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NationofChange / Op-Ed
Published: Thursday 19 July 2012
“Without a government that’s focused on more and better jobs, we’re left with global corporations that don’t give a damn.”
The Problem Isn’t Outsourcing. It’s that the Prosperity of Big Business Has Become Disconnected from the Well-Being of Most Americans
President Obama is slamming Mitt Romney for heading companies that were “pioneers in outsourcing U.S. jobs,” while Romney is accusing Obama of being “the real outsourcer-in-chief.”
These are the dog days of summer and the silly season of presidential campaigns. But can we get real, please?
The American economy has moved way beyond outsourcing abroad or even “in-sourcing.” Most big companies headquartered in America don’t send jobs overseas and don’t bring jobs here from abroad.
That’s because most are no longer really “American” companies. They’ve become global networks that design, make, buy, and sell things wherever around the world it’s most profitable for them to do so.
As an Apple executive told the New York Times, “we don’t have an obligation to solve America’s problems. Our only obligation is making the best product possible.” He might have added “and showing profits big enough to continually increase our share price.”
Forget the debate over outsourcing. The real question is how to make Americans so competitive that all global companies — whether or not headquartered in the United States — will create good jobs in America.
Apple employs 43,000 people in the United States but contracts with over 700,000 workers overseas. It assembles iPhones in China both because wages are low there and because Apple’s Chinese contractors can quickly mobilize workers from company dorms at almost any hour of the day or night.
But low wages aren’t the major force driving Apple or any other American-based corporate network abroad. The components Apple’s Chinese contractors assemble come from many places around the world with wages as high if not higher than in the United States.
More than a third of what you pay for an iPhone ends up in Japan, because that’s where some of its most advanced components are made. Seventeen percent goes to Germany, whose precision manufacturers pay wages higher than those paid to American manufacturing workers, on average, because German workers are more highly skilled. Thirteen percent comes from South Korea, whose median wage isn’t far from our own.
Workers in the United States get only about 6 percent of what you pay for an iPhone. It goes to American designers, lawyers, and financiers, as well as Apple’s top executives.
American-based companies are also doing more of their research and development abroad. The share of R&D spending going to the foreign subsidiaries of American-based companies rose from 9 percent in 1989 to almost 16 percent in 2009, according to the National Science Foundation.
What’s going on? Put simply, America isn’t educating enough of our people well enough to get American-based companies to do more of their high-value added work here.
Our K-12 school system isn’t nearly up to what it should be. American students continue to do poorly in math and science relative to students in other advanced countries. Japan, Germany, South Korea, Canada, Australia, Ireland, Sweden, and France all top us.
American universities continue to rank high but many are being starved of government funds and are having trouble keeping up. More and more young Americans and their families can’t afford a college education. China, by contrast, is investing like mad in world-class universities and research centers.
Transportation and communication systems abroad are also becoming better and more reliable. In case you hadn’t noticed, American roads are congested, our bridges are in disrepair, and our ports are becoming outmoded.
So forget the debate over outsourcing. The way we get good jobs back is with a national strategy to make Americans more competitive — retooling our schools, getting more of our young people through college or giving them a first-class technical education, remaking our infrastructure, and thereby guaranteeing a large share of Americans add significant value to the global economy.
But big American-based companies aren’t pushing this agenda, despite their huge clout in Washington. They don’t care about making Americans more competitive. They say they have no obligation to solve America’s problems.
They want lower corporate taxes, lower taxes for their executives, fewer regulations, and less public spending. And to achieve these goals they maintain legions of lobbyists and are pouring boatloads of money into political campaigns. The Supreme Court even says they’re “people” under the First Amendment, and can contribute as much as they want to political campaigns – even in secret.
The core problem isn’t outsourcing. It’s that the prosperity of America’s big businesses – which are really global networks that happen to be headquartered here – has become disconnected from the well-being of most Americans.
Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital is no different from any other global corporation — which is exactly why Romney’s so-called “business experience” is irrelevant to the real problems facing most Americans.
Without a government that’s focused on more and better jobs, we’re left with global corporations that don’t give a damn.
This article was originally posted on Robert Reich's blog.
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ABOUT Robert Reich
ROBERT B. REICH, one of the nation’s leading experts on work and the economy, is Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. Time Magazine has named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written thirteen books, including his latest best-seller, “Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future;” “The Work of Nations,” which has been translated into 22 languages; and his newest, an e-book, “Beyond Outrage.” His syndicated columns, television appearances, and public radio commentaries reach millions of people each week. He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, and Chairman of the citizen’s group Common Cause. His widely-read blog can be found at www.robertreich.org.
