Read all this stuff from my liberal confused friends and some of the posts here - blaming the evil greedy bankers for the financial collapse-- but what? The reason the banks lost billions and needed to be bailed out because they followed your idea of kind and friendly financial policies. THe banks essentially loaned money to anyone that wanted to buy a house. No evil requirements like income statements, or three years tax returns, or a positive credit rating - heck they didn't even require a down payment! Thanks to Frank and Dodd -- the government lenders were buying any loan the banks wanted to make and in fact they even required them to make these loans to low income people so they could buy a home. Oddly -- low income would suggest they could not afford to pay for a home but -- heck why should only people who save money, pay their bills and have a job get to buy homes-- right my liberal friends?

So what a surprise the banks and the government lenders end up losing trillions of dollars and driving the economy into a deep recession. Why? Because your buddies in congress thought that it was discriminatory to not lend money to poor people. This started with Clinton and is essentially responsible for the improving economy that he is always touting-- he started this easy loan process, reduced the CONFORMING loan requirements and the housing industry boomed, peoples home values improved and they borrowed money against the increased home values- and CLinton looked like a smart guy. ALso cutting taxes helped-- it always does of course.

This continued under Bush- and his adminstration tried to reduce the lending but didn't have the guts to really tighten up the lending rules as it would have slowed the economy and housing prices and after-all he is a politician that wanted to get re-elected. So he wimped out and hoped that the bubble would last until he was out of office-- and he almost made it too.

So why the heck are all you liberals down on the banks? THey couldn't have been more liberal with their money for years-- egalitarian banking -- everyone was happy-- until the borrowers couldn't make the payments of millions of homes-- the prices dropped and the rest is history.

Think back to those old westerns with the mean banker in the small western town trying to foreclose on the nice sweet widow with three-- okay-- let's make it eight kids--- and of course he was portrayed as this evil money grubbing selfish guy--

But -- actually all the money he was lending was the money of all the other families it town-- and it represented their life savings -- his job was to protect those depositors savings so they could feed their children. The dead farmer guy should have bought life insurance or sold the house when he got sick but that mean banker was doing the right thing--

Banks are not suppose to social engineer -they are suppose to take depositors money and lend it against collateral to assure they get the money back!

Did you know that Obama and his injustice department are now suing Bank of America for not making low income loans in low income areas? They are going to fine Bank of America something like $600 million dollars unless they meet some percentage of loans to low income people-- AGAIN!!!!!

And who was it that allowed banks to trade derivatives and securities with their depositors money-- ?? WHO -- CLinton-- he even said last week he regretted allowing banks to build these kinds of portfolios- this lead to mortgage pools of low quality loans, and the losses of the banks-- which then you and I paid for -- at least the Chinese loaned us money to prop up the banks.

One last aside-- everytime the government gets into businesses-- they will fail-- GM will be broke again shortly-- and every alternative energy investment OBama has made as baby venture capitalist will also go broke. Every single one.

What makes you liberals so enamored with government running stuff-- name one program they run efficiently? Just one?

Try thinking rather than obsessing with my spelling--

Successful entrepreneurs all have great concern about the welfare of their employees-- often to their own detriment. But the employees don't drive or create businesses-- they don't have their name on the 10 year building lease- they don't co-sign the bank loans -- employees can quit and walk away with essentially no notice at all. Smart entrepreneurs nurture and train and take care of their employees -- most do -- and this is how they build successful companies but to try and downgrade the importance of the entrepreneurs that risk everything they own and often pay a high cost in personal time and emotional commitment is absurd.

I find interesting that you want a world without competition-- where you don't have to compete-- sounds great-- but while you build this cosy little world the Chinese are working their asses off to make products cheaper and better and faster than you and eventually you will be out of business completely.
What you don't understand is that every business in the real world is barely able to stay in business- to build products that are cheaper and better than your competitors is extremely difficult-- unless of course you have the government protecting you in some way. But even then this protection eventually will crack in the face of competition from around the world.

