teacher’s unions have destabalized the global economy?

I’m sorry, but Reich’s explanation is just so much simpler.

We are already a plutocracy. The middle class folk who may be out front in the Tea Party are mere peons – they DO NOT realize that they are being used, no differently than African Americans in the south were reenslaved.

Robert Reich is RIGHT ON.

Your second guest is DEAD WRONG.

Metzler, a shill for the wealthy, and if he is paid, then he is their w&$#@!

Thank you for such an enlightening program. How does what is currently happening in France bear on where America is currently ??
Greatest respect for Mr Reich

Meltzer is full of you know what.

Tea Party draws its energy from the angry middle classes, but it is a tool of the Republican political party and the corporations, who are expert at confusing the issues and dividing the population to continue their political/economic dominance.
Tea Party has good energy and good intentions, but the leadership is hidden and evil.

Republican values are noble and worthy, republican politicians today are criminals. And anyone who helped develop Reaganomics is clearly much more the problem than the solution.

The media industrial complex will never give the population the real view of the Supreme Court decision, that decision (allowing undisclosed campaign funding) is worth billions and billions to them. They have a great self-interest in having this law.

Meltzer is not just an idealogue, he is a dangerous idealogue. Listen to him confuse and divide. It’s all Obama’s and Soro’s fault. Koch brothers are innocent, not holding a gun to anyone’s head.

Yes, barely a kernel of truth (corn, that is.) from Meltzer.

The Tea Party movement is a classic example of uninformed working-class and middle-class Americans being duped into voting against their own interests by the wealthy and therefore powerful.

We need massive campaign finance reform in this increasingly corrupt country, but it will never emanate from the congress.

The populace needs to get wise about the reality of the American political-economic system. Instead of the Tea Party supporting the status quo, there must be a grass roots movement for a new Constitutional Convention. Hey, they got it nearly perfect in 1787, but we now have 230 years of experience with which to make it more so.

Come on Professor Meltzer, the tea party middle class?

The TeaParty movement starts the last week of February 2009, weeks after Pesident Obama is sworn in. They question the President’s birthplace, religion and if he is pro=-American.

It is clear that the teaparty is made up of yes some angry folks, but it is mostly right winged fringe groups and a very large racist element.

I had been ivolved in GOP politics going back to Reagan’s 1976 campaign & believe these folks are more in line with Jess Helms and David Duke-they are no where near the Gipper & Goldwater.

“The Constitution guarantees us an equal opportunity not an equal outcome.” But that is NOT what we have – the system is skewed and that is what many want to keep. We already have a plutocracy – and it it is using the middle class to carry their message. And as for the Tea Party “uprising” how many of those people carried signs calling for the government to keep its hand off of their GOVERNMENT benefits. Essentially most Tea Party members are arguing that, “I’ve got mine – the heck with everyone else.”

Until our policies actually start working for EVERYONE the long-term economic health of this country will be in sad shape.

I am a psychiatrist who treats a number of public school teachers in my practice. As a group, they struggle to educate young people, giving up portions of their income to buy supplies for their classes, as they struggle to educate students from impoverished families. The children in these families suffer from inadequate parenting as the parents struggle to survive, and many of the students are virtually unteachable. I see teachers who suffer physical injury in their classrooms repeatedly, yet struggle on as they and their unions are demeaned by the body politic. The impoverishment of the families is the primary stumbling block, not the educational system.

Tom, keep pressing Mr Meltzer! I strongly suspect you’ll find that massive inequality is just fine with him. That he just dodged that question is very telling.

Could Prof. Reich comment on the size of the debt, and how much that really is a problem for the future? Paul Krugman has long been saying that the stimulus was too small, and that there should be more stimulus.

For those who are under the very false impression that public schools are underfunded, etc., here are a few teacher salaries from one public school system in a very sub-average per captita city, Revere, Massachusetts(Source: Revere Journal, the favored local newspaper):

Mattera, Mark – $99,409
Lanza, Susan – $99,143
Delgreco-Tringale, Adriana – $98,079
Healy, Grace – $95,129
Doherty, Kim – $94,786
Montani, David – $94,747
Mauro, Donna – $94,566
Costa, Matthew – $94,542
Livote, Stacey – $93,236
Mastronadi, Carol – $93,079
MacDonald-Devine, Lisa – $92,541
Fratoni, Gia – $89,607
Testa, Ronald – $89,488
Peluso, Jean – $89,410
Mulligan, Nancy – $89,250
Collar, Debra – $89,246
Cascetta, Nicole – $88,836
Ficociello, Corinne – $88,648
Hamel, Dina – $88,531
Badger, Wendy – $88,441
Burke, Josephine – $88,322
Alba-Madden, Karen – $88,008
Ryan, Charlotte – $87,513
etc., etc., etc…

On growth: Is it true that Trickle-down-economics failed because the wealthy chose to invest not in small business, but in new and speculative financial instruments? In other words we became an economy based on speculation rather than a truer economy of actual businesses that DO something?

Two points:

One, on Prof. Meltzer’s earlier argument regarding the state of American education weakening the earnings of the lower half of the scale. If the U.S. redistribution mirrors that of the other 7 countries in the Swedish study, those countries don’t have our education system and their education results are higher than those of the U.S. probably in every case. It sounds more to me like it is changes in regulation, union strength, and taxation that are benefitting the upper classes over the lower.

Second, the tea party gets large amounts of funding from people who benefit from that lack of regulation, union strength, and lower taxation of the wealthy. They are happy to help out the hood-winked middle class who have been led to believe that these policies will somehow help them.

It sounds like Allan Meltzer gets his history from a political pamphlet. He is flat wrong in his history and in his citations of France as the alternative to the American wealth machine. How about Germany the last 40 years, Mr. Meltzer? How about the US in the 50s and 60s?

Angie,
The biggest tax middle class workers pay, and the most regressive tax in America is Healthcare.
Most of it isn’t even called a tax.
But it is the biggest redistribution of wealth up the economic ladder.

Yes, we should ignore the billionaires funding the Tea Party…

Like the caller says – it’s a grassroots group of middle class voters who are tired of paying taxes for entitlements enjoyed by the middle class!

They’re pro-corporate shills angry about Social Security and the minimum wage, just like you and me!

if i hear a republican refer to george soros one more time as a demoocratic boogeyman i’m going to rip my hair out. at least he has the personal integrity to own up to what he believes in. the koch brothers may as well be wearing kkk hoods – they are cowards.

We’ve paid for social programs in the past, as well as living wages, now there is more American wealth then ever before, and we can’t afford anything. The money is still there, it is just being locked up in dragon hoards and kept from building a stronger society. The wealthy do not spend there money. Trickle down economics never worked.

What is this notion of the tea party represents the sentiments of the people in this country. They are a small group, funded by the rich, being driven by salem witch trail like rehtoric,
and revisionist history.

The big corporations are already shipping IT and engineering jobs to India and China. How long before they start shipping finance and middle management jobs there too.

Tea Party folks aren’t regular middle class, they are either upper middle class or lower wealthy class. Apparently, once you reach a certain payscale, which is substantialy higher than others in your group, you lose part of your empathy and/or reasoning for those below you.

Mr. Meltzer is correct that Americans are largely poorly educated. However, this has allowed them to be duped by the pundits telling people to sacrifice themselves for the sake of corporations and the wealthy. Both those entities benefit greatly by subsidies and loopholes. Listen to the ignorant people of the “Tea Party” who misquote financial facts and the Constitution of the United States. It would be laughable if it were a sitcom, but it is the degradation of the political situation for the gain of those in political office and those who give them graft (obfuscated as campaign contributions).