33 comments on "The Problem Isn’t Outsourcing. It’s that the Prosperity of Big Business Has Become Disconnected from the Well-Being of Most Americans"
July 21, 2012 8:51am
America's competitive problems stem from the dollar being too strong.
America's resource problems stem from changes in the tax code that have allowed an over concentration of wealth increasing the power of the greedy.
July 20, 2012 10:22pm
OK. Here's a question. Where does Germany, Sweden, Japan, Korea, etc. get the money to fund their education and training for their workers and for building their infrastructure? Surely, these big, global companies don't care anymore about Germans, Swedes, Japanese and Koreans than they do for Americans.
One thing these countries don't do is spend money on the military like we do. If we spent what they spent as a percentage of GDP on the military we could cut our miliatry budget in half and have about $350 billion more to spend on education and infrastructure.
Oh, and that Apple executive who said that solving America's problems was not Apple's concern. Well, then buddy, Apple's security problems abroad are not America's concern and don't even think about asking the State Department to go to bat for you diplomatically in China, India or wherever else you decide to set up shop because any difficulties you run into abroad are not America's concern.
July 20, 2012 6:01pm
We don't have to dig too far back into our history to see that the blossoming of the middle class happened after the end of WW II. What made that such a fertile time for the massive redistribution of wealth?........... The GI Bill. Pure socialism when you think about it. Redistribution of wealth by the government. Not just passing out money, but investing in programs and people in such a way as to make for a positive return on the investment. It worked really, really well. Notice that the American economy did not return to the ugly class ordered system that allowed the great depression to drag on for more than a decade. (and remember it was only a depression for some people, not everyone). Notice that we built an infrastructure that was second to literally no one. We built a culture of innovation and development that is now just a fond memory. We put men on the moon. We had a primary education system that was unmatched. And we did it all while shoveling mountains of cash into the machinery of the Cold War, to dubious ends. But things are so much different now. Redistribution of wealth is bad.......Providing a modicum of health care to the poor is bad. The wealthy paying taxes that are even on par with middle class earners is bad. Funding schools at nearly any level is bad. Fixing our infrastructure is good but unaffordable.
You can call me a class warrior. I say, it is past due for the 1% to cough up the bucks and quit their miserable whining about it.
July 20, 2012 2:04pm
FactKneader says all that really needs saying. This problem has existed since God was the first CEO and made the first contract with Abraham. The businesses we need to fear are the ones who are systematically dismantling personal state income taxes. They have made the most progress in Washington, but they have targeted North Dakota, Missouri, Oklahoma, and other Midwestern states and use Texas (and sometimes
Alaska) as a model for success.
One thing that CEOs of big corporations ignore is the declining educational level all over the country, but especially in the states that are starving for revenue. Another thing is that not all states without income taxes have significant non-tax sources of revenue. (Texas and Alaska do, but Washington does not.)
Of course, many small businesses are run by people who think that CEOs of big corporations know everything, and their employees know even less than their bosses, so here we go down the slippery slope.
BTW, Bloomberg Businessweek (my Bible) says the same thing about outsourcing/offshoring as FacctKneader.
July 20, 2012 8:57am
Has anyone noticed that "GREED" is the Church of State? We are in an historic throw back (if we'd ever briefly escaped it) to popes, cardinals, bishops, priests and...sheep. My apologies to the one church I am familiar with; the rubrics of greed fit Fundamentalists in our time as well.
Separate church and state...get back to governance.
July 20, 2012 12:06am
“Our K-12 system isn’t nearly up to what it should be. American students continue to do poorly in math and science relative to other advanced countries” (Robert Reich).
Mr. Reich is referring here to international test scores. It is true that American students’ scores on international tests, while not terrible, are unspectacular. But American students from middle-class homes who attend well-funded schools rank among the best in world on these tests, which means that the quality of our school system is not the problem. The problem is poverty. Our overall scores are unspectacular because so many American children live in poverty (23 percent, ranking us 34th out of 35 “economically advanced countries”.
Poverty means food deprivation, lack of health care, and lack of reading material, all of which all contribute strongly to poor school performance.