Everyone on this website acts as if there is an alternative to capitalism-- there isn't. The Russians proved this with their 100 year experiment-- and they are very smart people-- but their system collapsed. Can you tell me how they should have run their experiment differently to make their socialism prove successful at providing their people with better lives and emotional contentment? Then we have the Greeks and French and Italians and so on-- they have now borrowed as much as anyone will loan them and they are raising their taxes to 75% -- so that is maxed out and there unemployment is rising to double digits and climbing-- eventually they will have to devalue their currency to make their debts small in terms of absolute currency values-- and then even the prudent people in their countries who saved money will be financially destroyed as their currency declines in buying power.

And the plan of all the liberals that follow this website is essentially to follow these European economic models into financial ruin?

You understand that if Obama was allowed to tax these rich people to some rate he would like-- say 70%-- the amount of money raised would be meaningless to paying off this insane level of trillions in debt-- right?

He protrays this taxing the rich as some sort of solution when it won't have any real impact on the borrowing that he has done over the last three years.

THe simple truth is that the PLAN for the economy that Reich and his friends espouse is just absurd-- there just are not enough rich people to tax enough to provide the 95% of the remaining population with all the free stuff they would like to get.

When was the last time you got a job offer from a poor guy? And you want to make all the rich people poor too?

Obama- Spreading poverty equally since 2008-- that is his plan?

Lastly-- who is going to pay back all this money -- kids-- who don't even get their hands on the money to spend on themselves.

Isn't it the most unfair and unjust and downright horrible that we are spending money that is borrowed today on a 30 year basis and expect kids who can not vote, cannot defend themselves in any way from us spending money today that we expect them to pay back from their earnings in 30 years from now?

You are part of the competitive world-- everytime you shop for food or clothes or anything you of course seek the best product for the least number of dollars -- you reward the company that is best run and best managed and which keeps their prices low-- and therefore help destroy businesses that are badly run and benevolently pay their employees more dollars in compensation than the company who's product you put on the counter to buy.

If you want to be a true SOCIALIST-- and bleed for the employees that are best treated by their employers -- I want you to purposely buy the products that are the most expensive for their value-- reward the company that hires a lot of extra employees and pays them generously - well beyond their competitive salary levels-- and gives them lots of time off -- -- these are the companies you should support with your wallet--

I bet Reich is a superduper shopper and prides himself on finding "Deals" - he shops for a new tv for weeks before buying --- but he says that companies treat employees badly but he rewards those that keep their salaries low so they can price products competitively. If you shop for the lowest price you are rewarding the employer that keeps his salary costs down -- -you are an engine of capitalism,

Why-- because it is inherent in the true economic world-- you can wish the economy was not competitive but it always is -- it just is that way.

Equal opportunity-- not equal results--

By the way - real entrepreneurs have no time fo racism -- or bigotry-- they will hire the best person for each job at the lowest cost necessary to keep them at the job.

Trickle down works-- clearly it works-- that is how America was built into the most powerful nation and economy on earth-- because we gave people equal opportunity-- anyone can start a business here-- while in old Europe the Queen handed out all the business opportunities to her relatives and friends-- which was also true under old Russian Communism.

The fact is there is nothing to ARGUE about -the economic system Reich talks about is absolutely always doomed to create horrendous economic pain and suffering - even starvation as in -- oh YEAH--

NORTH KOREA -- they have a government that controls everything-- and compare their economy to South KOREA --

ANd then look at East Germany and West Germany-- same example of YOUR system and the free enterprise system--name me one example where socialism didn't lead to financial and horrible human suffering--- name one..

And when East Germany joined West Germany - within just a few years the people in East Germany were eating better, living better, had better health and were living happier more fulfilled lives.

Listen to history-- stop pretending that socialism - spreading the wealth around has ever worked or that it ever will work -- it won't --

Myth #3

We have a free market capitalist economy: Bailouts, subsidies, monopoly powers, price fixing, kickback schemes, and political bribery as a standard operating procedure to gain favorable legislation are not features of a “free market“. In fact, our “best and brightest” no longer strive to the overall benefit of our system, but merely to game it, often doing everything in their power to sabotage enterprises in order to reap huge profits from their fall. That's not free market capitalism. That’s conspiracy, collusion and fraud.

A more unadulterated form of free market capitalism exists in "Communist China".