From my perspective, and educated (masters degree in geology and working in academia)man the rich continue to get richer and the poor and middle class continue to get poorer. This wealth allows elections to be bought, helps place the wealthy above the law, and limits a great deal opportunity for the middle class. An education does not equate to wealth, though it sure allows for more opportunity to make a decent living. The wealthy in America need to pay their fair share. The tax system should not hamstring the poor and middle class while the wealthy get a break.

Case in point: my brother (who is also well educated) and I are currently trying to purchase our family farm in rural Northern New York State. We grew up on this farm, hunted and fished and cut our fire wood on this farm. But the price of land here, as it is elsewhere, is well above what locals, to include my brother and I, can pay. Even together, two well educated men with good jobs, we are having a hard time purchasing the family farm because there are those wealthy people from urban areas that can and are willing to pay such high prices that locals in a rural area simply can not compete.

70% of Americans has to contain a lot of middle class people as well as some rich and some poor.

Robert is correct, JB Morgan said that the top earner in a corporation should not earn more then 40 times what the average earner in that corporation makes. Today is is something like 400 times. Study after study shows that large corproations i.e. CEO and Boards are sending jobs overseas so they can keep increasing their earnings while the middle class suffers.

The funding for people like Rush Limbaugh comes from corporations who want to maintain this discreptancy, it is a smoke screen aimed at the lower and middle class to convince them the problem is not with the wealthy but with the democrats.

Simple equations:

Alan Meltzer = hack

Tea Party = people you know who haven’t supported a Democrat since the 60s, supported George W. Bush until 1/20/09 and insisted that no war president could be criticized, who started calling Barack Obama a Nazi at 12:01 on 1/20/09, and who favor a small government that can wiretap your phone.

Mr. Maher – Yowzers; I was raised by two public school teachers in Massachusetts, and I’ve never met any teacher who makes anything close to those figures. Are these figures including what principals and administrators make? I ask because there is appalling income disparity between those who are actually in the classrooms and those who are in the upper eschelons of administration.

Robert Reich, and only one hack, to whom the spurs are being put a little?

Reich isn’t “balanced” by two Beltway Inbreds and a think-tank right-wing welfare recipient? Or a “realist” who enabled the bingeing deficits during Shrub’s raiseless “expansion” and now (that they’ve got a hangover) insists we all have to be teetotallers because they can’t handle their “liquor”?*

This is one of the episodes to save.

(*Yes, metaphor-heavy.)

Yes, we have votes but now that companies can contribute to campaigns with impunity and executive pay is rising and they are not paying the equitable share of taxes we should vote with our wallets- everyday!

No more big cars, sugary drinks (Coke), snacks, large screen TVs, cable or satellite TV. Lose weight and spend more time with your family.

When the large corporations and fat cat executives don’t have our money where will they be?

Be very aware of where your money goes. You may be financing the problem.

Thank you Mr. Reich. I cannot wait to read your book. I am a steadfast Democrat because I am so strongly opposed to the ideology of the Republican party. I tasted the bitter fruit of the “trickle down” theory of the Reagan era when I was desperately poor with two young children. We are being squeezed by our local governments, which leaves us even less money, and forces some local governments to rely more and more on corporations to fund programs. To me this is the Republican vision, since corporations are already in charge of their party, and they are the ones who are benefiting by leaps and bounds. Not to say Democrats are pure, but their stated values and general vision for our country is more in line with my own.

Tom Ashbrook did so much better of a job interviewing both guests than Fresh Air’s Dave Davies (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130189031) did interviewing Reich. I love Reich and agree with him wholeheartedly, but I was really disappointed to hear Davies’ pathetic softball questions. Our man Tom takes his job seriously, and asks challenging, probing questions of all his guests, whether they are left or right. When Davies sycophantically nods his head, NPR looks completely biased.

I’m so tired of hearing teacher’s unions and teacher benefit packages (health care and retirement benefits) blamed for economic difficulties in this country. Yes, there are problems with unions in general but to use hard working teachers as scapegoats in this economy is blasphemous. Most teachers barely earn enough in their first 10 years of teaching to pay back the student loans they had to take out to fund their education in order to meet government certification requirements. Most teachers spend 100% of their incomes in their local economies because (aside from their mandatory retirement fund contributions) they barely have anything to save after living expenses are met. Most teachers spend significant number unpaid of “non-work” hours during evenings, weekends and summer vacations preparing for class, working on IEPs and attending to mandatory professional development requirements at their own expense.

Unions are the only thing that stand between teachers earning a living wage and the taxpayer urge to scapegoat, punish and cut costs by abusing teachers an other service workers. Teachers are not getting “special treatment.” Unions are merely working hard to protect and provide for teachers, paraprofessionals and (in NYS anyway) nurses the basic rights and benefits that ALL American workers deserve.

I never seem to hear anyone talk about the fact that our educational system is designed to create perfect consumers. It has been a fabulous success! Many, many of the brightest go on to market STUFF to the products of our schools. More money to schools is touted as the answer to failed system. When we admit that there is a dirty secret at the heart of the supposed “failure” of our educational system perhaps a new conversation can begin.Society as a whole is responsible for inadequate education, not unions, not lack of funding or school committees or politicians. Who is asking why we educate our children? What outcome do we desire? As long as success is defined by dollar signs, the United States of America will continue to decline.

We need an attitude change, a change in values, less materialism and greater moderation. Come to think of it,all that is now being forced upon us as the unavoidable consequence of the path that we the people have chosen over the past several decades—

I can’t believe what Metzler just said, that the teachers and police and firemen and their unions have rigged the system. He’s demonizing others to make his argument.

I think there are problems with unions, but to put the blame on them because the states of California miss managed their pension funds is absurd.

These people put THEIR money into the pensions expecting a return. That said I do think that this points to a huge problem we have in this country with retirement and we pay for it. Raising the age to 70 is not an answer. Interesting to note what is happening in France in this regard. Most people lost half or more of their 401K’s in the downturn. The reality is, while the hedge fund folks have been making a killing, the middle class worker’s income has remained flat, and has been for at least the last 25 to 30 years.

The amazing thing is the caller who claimed she was a Tea party member who went on about being angry about entitlements. I wonder if one dove deeper into her life if you could find that she was a recipient of the entitlements she is against. One has to ask people like this do they really understand how they are being manipulated by people like the Koch brothers and Dick Amory?

Dear Tom,

This hours’ interesting discussion only scratched the surface of a number of fundamental issues at the basis of the matter at hand. To wit and to name only a few: 1.) You are entitled to your opinion but not your facts, the heart of Meltzer’s playing with history and facts and equally so by the Tea Party and many Republicans.

2.) The reality that the middle class, especially middle class (and even lower) whites have for years been stirred up to support candidates who then do nothing to promote their interests and in many cases only worsen their state and this fire further their cynicism (see the many examples of Tea Party middle class, retired or nearly so folks who want their medicare, S.S. and other benefits but then seem to say let’s not keep that line moving, or don’t even realize how reliant, many of them through lifetimes of government or government related employment they are on the supposed “big government” they decry and want to demolish.