The best way to improve educational achievement in the United States is to protect children from the effects of poverty, i.e. invest in expanded and improved breakfast and lunch programs, school nurses (at present there are more school nurses per child in low poverty schools than in high poverty schools) and improved school and public libraries, especially in high-poverty areas.
Instead of spending billions on new standards and tests, investing in protecting our children from the effects of poverty would significantly increase student achievement in all subject areas. More important, it is the right thing to do.
Note:
The impact of poverty was confirmed on the recent National (NAEP) science test, The average score for students from higher income family, those not eligible for free and reduced price lunch was 164, just below the demanding proficient level (170), Those from low income families, who were eligible for free/reduced lunch, averaged 137, just below the basic level (141).
Stephen Krashen
American students in well-funded schools …
Berliner, D. 2011. The Context for Interpreting PISA Results in the USA: Negativism,
Chauvinism, Misunderstanding, and the Potential to Distort the Educational Systems of Nations. In Pereyra, M., Kottoff, H-G., & Cowan, R. (Eds.). PISA under examination: Changing knowledge, changing tests, and changing schools. Amsterdam: Sense Publishers.
Bracey, G. 2009. Education Hell: Rhetoric vs. Reality. Educational Research Service
Payne, K. and Biddle, B. 1999. Poor school funding, child poverty, and mathematics
achievement. Educational Researcher 28 (6): 4-13.
Child poverty: UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre (2012), ‘Measuring Child Poverty: New league tables of child poverty in the world’s rich countries’, Innocenti Report Card 10, UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, Florence.
Poverty and hunger, health and access to books:
Berliner, D. 2009. Poverty and Potential: Out-of-School Factors and School Success. Boulder and Tempe: Education and the Public Interest Center & Education Policy Research Unit. http://epicpolicy.org/publication/poverty-and-potential
Krashen, S. 1997. Bridging inequity with books. Educational Leadership 55(4): 18-22.
Krashen, S., Lee, S.Y., and McQuillan, J. 2012. Is The Library Important? Multivariate Studies at the National and International Level. Journal of Language and Literacy Education 8 (1). http://jolle.coe.uga.edu/current-issue/
July 19, 2012 9:13pm
Don't trouble yourself about affording college for your children. Teach them to doff their hats and look at the ground as the new Royals roll by. The peasant minds muck-fed by Fux News are dragging us back to the Good Old Days of feudalism as their masters-to-be chuckle in contempt while they close the net with their irrational demagoguery. Sure we need a populace better educated in science and math but where will you find such people in a country in which more individuals believe in angels than evolution? Where anti- intellectualism and irrationality run rampant, where sports and entertainment, the junk food of the mind serve as did the Roman Circuses to distract the masses from observing the manipulations of the overlords. Unfortunately democracy is an unstable form of government. It never lasts for long on a historical scale and the U.S. may run the downhill course in record time!
July 19, 2012 3:41pm
Joe Specht: Yes, US corporations do owe the US Citizens and the US Government loyalty because the citizens pay taxes for and the governement provides the infrastructure and security that allows them to do business in a safe, stable and relatively non-corrupt environment.
This is also the reason that the corporations should pay US taxes as well.
I do NOT buy the idea that US Corporations outsource higher level jobs because there are not enough trained people in the US workforce. Again it's a matter of cheaper labor; 100K for a US engineer vs 10K for a Chinese one.
July 19, 2012 3:09pm
My only problem here is that once eery country in the world is on equal footing as far as education and skilled workers, what then? The competitive advantage will need to com,e from somewhere. That somewhere will be exactly like it was in George Orwell's _Animal Farm_: Work harder, work faster, and work for less.
July 19, 2012 2:09pm
Put another way big business’ greed is more important to the 1% than Americas’ well being. Or yet another way: big business owns big government and greed is more important to both than America’s well being.
So when are Americans going to short circuit this insidiously unhealthy connection with big government and big business?
Let’s see: the repeal of Glass-Steagall, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the mortgage meltdown of 2008, bank bailouts, failed health care, loss of jobs, failed budgets, failed immigration, Citizen’s United, NDAA, 40 years of drug wars, and a government who thinks it is OK to do drone murders without probable cause, just to name a few.
How much more evidence do we need? Isn’t there at least one substantial reason that all Americans should not be furiously mad at this “dog and pony show” of a government for?
Who is going to start talking about what we are going to do rather than what they continue to do?