“The subjects of every state ought to contribute toward the support of the government in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state." Adam Smith. Wealth of Nations 1776

You people are truly delusional. Europe is about to fall into economic ruin because of this absurd concept of massive government redistribution of wealth but you want us to follow them down the rabbit hole to financial ruin. The Soviet Union ran your socialist foolishness experiment for nearly 100 years and finally collapsed into economic chaos -- as predicted by AYn Rand in the 1950's - and only by her. Then the Chinese decided to try a little Darwin Capitalism and low and behold their economy is growing at nearly 10% a year-- all the jobs have shifted from America to their people and their population is experiencing a renaissance of wealth and is now loaning you fools money to pay for your kind hearted public giveaways. What you fail to understand is that an economy is not a zero sum game-- that is there is not a fixed pie of wealth which is divided between rich and poor-- your goofy idea that if there are more rich people there are fewer dollars for poor people is childish. Entrepreneurs create wealth-- they find products that society needs and wants and they produce them at the best price and deliver them efficiently and in a free market people freely exchange their money for these products and services-- if business delivers products that people want money flows into their business because it is the most efficient and cheapest product-- no one stole any money from people at Apple-- you fellows writing these moronic comments likely stood in line to buy your last Iphone-- they enriched your life and made you more efficient and you gladly handed over your cash to Apple for their products and by each person making these decision to make that exchange gave billions of dollars to Apple to produce new research and new products and to expand their business and in this process creating real organic jobs for thousands of people all over the world. One fellow suggested the problem with our economy is that we allow free trade-- another moronic statement-- if Apple was forced to produce their Iphone here in the states instead of costing $300 it would likely cost $600 -- and many people could not afford the benefits of this fantastic technology-- in fact only the RICH people could own an Iphone. Why don't you ask why they make these phones in China? Why? Because all these stupid labor laws, and business restrictions and legal liabilities and on and on-- make it impossible to produce products here on a world wide competitive basis. No American CEO wants to produce their products in China-- it is a lot more work, the language barrier is a nightmare and there is shipping logistics and on and on-- but if they produce their products at higher prices their business will not be competitive and eventually go broke. All of you people writing these comments-- and this child minded Reich-- likely shop real hard for the lowest cost television and for the best deal on computers and groceries and toothpaste and on and on-- and you are right to do so -- and you are rewarding the best run and lowest cost provider of the best product for you -- and by doing this you are better off and the company you patronage makes money-- and grows and likely creates one of these evil rich people you so despise. And what does this rich person do with this wealth? They can spend it-- build a new home perhaps-- or invest in their business or a new business or they invest it in other companies by buying their stock-- or they loan it by depositing it in a bank or by buying bonds-- all of which helps other businesses grow. IF the government takes these honestly earned dollars by raising taxes this money is then spent very inefficiently and provides almost no permanent or sustainable growth to the economy.

America's history and hundreds of years of growth -- leading to what was the richest country on Earth was "trickle down" -- yes - it works obviously. Ask the Chinese if it works. Reich and his ilk are just annoyed with capitalism because this Darwinian economic system rewards men and women that start businesses making mundance products of many types with success, wealth, and even power-- often people with little college or often with average IQ - but guys with all these smarts like Reich end up college professors who in their mind are horribly undercompensated for all their intelligence and smarts-- so therefore there must be something wrong with capitalism!

Here is your final problem - if you have your way and create this redistribution system it is doomed to collapse. It might take 10 years or even 50 years-- but it will absolutely collapse-- it is not sustainable-- and they millions of people will horrible poverty and yes- sadness.

Thatcher said it simply enough- eventually you run out of other people's money!/

Europe is already there -- they have 75% tax rates on the so-called rich and massive government handouts that finally required borrowing that has maxed out their credit cards. So now they can't raise taxes anymore and they can't borrow anymore money-- so finally their economies will collapse-- their currencies will devalue and the people that will be hurt the most are the lower income people who will see their life savings dwindle to nearly zero buying power.