3.) That there is an undeniable racial bias in all of this that accounts for the reason why few if any minorities in the Tea Party, that the interests of those folks are not even on the radar screen of the Tea Party’s purported desire to raise the interest of themselves as somehow downtrodden victims (but somehow black lower class right underneath them are vilified for portraying themselves as victims), and that there was no movement to have these rallying cries under eight years of Bush and if McCain had become president (and all of our economic picture now would probably be worse than it is) there would have been no protest of him, a regular white guy.

4.) Much of this is about “I’ve got mine” and you are not only not going to get any of that, but we will make sure that the status quo ante is maintained.

This is just a portion of what you are into sparked by Reich’s initial set of points.

Sincerely,

Stephen J. Nelson
Providence, RI

Sam: I applaud your education. But wonder how your take home is so low. Perhaps you have each chosen a less-remunerative path within your fields, or are in a “low cost” geography. Nevertheless, I too am not worried about paying more into the system on the MARGINAL $$ over 250k (and we have been and will be this year).

So long as political leadership is making strides to leash the abuses I see in local and national papers. carried interest, Off-shore accounts, “goosed” pensions, etc. Otherwise, I say: stuff your tax proposals! Pres. O needs to show the 98% “less wealthy” that he and his party are truly making changes happen; that begins with pointing finger at Sen. Kerry, Rep Tierney, Rep Rangell et al who have modelled tax cheating to all the rest of the nation. Wonder why everyone else is cutting corners too??

I always find it amusing that people who think the Free Market (angelic chorus) should make almost all the valuation decisions in our economy (and that “the economy” should include almost all that happens in our privatised world) are unwilling to let such determine the value of money.

In market terms, fixing a dollar-value for gold makes as little sense as fixing a dollar-value for human labour—and most of these folks are against the comparetively milder minimum wage, the closest equivalent in the actual economy to that latter.

I think Robert Reich’s point about the squeezed middle class is a good one, but throwing out a number like the 91% tax rate on those making above $200k in 1954 fails to put it in historical context and does not consider inflation over that time. The 91% tax rate on income of more than $200k in 1954 equates to income of nearly $4 million today. While an income of $200,000 today equates to an income closer to $12,000 in 1954 dollars which put a person in the 38% tax bracket back then.

Going back to 39% rates would actually be a higher rate for some people than those same professionals would have paid in 1954. And by not indexing these upper middle income tax brackets to inflation, at the same time the Fed is pooring newly created electronic dollars into the economy will put an increasing tax burden on those with middle incomes as their salaries rise along with accelerating inflation in this coming decade.

I have only been able to hear a tiny part of the broadcast, but I heard Meltzer argue that most government benefits go to the middle class and that same middle class is the core of the tea party angered by a deficit caused by government benefits. He is obviously a lightweight when it comes to informed debate, but he actually, although inadvertently, hit the “grass roots” anger issue squarely on the head:

The tea partiers’ enemy is themselves! They are the recipients social security and military pension payments, Medicare coverage, supporters of vastly increased military-security spending,, good roads, police and fire protection, court enforcement of commercial activity. In short, they want and are the recipients of the very government spending that they so publicly throw tantrums about. I say give ‘em what they want: Let’s end THEIR government benefits, then check back in a year or so and see if their opinions have changed.

I do believe our democracy has shifted and morphed into a plutocracy. I am a professional educator in my mid-thirties with a Masters Degree. I find it increasingly difficult to make a comfortable living and rise above lower middle class status in today’s current economic and political climate. It seems to me that the money simply does not flow like it did forty years ago because it is being horded by the ultra-weathy. Those who say that everyone has opportunity in this country to receive a college education and be successful financially, do not understand that the extreme cost of education prevents many intelligent, hard-working people from receiving a degree. However, that hardly seems to matten when there are a rash of college/university educated professionals out in the world who cannot find firm footing in the workforce anyway. It is apparent to those of us struggling to get by that the weathy are in control of the economy and politics in this country. The United States no longer has a government for and by the people. It is obviosly a government for and by the ultra-weathy and the corporations.

For all those are the Tea potty screamers:
Fine you want to shrink government spending here are some suggestions:

Refuse
FDIC insurance
Public education for your kids
Medicare for your parents
Social Security for your retirement.
National guardsmen in states of emergency
Bridges to cross bodies of water,by taking a private ferry &
Boycott events at publicly funded arenas and stadia

If you do those things first then I’d be happy to listen
consider your arguments

So according to Mr Maher, teachers are not allowed to make over a certain salary. It doesn’t matter if they have attained higher college degrees (Masters or Doctorates) and have worked in the field for decades. Doesn’t matter – put up a list of people and their salaries with no further information concerning them and we are supposed to be outraged (outraged!!!!!) that a teacher could make this type of income. Apparently, teachers are supposed to always be paid low incomes no matter what and be happy with it. Yeah right!
So Mr. Maher, please tell us, what is the salary cap for teachers – no matter their background, years of service, or area they teach in taken into account?

Man, this whole show was like a Disney movie, with a lovable professor and a bad guy who got his good-natured butt harmlessly whipped. Alan Meltzer should report for another casting call in the morning. The comedy routine of blaming teachers for our failed economy rightly belittled privileged fairy tale believers who say more education and campaign finance reform will solve all.It also diverted useful discussion, and a host with fortitude would have bid him adieu at that juncture, but not Old Uncle Tom.
It’s a little late for polite solutions considering the accelerating updraft of wealth and income. Like a black hole, increasing mass rapidly increases pulling power. I,m afraid the money game must run it’s course while we all install a personal solar panel and grow container gardens in a sunny window. Obama was the “best we were allowed to have” but even he will stand by while people die without medical treatment, suffer malnutrition, and have their brains fried with sales pitches masquerading as education. Bill Clinton didn’t feel YOUR pain, that was just his gluttonous guts. But then, Reagan and the Bushes really got off on Your pain.

Sadly, ThresherK, not everyone has work ethic. Or, their perception is warped about what “real product” they are returning to society… Designing a fair compensation for valued services is critical — and I very much value teachers’ contribs. But there are excesses there, and many who do NOT perform adequately. Perhaps not in your system, but I see it in Boston schools, for sure!

Also, that Robert B’s “spending” list shows we all get something from USGovt. But, everyone wants only the “somethings” they value. We vote for politicians (I hope) who we think will make the best decisions about spending and laws governing our country, but our view is through the prism of our own circumstances/needs.

Even so, it seems to me that too many politicians are beholden to the monied special interests — bankers AND unions. Worse, they have become entrenched, and thus are truly aloof to their electorate. The system itself has become “schlerotic” thereby prohibiting any progress. All of these are part of what goads Tea Party activists (not counting the “paid” ones making noise thanks to these opaque funding organizations), but I don’t think for one minute the Republicans will be any better stewards of my vote…

Maybe it will take a few boycotts, riots, or blocked highways/train tracks to catch the attention of our Political Leadership. Am not holding my breath, though!

Roberto I agree with you. In Massachusetts the Police union has been fighting the removal of police being on road work sites. I use to live in Vermont and they use work crews only and part of the crew are traffic controllers. From my experience these work better.
The amount of times I’ve been in traffic at a work site and there is the cop or state police officer just standing there doing nothing or talking on a cell phone.
you never see this in Vermont. Mind you it’s rural.
Even so this BS should stop.

I’m all for reforms, I don’t think anyone in the police or fire department should walk away with 200K a year pensions. I’m also against this nonsense of padding that they are allowed to do.

However we need to stop demonizing the unions and the people who work for the public.