We need to step out of this cycle of madness in order to stop it. More talk and debate will not save our country as it swirls around the already draining toilet.
We need to demonstrate to those who don’t give a damn about our well being that we do. We need to make it perfectly clear that we not only give a dam our well being, but we care deeply about our country and the futures of our children and grand children too.
Purposed “Millions Mad March” on Election Day 2012:
http://twopesos-protestfortheundocumented.blogspot.com/2012/07/millions-...
July 19, 2012 1:55pm
The dichotomy of America is the result of a political economic philosophy called globalism, which has subverted good conscience with avarice. The American public, like the peoples of other nations, is currently on it's own to face the forces arrayed against it through globalism. Americans are now viewed as any other population around the globe by the trans-global corporations, that is as a resource to be exploited. The governing bodies of America have been almost totally emasculated and can no longer offer any protection of a meaningful nature for the constituencies under it's care, such as the rights of it's peoples, environment, and public infrastructures. Witness the implementation of the new trans Pacific trade deal. The law seems to be rapidly following suit as it is changed from a philosophy of the logical just to one of enabler of corruptions. Control of the military has largely been usurped by a triumvirate. To name them, they are the omnipotent banker's cartel which first employed and still employs the fractional reserve system to gain financial dominance over all, the globalist corporations that have grown up around this cartel empowered with sovereign rights the equal of nations and their peoples by the various trade agreements, and the military industrial complex giving them the geopolitical power that comes from a gun barrel. Together they are advancing their agenda of total world hegemony and use the name of the United States of America as their calling card. Democracy in all it's forms is a hindrance to their ambitions of owning the world. They are not interested in governing, only owning. Governing and the subjugation of the masses can be left to the police state. All the prosperity, profits, and substance of the entire world are to be theirs to use or with hold are their discretion.
What can be done to avert a return to a dark age of injustices? My guess is that the world's population must come together as a whole in unified action to throw off the plutocratic rule. Be aware of the divisive tactics the elites use against us for their advantage. The plutocracy had it's beginnings three and a half centuries ago with the formulation of the fractional reserve banker's system. This evil system has been growing in wealth and power since then to the point of dominating all the governments of the peoples through financial misdeeds, blackmail,wars and murder. We must learn to control the only commodity we can control, that of ourselves. We must not enlist with the plutocracy's military,police or intelligence. We must not seek work in their financial machinery of debt enslavement. We must begin to build our own independent economy to meet the peoples basic needs until we amass enough influence to win. We must have a revolution that aspires to once and for all gets the basics right, with the number one goal of forever abolishing the control of money and credit by bankers and replacing that system with one that gives money as tool for the prosperity and benevolence of all peoples. Then and only then can we alter institutions like capitalism for the benefit of all living things on the planet. This is probably the final struggle to gain freedom for all mankind one way or the other. If we win history will have a glorious new beginning. If we loose history may well end as the globalists once declared it had.
July 19, 2012 2:37pm
You really sound like you know what you are saying. What are you going to do about it?
July 19, 2012 1:12pm
I don't disagree with Mr Reich's comments so much as I am again disappointed with his repetition of the Dem establishment mantra about teachers and infrastructure. In it I see more of the same ongoing semi-surrender to the oligarchs and corporatists, and continuation of the great transfer of wealth from the many to the few, including those few who profit from USA defense and homeland security spending approximately equal to the entire rest of the world.
July 19, 2012 12:49pm
The core of the problem is not really the educational system either. The core is the Federal Reserve, which is neither Federal nor a reserve. It is an cartel, a private monopoly consortium, unconstitutionally authorized by Congress to create money by making loans to the government (and to other banks) which the government could and should do for itself - without paying interest. Without interest on the national debt, which the "Fed" (read american central bank) created, the government could afford to pay for education, infrastructure etc. But then the 1% would lose their ability to control everything.
July 21, 2012 10:31am
"to create money by making loans to the government (and to other banks) which the government could and should do for itself - without paying interest"
That's pretty much what was done until the Basel Committee in 1974. That's when the central banks of Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States gave away their control and actually began the greatest transfer of wealth in mankind's history. You'll notice that that was when deficits everywhere started to materialise and mushroom.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_of_Ten_(economic)
July 19, 2012 3:07pm
@bixkeen
If that's true, please give a counter argument to Reich's argument that the real reason for lack of jobs in the USA is that we are not as skilled in science and other occupations as those in other countries. In fact, his argument is that in some countries, the wages are actually higher than they are here, but companies go to them before they go to the USA.