I encourage you to buy a copy of Atlas Shrugged for all your children-- please do this!!! Many of these college children will finally understand why government control always results in unequal opportunity - with the wealth now being directed to the friends of the government and the government will step between individuals and products and services to control where and how you spend your money for products. THe cost of these sanctioned products will never fall in price-- they will rise-- and rise and rise - - your freedom to spend your money freely will disappear in one product and then another. Everyone will be poorer-- as their money will buy less and less-- the new rich will be government selected -- rather than selected by YOU -- and your freedom to direct the path of your purchases.

Yes-- please give out as many copies of Rand's works as possible-- I love reading these delusional and inbreed foolish comments on this website-- amazing how so many smart people can be so really short-sighted and downright stupid.

Just as an aside-- to show how nutty you liberals are-- sorry - progressives-- - I know you all hate Bush because he was so mean that he allowed water to be poured down the noses of a handful of really bad terrorists to obtain info on possible new attacks-- horrible-- and he put a lot of these folk into a prison in Cuba-- where they play soccer by the way-- but I digress-- did you notice OBama has not put a single new prisoner into this prison? Why? Because he weekly is deciding who should be killed by a drone attack in a growing number of foreign countries-- every week -- he personally decides who will die-- and clearly is killing many children and innocent neighbors as well. He kills them rather than capturing them. Heck-- he even assasinated Bin Laden-- all by himself. Then he started his own war in Libya -- bombed it relentlessly-- no congress involvement-- no discussions with the UN-- just decided during a golf game to bomb a country all by his lonesome. But- he won't release the justice department legal brief that he claims gives him this authority to kill people around the globe on his whim.

You are all very entertaining-- and Reich most of all. BAck when he had a government job - laughably to create job growth-- I heard him say on TV once--
"businesses exist for the benefit of their employees" -- genius-- the best one sentence summary of communism ever uttered. Businesses that exist for their employees are doomed to bankrupt-- and to prove this in real time-- wait and watch GM blow-up once again -- Obama can't keep interest rates crazy low forever and he can only buy so many Chevrolets for the government-- I think he is getting close to one car for every federal worker -- and no investor-- including you guys-- will loan GM money because you have already seen what happened to the previous bond holders that loaned money to GM.

And besides GM failing again-- every single company that Obama has given government money to will fail-- every single one. Wait and watch-- OBama the guy who has never had a job running anything is playing venture capitalist- with my and your money?

Oddly-- Obama likes to beat up on Romney- because he funded businesses with his own money and the risk capital of willing partners-- who he made millions for in the process and which created many companies that have made wealth for their shareholders for decades and given paychecks to tens of thousands of employees. But -- Obama wants to just villlify him for the few companies that failed--

Obama thinks we should be more concerned with Romney does with his own money than what Obama does with our money--

I leave you with on thought to ponder--

"I never got a job offer from a poor guy" --

HAVE YOU?

Grow up - the world isn't easy--

It is time for us to get real. There is just too much elite thinking going on here. Let's bring it down to earth. Here goes: Mr. Romney wants to be president because he wants to be president. He has no desire to govern. Besides, Republicans don't govern, they rule. He makes noises that sound like he actually has a philosphy, he doesn't. His only plan is to follow the instructions of the funders of his campaign. Although Dr. Reich usually gets it right, I must disagree on this. There is no Social Darwinism involved. That would be giving them too much credit. They want what they want because they want it. In their mind, that ought to be enough reason. History has not been learned in this country but it has been distorted. Hoover followed the same line of reasoning as the GOP advances today. That brought on the Great Depression of the 1930's. FDR relented in 1937 and eased up on stimulus programs and the nation slid back into depression. The war created a situation where there was one major customer for production and that was Uncle Sam. During the 4 years of WWII the money supply quadrupled and there was nothing to spend it on. Everyone who could work and was not in service, worked full time. That situation produced 30 years of unprecidented economic growth. Then came Mr. Reagan and the far right thinkers. They destroyed the unions in order to lower wage costs and to reduce the influence they had in politics. They harped on the "libral media" until they backed down and tried to appear neutral. Today the media is "he said, she said." and the truth doesn't matter. The monied interests are only concerned with their own welfare. The peasants will have to shift for themselves. Without unions, wages will be whatever they want them to be. And far too many voters have no clue as to what is being done to them. The Tea Party seniors are working toward their own demise. It's nuts! Want the rest of this tale? Read Chris Hayes "The Twilight of the Elites" Take a look at the Ryan budget and ask, Why is it proposing to increase defense spending while cutting most everything else? Just who, or what, are we defending against that requires this massive military complex? There is no armed force in the world that would dare challange us. Even a coalition of several nations would be hopelessly out gunned. Most of the well armed nations are our allies and trading partners. But the defense industry needs the work, I guess, so lets buy some more F-35's that don't work and maybe a few more monster aircraft carriers at $11 billion a pop. We have 12 now and no body else has any, so a few more can't hurt. It's a sick joke and we, the people, are the brunt.
OH, BTW, if Obama could have seen any way to get those early measures past the filibuster, he would have. So he was forced to settle for what he could get. Remember, 135 filibusters in 111th Congress and 85 in the 112th Congress.
Want to change the outcomes in DC? Elect Democrats to Congress and re-elect the President. And remember, the effort to suppress the vote is in full swing, so help those who are affected by this charade get what they need so that they can vote. Stop trying to sound like you are some wise old sage and get with the program!