There are plenty of people who will rail about the public unions until they are broken, and be cheered for it. Anybody in the mainstream press who wants to be tagged for “class warfare” will rail against “Wall Street” and be called a “communist” for it. And the same class of people who invented all the devices which brought us down this last decade have an entire media empire (Rupert Murdoch’s) to paper over their actions and display them as honest, regular folks.

(Oh, and I forgot to close italics. Oops.)

ThresherK @ 11:55

So right you are. A scene that should have led off the Congressional hearings in 2008 on the bank bailout requested by Hank Paulson would have had just one of our elected officials asking:

So Mr. Paulson, most Americans don’t understand
what you titans of finance do, it being so
complicated and all. So why don’t you begin
by telling us what work you did to earn the
$35 million you were paid at your job with
Goldman Sachs. Tell us about your toughest day
at that job so we can all get a better
understanding of this mysterious and oh so
complicated world of finance that the taxpayers
are now being asked to bail out. I’m sure
our citizens would be more than willing to
help out if they just know how hard you all
work and truly earn your millions.

Does anyone in authority ever ask these greedy bastards just what they actually do to deserve their obscene take?

Boy does that Meltzer make me angry- and I am not a misguided Tea Partier. He says that our education is failing us. Boy is it ever, but not in the way that he is speaking to. My educated friends and I have graduated college and some of us are without jobs. All of us are saddled with student loans (despite having worked through college). Six years on from graduation, I struggle to pay my rent for my basement apartment which I share with a roommate. I have crap insurance so a large portion of my income goes to healthcare. I cannot increase my earning power without going back to school and I don’t expect to be able to afford graduate school in this lifetime. My parents are members of the lower-middle class, but my siblings and I are on the brink of homelessness. I am the woman on the street and I am against economic redistribution as it is happening: the money is moving up and it doesn’t trickle down. Just as Reicher said, the middle class and poor spend a much larger portion of their income. That’s money that goes back into the economy and back to the corporations. Politicians should be selling a “trickle up” agenda. Higher taxes for the wealthy and lower taxes for the middle class and poor!- this is the clarion call for the middle class, Mr Meltzer.

I’m sorry but I don’t think Supreme Court justices should attend political retreats. This is such a conflict of interest and I question the ethics of this.
Especially in the recent Court ruling on the Citizens United case.

the New York Times reported that an upcoming meeting in Palm Springs of “a secretive network of Republican donors” that was being organized by Koch Industries, “the longtime underwriter of libertarian causes.” Buried in the third to last graph was a note that previous guests at such meetings included Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, two of the more conservative members of the bench.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/20/scalia-thomas-koch-industries_n_769843.html

Since the cost of housing and health insurance, transportation, and our digital needs (for communication, inventory, and record keeping, even without the entertainment component) are staggering, what I’m about to say may not work at all, but here goes.

I went to Sicily in 2005. I cannot claim to know how their economy works, or if it even does. And we were told that a certain “factor” was at play enough that we were not to even mention the word — the word that I’m not even using here.

What I DID see was this: markets, sometimes miles long, of fresh food, wine, flowers, in every town. In the restaurants, all the food was made from scratch with fresh, local products. When you order ravioli, the pasta itself wasn’t even made until you ordered it, and then it was created from flour, eggs, whatever comprises it. Meanwhile, there were streets of shops, with extraordinarily beautiful marzipan, ALL of it was exotic, making the fruit-shaped marzipan we have here look like nothing special.

There were so many shops selling handmade/handpainted ceramics of all kinds. The religious festivals we passed by used handmade costumes (new designs for each year), and local musicians (young & old) accompanied the parades thru the hand-decorated streets. (Later, on TV, I saw a show about Easter festivals in Sicily; one town divides the citizens into two groups which compete for the best street-decorating prize, using only natural materials, meaning reeds, grasses, bamboo, and whole decorative walls made with BREADS!).

WHY do I bring this up in a discussion about our economy? Well, I think we are PARTIALLY in this situation because we were sold on the idea of CHEAPER GOODS. We were sold on the idea of going to Big Box and being able to buy fifteen presents for each kid on their birthday or religious holiday. At first, it was cheap toys, then it was cheap electronics, NOW it’s getting to be cheap electronic PROGRAMMING! NOT a good thing at all! Even our highly educated workers are seeing their jobs out-sourced; yet they still have student loans to pay off. Now, MOST of the out-sourcing is for the PROFITS of the SHAREHOLDERS, and many shareholders are ordinary citizens who worked hard but are now in retirement. But wasn’t Capitalism supposed to include Investment as well as Profit?

WHAT IF WE DID A PARADIGM SHIFT!!!??? Before Big Box stores, neighborhoods had their own businesses, from stores that sold products to service businesses. Now, corporations have taken over so much of the market that small, local businesses have a hard time competing. Besides the loss of jobs in all our neighborhoods, we have lost the mentoring and takes-a-village-to-raise-a-child contributions of the former neighborhood businesses. WHAT IF WE DID A PARADIGN SHIFT???!!!

Even think about how we listen to music, for the most part. MOST of us listen to music by FAMOUS people, delivered thru corporations, rather than listening to handmade music by our neighbors, who could provide a service BUSINESS to the community.

WHAT IF WE DID A PARADIGM SHIFT and STOPPED BUYING THE CHEAP STUFF FROM OVERSEAS. Instead of buying three prints of work by famous artists that were framed in China, what if I bought a single artwork by someone in my neighborhood. If I couldn’t afford much, I might buy an artwork by a teenager who was busy being entrepreneurial, instead of being so depressed about his future in this country that he was already lured into a gang for quick wealth in what he expected would be a short life? Instead of going to a chain restaurant that uses lots of pre-processed “food” products, what if I went to a local restaurant so small that they also made the pasta from flour and eggs. And so on, and so on. Instead of buying eighteen gifts for the family holiday, what if I hired two local musicians, older Portuguese men who play Fado guitar, to serenade my family for the half-hour that I could afford.

WHAT IF WE BROUGHT THE ECONOMY BACK TO A POINT WHERE WE COULD ALL PARTICIPATE IN IT? THAT WOULD BE THE PARADIGM SHIFT. It would be engaging, because we would all be working on making OUR OWN business (product or service) within our LOCAL environment. There could even be bartering when times were really tough.

Right now, small businesses have been trying to figure out HOW they can compete in a Global Marketplace. MAYBE it’s time to Stay Home, but STAY HOME BIG! There is NO reason that a local marketplace can’t be as vibrant as a global marketplace. Right now, for me, the term “global” is a joke! If products from China taught me about Chinese culture and aesthetics, I’d be delighted. But, instead, products from China sometimes even imitate the “old farmhouse” look of Ye Ole’ New England! That’s not global! That’s FAKE!

Back to the Sicilians. Apparently in France, if you go into a cheese market, they will offer you EVERY cheese made in France. In Sicily, if you go into a cheese market, they will offer you the LOCAL cheese, wine & olive oil of their town, possibly of their region. So, the farmers who grow and process these products and the restauranteurs who use them are part of a Local Network that CREATES Economic Value!!! Our own farmers markets have been moving in this direction. I’m just suggesting that perhaps we could think Really Big about this, and take this BEYOND agriculture & food! I could buy your computer expertise, and you could buy my art lessons for your elderly father, or my daughter’s short story, even!

We are so used to thinking that the current cultural AND economic movement is toward the digital. MAYBE, altho that is true, perhaps, because of the Plutocracy, that is NOT a safe enough direction for us to rely on so completely. AND, if ONE thing is true, its OPPOSITE is usually ALSO true. So, in a Global Market, perhaps we MUST go LOCAL! Perhaps ALL of us together on this blog page could support one another if we figured out what goods and services we have to sell to one another.