July 19, 2012 12:36pm
Why not tell the people hiding their money overseas and them wanting to bring that money back to the us without being taxed for it to move out of our country
and live somewhere else. I mean would we really miss them or the super rich
could leave as well along with their corporations so we can prop up someone else to build a new Apple or microsoft of gm or ford these people have won the monopoly game. Lets start over with totally new politicians and let someone else start the type of corporations that look at a win win for all employees and ceos. We dont really need any of the big business someone will fill the void
hopefully with less greed.
July 19, 2012 12:06pm
Does a corporation owe jobs to the citizens of its home country? Or should it be free to explore the world’s markets for the best or least expensive workers or suppliers? How free are we as a people if we prohibit corporations (which, after all, are simply amalgamations of people) from doing so?
If we strove to have the lowest corporate tax rate and the least burdensome regulation in the world, would corporations both large and small flock from other countries to the U.S.A.? Or, as I suspect, would they have difficulty finding workers that are sufficiently qualified or willing to work for lower wages as compared to overseas workers?
We can argue about reductions to corporate tax rates and the burden caused by regulations, but I think the most important point in Mr. Reich’s article is the lack of a sound education of many of our citizens. We have now tried a centralized educational system run primarily from Washington and by the teachers unions, and we have a less educated populace than we had at the time of the American Revolution or during all of the 1800s. Maybe, if the big-government lefties can stomach it, we should try a free market approach for a change. If the marketplace was successful enough to create those filthy, super-rich capitalists, isn’t it safe to say that allowing the free market to compete for quality in education is likely to improve the horrific results we are currently getting? You can blaspheme the profit motive all you want, but it has all throughout human history motivated people to play their A-game. Let’s give it a try.
Free Market Underdog
July 21, 2012 10:46am
You are so busy trying to get in a shot at teacher's unions which are already under right-wing attacks, that you're suggesting the "free market" be given the opportunity to take control of education.
First, there is NO SUCH THING as a "free market", only corporate welfare reaching for all those creamy tax dollars.
Second, education is as bad as it is precisely because the corporatocracy has already gutted state (and provincial) budgets.
Third, neither teachers NOR TEACHERS' UNIONS have control over curricula, budgets, or educational agendas.
You need to recognise who your real enemies are.
July 19, 2012 2:01pm
A good education was largely limited to the financial and social elite (i.e., the "free market approach") until relatively recently, so it's already been tried and the results were widespread poverty and limited social mobility. How many of us had grandparents or great-grandparents who were college educated?
But we have to look at how things have changed otherwise since that time. What stands out is the huge explosion in population, the entrance of women into the work force in a big way, and consequently the massive increase in the demand for jobs. At the same time, technology has made many jobs redundant, while our education system has remained basically static, not adapting. Part of the solution would be a basic change in the system, starting with a dual-track system for college prep. and technical training. If many students coming out of government-funded technical high schools were able to directly enter the job market, they would not have to get themselves into debt taking dubious courses to qualify for jobs. The college-bound students would benefit from courses that were tailored specifically for college prep.
A couple of years ago I went to a talk given by a former astronaut/NASA engineer, and when I asked him about the main cause of low numbers of college graduates in math, science and technology, he told me that students are entering college without the necessary background in math and science. No surprise there.
Another area we need to look at is qualified immigrants. Many foreign students who study in the US and are highly qualified in the sciences are not allowed to stay and work for American companies - which many of them would like to do - once they've graduated. This policy needs to change. Immigration has always been a major strength and a source of development in our country, and this must finally be recognized and supported.
July 19, 2012 12:20pm
In a sane, rational, caring, humane world that is SUSTAINABLE and STABLE, a corporation SHOULD BE concerned about the well being of humans and the environment in which it operates. In a dog eat dog world comparable to a jungle, then freedom means for anyone to do anything they can get away with. That means, buying humans, governments and the law to screw anyone but the CEOs/board members for whom the corporate bells toll. If you want a humane world for your kids, be concerned with the future and the well being of the world around you. If you want an animal-like world of hunting/be hunted, then chose the existing world tailored by the corporations. Problem is that world is crumbling and the sirens of war are beginning to sound louder. Only this time, people are aware of the escape mechanism of corporations: finding wars to get the attention off them to an external enemy and by killing millions of innocent people, their share plundered by the corporations. How long do you think corporate officers will survive if the playing field was even for all? And how long do you think the world should be controlled by those divorced from the reality of the 99.999995%?