I am sure that others see the irony in the religious right embracing Social Darwinism and rejecting Darwin's Theory of Evolution.

When are the Progressivs going to admit that Obama is a Marxist (Read or the movie "Obamas American - 2012" His intent is to continue the job of bringing American down thus allowing the New World Order to prevail. Roneny and Ryan are fools. Lower the taxes on the rich to they can "invest" and thus "create" jobs? If that be the case, lets reduce the taxes on the rich to ZERO so that we can have a bananza of new jobs! What lunacy! We are in this mess because American workers have been reduced to the lowest paid and yet most productive in the family of Industrialized nations! Why? Exporting of factores and jobs to Asia via the "Free Trade" scam,(supported by Both Parties) ,importing millions of workers via legal and illegal immigration that flooded our Labor Market (supported by Both Parties,) which Per the Law of Supply and Demand, guaranteed rock bottom wages, AND, at the same time, removed all the rules for honest banking established by Roosevelt in the 30s' (supported by both Parties) which guaranteed a repeat of 1929 only this time the situation is much worse - We are bankrupt,the dollar is on the verge of collapse, we have exported 50% of our factories, the generators of wealth, and we now have a nation where 1/3 the populaton is 3rd world and havent a clue what America was and is supposed to be all about.
Solution: Immediately re instate Glass Steagal, nationalize the Big Banks, including Goldman-=Sachs, and liguiddate them and write off all the phoney money they have created, Immediately bring to trial all the crooks at the Big Banks and Wall Street and give them life sentenances for "Betraying the Sacred Public Trust which they were supposed to uphold. Out- law all specualtion on Wall Street and reduce it to its proper role of financing new enterprises, slap on import tariffs selectively and gradually bring all our factories back, cease all immigration and depose of illegal aliens simply by enforcing Employer Santions thus reducing our bloated labor force, re-establish all banking rules that were eliminated including the key rule of Glass-Steagal, raise minimum wage to at least $ 16.00 per hour (not enough but a good start given that, in todays dollars, the minimum wage in US in 1963 was $ 12.00 per hour,) come down hard on fraud within the Welfare System, and then drastically refomring our election processes, and rules of operating for the Politicians, includeing total reform of electorial process outlawing all advertizing but making mandatory honest resumes and statement of their policies and agenda and mandaroty true debates, all of this paid by by the Fed also including putting them under Contract making them susceptiple to immediate expulsion for breaching the Contract. Last but not least, put millions to work with the impletation of Newapa, the grand water project bringing water from the North to the West and Midwest of American and even Mexico Lastly, eliminate all Parties in our Political process. They are nothing but power focused to a few. We need a disperaion of power to the many
We either get real or we are going to perich

The problem is, there are people we need to vote who do not understand that this really is a political philosophy, and a dangerous one for a democracy to espouse. We don't have much time to teach them about it. Hmm.

Generation Xers and younger (heck, the younger half of baby boomers and younger) don't know who Ayn Rand was, or what she represented. I was shocked that I never knew Alan Greenspan was a devote of Ayn Rand until it was too late. So here is my suggestion.