Growth? Does that always have to include exploitation (slavery; Jim Crow exploitation & wages; exploitation of immigrant workers; lower wages to women workers until Obama signed a new law; putting kids into jobs adults used to support whole families on; NAFTA; outsourcing first to poorer American South, then overseas)? Capitalism DOES look for the lowest wages. PARADIGM SHIFT: what if we refused to be Classic Capitalists, but became Hyper-Local Entrepreneurs instead? What if Local were more important than Cheap?! Also, right now, growth seems like an indulgence. I think many Americans just want to stay even and/or stop their frightening falls into jobless despair. BUT IF WE HAD A PARADIGM SHIFT…..

Could this work? As I said, I don’t know if this IS what is working in Sicily, for many people at least. I’m sure it’s not their entire economy, but, the restaurant staffs we met SEEMED unstressed. They SEEMED to be lifestyle-content.

“This time, we put the culprits in offices with windows that don’t open and we bailed them out. We left their prey to be evicted or laid off or to struggle without unemployment and health insurance.

We-the-people blew it.”

Yes, and what most people don’t realize is that significantly more Democrats voted for H.R. 1424 (otherwise known as the biggest heist in American history) than Republicans.

House:
Democratic 172 Yeas, 63 Nays
Republican 91 Nays, 108 Nays

Senate:
9 Democratic Nays
14 Republican Nays
1 Independent Nay

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2008/roll681.xml
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00213#position

The facts are that the House could’ve stopped this thing and required that any bailout be contingent on cram downs, regulations, and that share holders bare most of the pain. Now you have a resurgent Wall Street with 2 big investment banks instead of 4, and with both being very sanguine that the tax payer and the Fed’s printing press will come running at the slightest sign of trouble.

The problem with our economy is not capitalism, it’s crony financial capitalism. The banks should be there to serve industry and the real economy, now they only exist to serve themselves; and it’s clear that Congress and the White House exist to serve the banks.

Go to the site above. If you’re congressman voted yea, make sure you vote nay!

They may have all the money,
But we have all the votes!

Time for my idea called “The Government Plan”
It includes the following bare bones benefits:
-Wellness care (Including preventative dental)
-Basic Food stamp allotment
-Dormitory living arrangements Or equivalent Tax credit.
-Public Transport to and from job or gas allotment
-
How is this paid for? Easily, we all contribute the same amount, being the same amount of time. Say it works out to eight hours per week. Then someone making $10.00/hr would pay $80.00, someone making $100.00/hr would pay $800.00. The unemployed would have to volunteer an equivalent amount of time. Children over age four or so would “pay” by being in school and getting good grades. We all learn a little responsibility, we are all a little healthier and we all have a boost to our pride at having contributed to our country.

Unfair to the $100.00/hr person? How so? Is their time really any more valuable than anyone elses? Essentially, we all have the same amount of time here on earth. This is only to provide a base level of benefits for all. If you want to have enhanced benefits you work a little harder, you buy a supplemental plan, you buy extra groceries. This doesn’t require all your money, just a portion of it.

@Russell Williams- No one is saying someone should take care of them. The Constitution guarantees Equal Rights, but that doesn’t apply when the moneyed interests have manipulated and gamed the system for their own ends and benefit. If a thief is caught with his hands in the cookie jar he doesn’t get to keep what he stole. The Bush Tax cuts were just such an example. They were never paid for, so they should be paid back, with interest. The same with the bailouts for the banks. They need to make good the losses they caused elsewhere by their behavior.

The wealthy in this country have controlled way to much for way to long. It is not a death tax it is an inheritance tax. Bill Gate’s father (Bill Senior)understands why it is necessary and right to have an inheritance tax. Go check him out. Essentially it boils down to the fact that much of the innovation that has occurred and is occurring stems from research at our Public Universities which are funded in large part by Federal dollars.. In order to continue to fund such research the governments kitty needs to be replenished. The fairest way to replenish these funds is to tax capital gains on sales of stocks, and tax estate transfers.

I am not saying something for nothing, but how can you say that it is smart economically to not have Universal health care in this country. Are you unaware that we spend 17.4% of our GDP on health care while other industrialized nations only spend 10.5% and they cover all their citizens? On top of that they have better results (lower infant mortality, longer life expectancy). We are barely in the top ten of those. How can you read the Constitution and without realizing that when it says Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness (not property)that health is a part of life? Are you that callous and cold-hearted that you actually believe this should be allowed to continue? Senator Mitch McConnell (my state’s senator) is fond of saying “We have the best health care in the world”. What he doesn’t say and is afraid to say (because he is a lily livered piece of cow dung) is that he means he and his fellow senators have the best health care in the world, which is actually true.

I would guess that you as so many conservatives seem to believe that “Free Enterprise” they worship is the Holy Grail. For your information “Free Enterprise” does not and never has meant “Survival of the Fittest”. Free Enterprise means you are free to pursue whatever business you choose so long as it is done legally, with out harm to others or the environment. Then you say, there are to many regulations, we saw where to few or poorly enforced regulations got us with the bank bailouts under “W”, or all the toxic waste sites before the EPA was created, or all the coal miners deaths and injuries before MSHA (Mine Safety and Health Administration), or workplace injuries and deaths before OSHA.

TEACHERS OVER PAID??????

I am not a teacher but I know that those salaries take years and years to reach PLUS lots more expensive graduate school. To reach the salaries listed earlier, a teacher needs 20 years, MASTERS plus 45 HOURS of schooling. THOSE STUPID PEOPLE WHO THINK TEACHERS ARE OVER PAID HAVE NOT SEEN OR TAKEN A COLLEGE COURSE in ages. Look up the cost of an accreditted school today.

Kids on Wall Street are making those high salaries their first year and screwing people to make it.

Get this FOOL Meltzer off the air. Allowing such idiots any air time does more damage to the effort to tell the people the truth than can be imagined. Sorry oh Mr. Highly respected ‘expert.’ It’s an insult to all of humanity that $$ is allowed to RUN practically everything in the world today. Don’t you remember how well deregulation worked (from Reagan to Bush II)….NOT! GOD, I’m so pissed off at these jerks! How can anyone defend such a concentration of wealth and power to such a small (and vastly disillusioned) few at the very top! WTF!!!!

How can Professor Meltzer sleep at night?

IN A WORLD OF LIMITED RESOURCES, YOU CANNOT BASE YOUR EXISTENCE ON PERMANENT GROWTH AND EXPANSION.

The jig is up. America is over.

When it comes to any worthwhile analysis of contemporary life in the U.S., wealth inequality is the enormous white elephant in the room (pun referencing the GOP intended): if one ignores the issue, then that person is likely to be nothing more than an apologist for a social system that cannot long be sustained.

Let’s look the perpetrator squarely in the eye: Corporate dominance of our lives. Extreme corporate wealth and the political power that flows from it are directly implicated in an enormous number of social problems. Thus, OnPoint is to be commended for giving this important subject an airing, and Robert Reich is right on target in many of his criticisms and warnings.