July 19, 2012 11:47am
ExxonMobil runs that public service, tax deductible tv ad about how America went from # 1 in science and # 1 in math to #17 in science and # 25 in math, and that we need to improve the educational system because of it.
What ExxonMobil fails to mention is how they financially support the ultraconservative billionaire Kochroaches' ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) organization which is working hard to destroy public education in America.
ExxonMobil should STFU with their hypocrisy -- if they wanted to truly improve American science and math education they would:
1). Start paying taxes on their historical world record income of tens of billions of dollars/year;
2). Quit taking corporate welfare/taxpayers' subsidies of $5 Billion/year (when they are the most profitable business in he history of the world earning tens of billions of dollars/quarter);
3). Quit ALEC and donate the ALEC money they give to destroying public education through ALEC's political agenda to promising low-income students in the form of scholarships;
4). Invest some of their historic record profits in scholarships for promising low-income student;
5). Quit running hypocritical, tax-deductible, phony public service tv ads and donate that money for scholarships for promising low-income students;
6). Pay taxes on their historic world record profits so the money can fund our public schools (It was worth repeating!).
July 19, 2012 11:39am
"You Yanks are sooooo naive - you've had a coup d'etat, and you don't get it." So stated, and hit the nail on the head, my very bright Irish cousin. And, what better way for our 1% evil villainaire rulers to keep us enslaved and in their total control than to turn our education system here in the U.S. of (greed and power) A.(ddiction) into a not at all funny, Every Child Left Behind joke?
Yes, the basics (a.k.a. the 3 R's) are vital and not being accomplished, given our lower than low rating(s) worldwide. But, also vital and nowhere to be found, is critical thinking - i.e. how best to organize, question oneself and others logically, etc.. Of course, karlroving style dirty trickery MSDing (manipulating, spinning, distracting) does not do nearly as well in a populace that has been well educated and thinks 'outside the box'. Ain't gonna happen, as long as we are ruled totally by the 1%, and their pretend politician clowns.
My take on beginning to put into place the change we so desperately need:
No More Bushwhacking, No More Kochsucking, No Romney (Raw Money), and... No Obama (Oh Bomb Ah). Lots we gotta do to... UNDO THE COUP !
July 19, 2012 2:05pm
Great stuff...that should smack a few upside the head and shake 'em awake.
July 19, 2012 11:38am
Needed - bring back the tax rates prior to pres. Reagan. Those top rates are what kept American businesses strong. Rather than pay the exorbitant rates, they invested in their business, in wages for the workers, and benefits for those workers. They appreciated what a good worker was, and rewarded it.
Now, all they are is slime!
July 19, 2012 12:27pm
True that, brother. And no matter how much Secretary Reich protests, outsourcing IS a problem in this country. It started with Reagan's maquiladora "experiment" in Mexico. The Secretary was instrumental in passing NAFTA and creating that "giant sucking sound" that Ross Perot pointed out. The article should have been titled "It's not JUST about outsourcing..." But he's right about corporations. I've been pointing out to everyone I know that these multinationals are beholden to no-one (not even their shareholders!) and are undermining our government by buying and selling politicians, thwarting efforts at positive change, and selling out American workers in their pursuit of profits so cavalierly that we should try them for sedition. The Secretary also states, "Our K-12 school system isn’t nearly up to what it should be." He mentions that colleges are starved of government funds, but doesn't seem to realize that it is also afflicting our K-12 system. I realize he's a college professor, but surely he's aware that the problem of scarce funding is prevalent throughout our education systems. And your suggestions, Ronni85, would help right things.
July 19, 2012 11:14am
Perfect. Each entry deserves a forwarding to the White House. Given the GOP's increased disdain and filibustered austerity of government, the Obama campaign has a huge lift in making this unbelievable and radical vision understood. I'm also concerned about how they're positioning any Obama's support for a governmental role as part of the solution out of context, and damaging for the independent vote. We're having to defend what was usual and customary. Time to correct opinion and cite facts in an ad about Obama's small business success, protection under ACA, and tax benefit protection under $250,000. The GOP is claiming a hedge fund earning a billion but with few employees as a small business.