Take the example of executive compensation. On this subject, we can dismiss the comments of Allan Meltzer as so much right-wing propaganda. Neither he nor any other ideologue rigidly attached to concepts like “freedom” is willing to admit that their cherished beliefs bear little resemblance to reality in salient cases like the compensation of top corporate officials. Where is the sacred law of supply and demand in the board rooms of companies like Bank of America, Exxon, or Monsanto (not to say AIG) when they vote to reward their executives arbitrarily high salaries and bonuses? The decision amounts to an agreement among backslapping good ol’ boys, completely inoculated from public review. This is not to speak of the bitter irony of doling out huge sums to executives who have driven their companies off an economic cliff or “succeeded” by firing the most workers (and therefore lowering the company’s main source of bottom-line costs), making a mockery of the vaunted notion of accountability with which the rest of us have to live.

Lest we forget, right-wing ideas that boil down to coddling the rich have been tried and found wanting since the nostalgic days of “supply-side” Reaganomics, and earlier. But to those who worship at the altar of Greed, the operative bedrock value of American big business, to those who salivate at the prospect of capitalism liberated from all forms of restraint, no amount of failure can shake their irrational faith in the so-called “free” market. When has any market ever been truly free? From the time of the Robber Barons, when a character like John D. Rockefeller made his fortune by driving competitors out of business through outright criminal behavior, right through to today, major markets have always been manipulated for the benefit of the wealthy and powerful, to the detriment of the rest of us. When government is forced to step in and improvise, as during a genuine crisis such as the Great Depression, the result is far from the “socialism” and “redistribution” decried by propagandists on the right. FDR acted to save capitalism from its own excesses. Notwithstanding the movie character Gordon Gekko’s fervent approval, greed is only good for the few, not the many.

What is to be done? On the one hand, there is a small group of people, keenly class-conscious, who bring their considerable resources to bear night and day to obtain results in the political sphere highly skewed in their favor. While these people enrich themselves, social problems affecting the entire society, including them, remain neglected. On the other hand there is the rest of the populace. Numbers are on our side. But so many of us are dispirited and confused, unable to recognize or advocate for our own economic interest, and would rather identify with the needs of the wealthy than struggle to obtain a fairer share of the economic pie. All the while, real wealth continues to flow upward, from the less well off to the rich, in an ironic parody of “trickle-down” economics. Where is the outrage? What is needed is an organized movement of people not just fed up but who know where to place the blame: not on immigrants, the latest in a long line of right-wing scapegoats, not on “progressives” or “socialists,” the favorite smear words thrown out by paranoid demagogues like Glenn Beck, but where it really belongs, on those fantastically wealthy individuals who in fact control our lives and who have been waging a class war on us for generations. Where is the organized movement of people akin to the civil rights movement of the 60’s, who will demand that the system be truly reformed? This is the next question OnPoint ought to tackle.

Those interested in a further insightful view of our economic problems should also listen to today’s internet interview of Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz on DemocracyNow’s website: http://www.democracynow.org/2010/10/20/nobel_laureate_joseph_stiglitz_on_how

Where should the Tea Party anger be directed? All politicians since the 1980s – both Republicans and Democrats. These politicians have not taken the difficult choice of cutting defence and social security spending. A country can only cut taxes insofar as it cuts spending. Has anyone been listening to Ron Paul or David Stockman?

Where should the Tea Party anger be directed? All politicians since the 1980s – both Republicans and Democrats. These politicians have not taken the difficult choice of cutting defence and social security spending. A country can only cut taxes insofar as it cuts spending. Has anyone been listening to Ron Paul or David Stockman?”

Check out the UK there cutting defense spending by 8% in the next 4 years and the U.S. and our SOS Mrs Clinton crapped themselves crying about such there was an media blitz on saying how troubling it was for the UK to do such ommitting of course that it’s spending will still be rank 3rd, 4th at worst.

Even NPR covered it as

“Britain Announces Massive Defense Cuts”
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130675317&plckFindCommentKey=CommentKey:dd33d0df-f9aa-465c-914e-8c7265c683d8

Massive was the heading and even with Ron Paul and Frank plan to cut defense spending has produced since than ??? I’ll tell you billions more in defense spending, just reported today on Marko W. “The World” a few Defense companies received 9 million dollars to (not create) but to think of how to create a flying Humvee.

As for Public schools ask yourself how Public schools all across the world can manage to produce brighter children than the U.S. can using similar methods and ask how many of those countries ahead of the U.S. rely on Charter schools to do so?

If you want to look at a country where there is only private schools and everyone has to pay for there kid to go to school or not go at all check out Haiti to see such results.

If the top 1% have increased their control of income from 8-9% in the 1970′s to 23.5% in 2007, how did this happen? Was it not government that made this shift in wealth possible? Should it not be government that helps to turn the tide back to something that is more sane? Government should protect “us” from the powerful/wealthy.

The federal reserve system provides the world with perpetual debt. As long as we-the-people allow the federal reserve to provide currency at interest nobody will ever be debt free – government or private citizens.
When will we-the-people wake up and see the reality of the federal reserve system?
Until we overthrow the federal reserve system we will all e slaves the the debt created by profit grabbing corporate federal reserve.
The federal reserve system that creates federal reserve notes for us to use as currency – at interest – is as much a governmental agency as is federal express.
When do we wake up?

While our current education system may be broken, test and punish is no way to improve the system. Don’t lay it just at the feet of educators. Do you blame the dentist when your child shows up with cavities? Many parents abdicate their responsibility for helping educate their child. Others are too busy with their own issues to put children first. We are all at fault. Take a look at Finland and the model they are using to make their education system top in the world. Let’s not fail to put CHILDREN FIRST or we will become Third World America!

Boy, the liberal Pip Piper is blowing his horn today and all the little children are following after him.
Wait until you see what is in store for next year!!!
Your taxes are going up!!!

When will the American People get past name calling, finger pointing, and party idology, and try to bring some focus to the critical problems facing this once great Nation?

As a 40 year Republican, I layed all of my idological beliefs aside, and read Robert Reich’s book twice. I don’t necessarily accept everythng that is says in his book, but on the CORE issue, “he nailed it.”

Wealth and Income Disparity in this Country has never been more unequal, more unjust, and more unfair. During Tom’s Wednesday night show, I would have liked to have heard a discussion about the predatory nature of unregulated Capitalism when these in control of decision making either on Wall Street, or in the Halls of Congress have a complete lack of MORALITY when it comes to MONEY!

The low level bickering and finger pointing over idology, is serving as a huge distraction from the critical issues that should be discussed, and I have to believe that both major parties are loving it! I say a,”plague on both the parties,” because they are both equally culpable, in bringing about the demise of this once great Country.

Oliver Stone calls the debacle of 2008 on Wall Street, the greatest heist in American History and, will change the face of Capitalism in America forever. I’m not so sure.

It seems to me, that Wall Street and Congress are back at it. Have you noticed how they take of one another?
Bailouts for the banks, loans to big business, payoffs to members of Congress, and another round of obscene bonuses for the pinstripes on Wall Street. Middle America – - what did you get? THE BILL for it al!

A second substantive issue that a serious discussion is warranted – - and maybe the only way the gridlock in Congress can be broken, and special interests eliminated is to have all the States call for a Constitutional Convention to Amend the Document to make the kind of changes that will return Government to the rank and file of the American People. The Principles of this great document would not be altered – - heaven forbid! But what could be changed are things like term limits. Eliminating

Sam, You say, “public financed NPR”?! NPR gets very little money from the “public”, if by that, you mean from “government coffers”. The bulk of their funding comes from donations made voluntarily.

I believe the current economic crisis and the general decline of quality of life for the masses in the United States is due to the discontinuation of the Home Stead Act of 1862, ended in 1976 in the States, 1986 in Alaska; this country needs the Free Soil Party, not the Tea Party, and a new version of the Home Stead Act for the masses.

While I agree w. Professor Reich’s views I was disappointed at how little time was afforded to Professor Meltzer. It was a bit embarrassing and certainly not useful for us listeners to not permit these two highly competent debaters to engage more fully. I was impressed by Meltzer’s ability to hang in there and not lose his cool nor complain. Please, present more balanced opportunities for true debate so we can stretch and exercise our democratic minds. Preaching to the choir never advances our critical thinking abilities.

It has seemed to me for a very long time that the US was ruled by a national oligarchy that essentially controlled both of the major political parties, but it seems to me now that the Republicans are controlled by and represent a kleptocracy that owes no loyalties to anything beyond its own enrichment.

I’m absolutely shocked that so few people know much about the period of, “great prosperity,” that occurred in this Country following WWII, and for 30 years thereafter.

That was a unique period in US history when the rest of the world was in ruins following the the war and the US was the only nation to emerge from that war with its economy, infrastructure and factories intact. It was a singularity that bears no resemblance to the present.

Democracies get the governments they deserve.

In a democracy people have the power of CHOICE. This includes not only the choice of how to cast your vote, but other choices as well: where to get your news; how much time to spend news gathering; how much time to spend studying history, economics, and other background information; how skeptical to be about what reporters and pundits say; whether to pay any attention to advertisements; whether to ask questions and demand to see the numbers.

I don’t care how much plutocratic money is pumped into political advertising because I don’t watch political advertising on TV or read it in the newspapers. Let the plutocrats waste their money – at least copy editors and page-layout editors and printers and web hosts get some jobs out of it!

But if others choose to be influenced by these ads that’s their choice in a free society. If others choose to be ignorant about history, economics, any hard numbers, etc, again that’s their choice in a democracy.

Reich’s ideas are pure academic pie-in-the-sky. By their votes and other choices, actions and inactions the American public have made it clear they’re perfectly happy living in a society with the income disparities, lack of health insurance, huge, expensive foreign wars, and politicians in the pockets of big corporations, of the US.

“Please, let’s ask Robert about “The Century of the Self” as it (and the documentary by the same name) explain alot.

Thank you.

Posted by FallenAcorn, on October 20th, 2010 at 8:43 PM”

I most definitely second this recommendation!!!

It is a 4 part (4 hour) analysis of the role psychology and psychoanalysis has played in Public Relations as used by corporations and politicians since the 1920s.

It begins with the well-known publicist Edward Bernays who was a nephew of Sigmund Freud, and was astute in applying Freud’s understanding of the unconscious towards motivating consumer and voter behavior to buy and to believe.

It clearly shows that there is much less free choice in human behavior than we like to believe, especially in the US. It is the best work I have seen in explaining the mechanics of manipulating consumer/voter behavior at levels below consciousness.

I am proud to point out that my Dad, Alexander Lowen, M.D. is portrayed as one of the few good guys in this story. FYI, in the first 10-15 minutes of Part 3.

I believe this is so important because without understanding this stuff, you cannot fully understand the social problems in the US.

It was shown in the UK, but never in the US on TV (probably because of the clarity of content). It is readily available at Google Videos, or You Tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvHcbolQ0K4

Tom A: the producer/director of this work, Adam Curtis, could be a fascinating guest. He has done other extremely interesting work in areas that are way off most radar screens, but are so central to our issues. He clearly sees the box that most people don’t even realize we’re all trapped in.

Thanks FallenAcorn!

Jim in Omaha,

You have nailed it.

The Republican and Tea Party Platform

Small government = “income disparities” as the corporations are free to rob the people in whatever way possible, and the super rich can take whatever means to get richer, squeeze the middle class, and forget the poor.

Personal responsibility = “lack of government insurance”, you are on your own. No insurance, No pensions, No Social Security, No Medicare! Feel free to die on the street. Squeeze the middle class with the hidden tax in the form of rising health care costs to enrich the corporations. Too bad if you are poor and sick.

Strong national defense = “huge, expensive foreign wars”. Leave the dope Obama to clean up and look foolish.

Christian morality = “uninformed, propagandized into ignorance” You are not Christian if you vote for a Democrat. Nothing else matters. So what if the First Amendment specified separation of Church and State.

Return to the Ideals of the Founding Fathers = “uninformed, propagandized into ignorance” We the People should be We the People and Corporations. By the way, the Muslims and other non-christians are not quite equal to us.

“Do you really think that if voters were presented with a candidate who ran on a platform of, “If you elect me, I promise a nation of ‘income disparities, lack of health insurance, huge, expensive foreign wars, and politicians in the pockets of big corporations’, that people would actually for for that? ”

Who knows? But where did I say they would?

I think what many of the commenters here are contending that many of those who vote are simply uninformed, propagandized into ignorance, and, of course, some are just too stupid to adequately assimilate actual facts.

Would they say the same about themselves? Would you? It’s very elitist to say that “_I_ am a self-aware, free-willed individual and all those who disagree with me are stupid, ignorant, brainwashed automatons”.

I, on the other hand, give the same credit for intelligence and free will to everyone. I know that I’m intelligent and that I’ve made various choices WRT how much effort to put into following the news, studying history, science, and economics, and generally being well-informed. There’s only so much time in the day and I don’t have kids or watch TV (except football games this time of year), but these are tradeoffs I’ve made.

Other people may make different tradeoffs based on their priorities. What I find to be an exciting exploration of science, geopolitics or history might seem like boring academics to a Palin supporter. That doesn’t mean they’re brainwashed; they just have different values and priorities.

That’s not right. I struggle because I happen to be a specific sperm cell and a specific egg from two specific lower class people. Althewhile, little johnny comes from wealthy sperm. He didn’t earn his station in life, yet, he’ll live longer because he’ll be less stressed throughout.

Tea Partiers that I’ve met are not really that concerned with how long they live or whether they will retire to a nice golfing community in Florida. The ones I’ve met have a much more fatalistic attitude where you deal with what life hands you as it happens. When they get sick or have an injury, if they can’t afford healthcare they die or live with a lifelong disability.

I recently tore my rotator cuff and luckily I have insurance so I’ll have surgery to repair it. An uninsured Tea Partier might spend his life resigned to never being able to lift his hand above his shoulder. He would not expect you or I to pay for his surgery.

This is what I think liberals don’t get. To them it seems obvious that people shouldn’t go without medical care just because they can’t afford it. To Tea Partiers, many of whom are very religious, that’s just the breaks, part of God’s plan. Liberals can’t conceive that some people really do have a different concept of “fair”.

Am I the only one that sees the disingenuity in a platform that claims that we can no longer afford to take care of the sick, disabled, or elderly but that we can afford a trillion dollars in tax cuts for the Uber-wealthy?????

Again, just think of it as different values. Look at it this way – last summer I had a pile of money land in my lap, My wife and I could have spent it on new windows for our house or a trip to Alaska. We chose Alaska. Another couple might have chosen windows.

America is a very conservative society; they have different values from the UK. Look at Osborne’s new budget: HUGE SLASHES across the board. There will probably be riots in the street over this. But notice what was ring-fenced: NHS. Because Brits are very proud of their NHS.

The US doesn’t even HAVE healthcare for all. Even Obamacare will be repealed after the GOP takes over in a few weeks. Different country, different values.