July 19, 2012 11:10am
Our culture of contentment, the 'ownership society,' and the worship of profit at all costs over people and the common good, is evidence that our decline is imminent. The examples given include the noted problems with education, health care, infrastructure needs, an aging population, and mass unemployment that leaves many with fewer and fewer options as they age. Couple that with a generation of college graduates owing huge debt for their degrees, and a corporate-state alliance that ignores or quells the voices of the multitude--a media that caters to news bites and a glossy/rosy sheen, ignoring our real social needs and problems--and you see a democratic republic crumbling before our eyes. Hopefully many more of us will take note, listen to the critical reasoning of thinkers such as Robert Reich, Paul Krugman and others, until an uprising occurs. How much more human suffering must we endure in order to create a sane and just society?
July 19, 2012 10:26am
I agree with you in large part Dr. Reich. But I also see an economy that followed Thatcher's policies in Brittan and out sourced all their manufacturing jobs leaving a country of low wage jobs with a very wealthy minority at the top getting filthy rich selling paper investments that amount to legalized gambling, not a sound foundation for any economy. The British population does have one distinct advantage over Americans in that they have long standing Socialist programs that guarantee their population some of the most important protections like practically free healthcare. This in comparison with the U.S. who saw 50,000 Americans die last year simply due to the fact that they couldn't afford healthcare insurance. Over the last thirty years we've watched a generation of young college educated Americans buy into a so-called ownership society that has created an everyone for themselves environment that requires leadership with psychopathic tendencies and a scorched earth policy as basic tools of business. Individuals that are totally devoid of any compassion for their fellow world citizens. This kind of behavior has no connection to a Democratic Republic with so-called Christian Values and continuing to pretend that it does is an exercise in mass denial. We can only hope that the next generation has seen the fate of the generation ahead of them with $50,000 college degrees leaving them in perpetual debt while they are forced to work at $14 an hour jobs as retail clerks and fast food servers. Maybe that generation will have the guts and integrity to stand up and make the changes required to return this country to fiscal and social sanity, the options have become very limited for the future survival of our Republic !
July 19, 2012 2:41pm
There is a basic confusion at the heart of American culture about the nature of individual freedom, which feeds into the Republicans' anti-government ideology. This strong, pervasive notion is of the individual who is free FROM annoying constraints, like background checks for gun sales, and demands, like paying taxes.
America was built on conflicting ideologies - the above "rugged individualism" of the Wild West, and the principles of the Enlightenment in which the individual participates in a social contract, by which each citizen recognizes and respects a set of obligations and rights shared by all.
This social contract has fallen into complete disarray over these 200-odd years, the fault lying both with its citizens and with the government, which has become, on the one hand, a mammoth machine that grinds on with a tweak now and then, on the other hand, a machine that has largely lost its purpose and become the tool of cronyism and absolute corruption.
The a-moral imperative for corporations is to do everything they can to game the "free market" system, and "jobs" are merely an occasional, necessary evil, by-product.
July 19, 2012 9:33pm
Very well stated.
The "John Wayne Rugged Individualism" amd "Wild West" thinking is on one side. On the other side is the "Let's Sing Kumbaya and All Hold Hands" thinking.
The trick is to balance the two.
At the root of all the comments is the idea that 'things can get better'. I'm not so sure. As George Carlin said, "Enjoy what you have now because it ain't gonna get any better." The House always wins.
The 1% have convinced most of the 99% that they can join their club if only they work hard. HA! To quote Carlin again, "It's a small club AND YOU AIN'T IN IT!" l (Joe the Plumber aside) lol.
July 21, 2012 10:59am
"The trick is to balance the two."
George Carlin also said "It's called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it".
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/American_Dream
July 19, 2012 10:47am
What you describe is another component of our American problem beyond the scope of Mr. Reich's article but extremely important and works in tandem. While America is 'expected' (or volunteers itself) to be a leader in world affairs and help other nations, many other nations are taking advantage of our distractions and military involvements and becoming competitive in the world economy. The example Mr. Reich gave about Germany having highly paid technician jobs probably came from their government support of their education system working in tandem with private business to produce an educated work force. The "ownership society" is a political pile of dung that was foisted on us by successive generations of politicians seeking to tell Americans what they want to hear, something like selling junk food instead of what they might not want to hear: that they'll have to get re-trained or have their kids go to specialist schools instead of our over-priced colleges or they and their country cannot continue with our American dream. First you dream, then you do.