I’m a liberal but I know that while I’m living in the US I’m in the minority. I’m not stupid enough to think that my values are universal. But apparently some liberals think that everyone shares, or should share, their values and priorities.

Now you seem to be saying they favor that, but wouldn’t consciously vote for it.

Where did I say that? I said “who knows”? And I mean it – no one has ever tried running like that so it’s pure speculation.

And you are completely wrong about the tea party. It is full of recipients of social security benefits, military pensions and VA medical care, Medicare coverage, etc. When some of them start to choose dying without medical care instead of trying to get someone else to pay for it, then I’ll buy your “different values” BS.

I didn’t say that don’t receive some of those benefits; I said that if they DIDN’T have health insurance they wouldn’t demand it. The only item from the list above they would demand is VA benefits because many of the Tea Party supporters I’ve spoken with are vets who see it as part of the deal when they enlisted.

Many Tea Party and other conservative voters are lower-class or blue collar working people who don’t have health insurance now. And believe me they are doing without it. Many of them have chronic conditions from years of manual labor, unsafe working conditions, smoking, drinking too much, eating unhealthy diets, etc. Many of them WILL die early from treatable conditions, or are suffering or in pain NOW from these conditions, and would benefit from treatment. I know these people; they’re not stupid; they’re fully aware of this. But they’re not asking for help from the government.

Really, you’ve got to come down out of your ivory tower or gated community or wherever you’re posting from. There are millions of people in the US whose value system is very different from yours (or mine).

It will all work if human beings, by nature, were fair, honest, smart,(and good looking). But the utopias promised by the politicians do not exist. We need to be honest to ourselves that there will be no return to the status quo ante. We ourselves foolishly sold away our American dream. Now is the time for a period of hard times, no matter what side wins. American public looses.

Dr. Reich, in discussing the need for more funding for public higher education, fails to appreciate that a sure path to an elitist plutocracy is the domination and control of higher education by the State. Rather than taxing the working poor and others to ensure a new elite is trained according to the reigning ideology of the ivory tower, we should foster independent higher education that attracts the best minds by scholarships based on achievement and promise, holding out to the poor and lower middle-class opportunity for advancement based on their abilities and efforts.

I want to know what university that professor works at and make sure my kids don’t go there! He was on the edge of incoherency for a while there – sorting of scatting through a laundry list of unrelated issues – but by his fourth or fifth comment I realized he was just partisan and doing some electioneering. Very disappointing for what started off to be an engaging conversation – very combative and opinionated individual.

Anyways, I wander, but I think this middle class protest is about a different version of income or wealth redistribution – they see it as a redistribution from the middle class to the lower class, not from the middle class to the rich. One of the later callers on the show summed up the protest so well – concern about giving more handouts, and the rich are just entitled -that’s just the way it is. Perhaps they know the inevitableness of the way our government is now set up. If we are to help the poor, we all know that the middle class will be taxed, and the upper class won’t be. So instead of attacking something we feel powerless to attack (the rich), we instead attack the other side (the poor) in an attempt to keep what is ours.

So if the problem really is that the rich have better circumstances now than in the past, that message is not getting across to people. Maybe there’s that dream that we will enter the gateway to the rich one day, and we want the spoils of being rich if we ever get there! Once people really understand the problem, and really begin to see that the income redistribution has been happening mainly from the middle class to the rich, then we’ll see some changes in government policy. But until that message gets across to people, voices like the professor’s will resonate – a populist angry voice -a fist in the air, get rid of the bums type reaction.

I am very tired of hearing “we need to tax the rich” without ever discussing the definition of “rich”. If I own property valued at $20 Million but have no income am I rich? (politicians DON’T seem to think so).

If I own a small business with 3 employees and $750,000 in gross income but after paying employees, rent, utilities, insurance, and taxes (other than income) I have $75,000 left, am I rich? (politicians seem to think I am)

I am all FOR generating additional tax revenue from “wealthy” persons who are not using their assets to contribute to the “general welfare” of the country. Personally I would increase taxes dramatically on things out of reach of most Americans like private jets, homes over 7,000 sq ft, property over 5 acres not used in an active business., yachts over 75 feet, …

Lets focus on the difference between someone with a high “gross” income and “fat cats”. Is a “fat cat” someone who accumulates power through a capitalistic system or someone who accumulates power by manipulating a political system, or both?

All this talk about changing the tax code seems to miss something to me. There is a large “inequality” in wealth even between the top 19% and the top 1%. Why not make more tax brackets? Setting the bar at $250k seems like a very odd place to set it. IMO someone making $250k per year may be well off, but I don’t think they are making an insane amount of money. Those people could probably handle a small tax increase, but nothing like the 1950′s era 91% tax rate. These numbers are thrown around out of context and do little to further the discussion. Someone making $250k in 1950 was wealthy beyond measure where as today they would be considered upper middle class. On the other hand we have people who make hundreds of millions of dollars per year. There is no possible way that those individuals can come anywhere near putting that money back into the economy on their own. That is money that sits in private accounts (probably offshore as well) and skews statistics.

I believe I heard the Prof state that the average income in the US is $54k. Is that number skewed by Wall Street CEOs taking home huge bonuses? I would like more detail in my “facts”.

…Continuing from above,

And then because these workers are coming home from a hard day’s work feeling as though they accomplished something (versus collecting a welfare check), they’re less likely to crawl inside a six pack and beat their wives. They might be more inclined to help their kids with their homework, or fix the house over the weekend.

This seems to be the one intangible that the economists never get: When you send a guy’s job overseas, not only are you enriching CEOs and Wall Street at his expense, you’re robbing this guy of his dignity and self worth, which has huge and, I think, largely unaccounted for consequences for society that don’t make on these economists’ spread sheets.

I watched Robert Reich on Charlie Rose last night and find him rather disappointing.

Robert Reich has found his perfect place –Berkeley California. All he ever talks about is raising taxes on earners and re-distribution of income from those that earn to those that don’t.

I find it interesting that all the commentators on the economy keep ignoring the ‘Elephant’ in the room. Since the economy has gone south many many employers large and small have been dumping higher paid workers and replacing them with people who are desperate for work and will work for much lower pay and benefits. This is especially true at the lower end of the scale – jobs that paid $18 an hour are now paying $12 an hour – jobs that had finally made it up to $13 an hour now pay $10. Besides the obvious results of reducing the spending power of the ‘lower middle class’ to that of the ‘working poor’, it also has reduced the taxes collected by the government putting them into more of a financial bind. Companies have always taken advantage of a weak job market but in the present market they have been especially agressive in cutting salaries of the lower end workers. Of course, the CEO’s have taken no such pay cuts which makes the disparity even harder to swallow. Let us not forget that the concept of working for the same company your whole life has become a thing of the past as has pensions for those who don’t work for the government. Is it any wonder why so many are losing their homes when their earning power has been decimated?

The media keeps uncritically reporting that the Tea Party is some new phenomenon, when in fact it’s composed of the same people the Hard Right has always consisted of. The Tea Party is just a rebranding of the Hard Right, plain and simple.

Tea Partiers claim to be shocked by out of control gov’t. spending, and have taken to the streets to voice their anger about it. But where was this anger when Bush took the country from a budget surplus at the beginning of his first term to a huge deficit when he left after his second term? Why is their reaction different now that Obama is in office? I have yet to hear a good answer to this question.

Also, if the Tea Party is so concerned with out of control spending, why don’t they argue for cuts in the military budget?