What they DO know is "Dirty Dancing." Remember "Robbie the creep"? The guy who got Penny pregnant and told "Baby" that "Some people matter and some people don't," then offered her his well-thumbed copy of "The Fountainhead" by Ayn Rand just before she poured a pitcher of cold water down his trousers.

THAT is a reference they would remember. ... Anybody listening over at Comedy Central?

"Elitist Socialism" is a good term but applies to only one end of the social spectrum. "Social Darwinism, advanced by Sumner, as Reich points out, as well as Herbert Spencer, Sumner's ideological partner in crime, was a term created to cover the "whole" spectrum of society's inhabitants. Soon, millions of elderly citizens will march off to the polls, in their Medicare provided walkers, park their cars and hang their "government issued" disabled placards on their rear view mirrors and then proceed to vote for a pair of "silver spooners" who, if elected, will do everything in their considerable power to reduce or deny the benefits these seniors rely on to exist. Evidently, the "rear view mirrors" are indelibly obfuscated. If Obama had lived up to the rhetoric of his '08 campaign pledges, this election wouldn't even be close...despite the omnipresent feelings of racism that continue to plague the country. Fascist or Fascist Lite...both brewed on Wall St. "Romyan"...very clever!

One reason that Ryan and Romney can promulgate such a plan is that the "other side" has been very deliberately muted. Over the past two decades unions in the U.S. were gutted -- and they were really the only mass movement in which poorer people had a voice. With them gone, no one speaks for their interests anymore, including a pretty hefty chunk of the Democrats.

Unless they start to take to The Hamptons with pitchforks, I don't see much changing....

I am appalled at how brazen the GOP is in its irresponsible attitude towards consequences of resorting to force to solve social problems resulting from excessive concentrated power/wealth. How could they be blind to massive turmoil here and abroad if they pursue their dogmatic stand on cutting taxes for the wealthy, spending more on militarization/wars, but cut funds from the safety network of those who have lost the most in the last 30 years from GOP programs to the richest among us? AND how dumb our citizens have become to not see through the GOP agenda? It seems the denser segment of the elite has been at work to dismantle this country's foundations as some of us know it. I don't see anything but mayhem, destruction, blood, tears and gore at mass scale if the GOP course is pursued. We will be entering the DARK ages again. Perhaps the Mayans were right!

Actually, Social Darwinism was just another lame attempt to justify a return to the days of Southern plantations tilled by sharecroppers and slaves while the owners lived as landed and hereditary aristocrats. You can find even more bizarre justifications for such a feudalistic system coming out of the deep South in the run-up to the Civil War.

After the reconstruction failed, they used poll taxes to prevent anyone who was poor (not just former slaves) from voting, and made sure they stayed poor by keeping taxes too low to pay for schools or anything else that might give anyone a hand up. In those days the Democrats were the party of the South and the Republicans the party of the North (recall Lincoln was a Republican).

Despite that curious twist, that fact of the matter is simply that the Civil War never really ended. To paraphrase Carl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz, it has merely been continued by other means. They want to enslave us all and they think we're dumb enough to let them. And if they're right, it is only because we've forgotten our history.

READ "AMERICAN NATIONS" BY COLIN WOODARD NOW!!!

It's unfortunate that Darwin's name is attached to the social philosophy that has become known as Social Darwinism. Perhaps I am wrong, but I have understood it to mean the view that those who succeed in life are superior, and those who fail are inferior. The successful are thus the "fittest," and the failures are unfit. So, according to this view, the poor should be left to die, as they are unfit, and there's no point in the fit troubling themselves about the unfit. That is not their idea of "natural selection" at all.

Yet that does, to my mind, represent the views of Romney. Romney is "proud of his success," and speaks as if he alone is responsible for it, ignoring the fact that he was born into wealth and privilege and never had to work his butt off to go to college. Thus, any programs that help the poor or the needy would just create an "entitlement society," which he severely attacks the President for doing.

I know less about Ryan, but I have read some of the particulars of his budget proposal, which seems to be very much in line with Romney's views, so I would agree that they seem to be the "Social Darwinist" candidates of the GOP this year.

Of course, they will have to conceal the righteous selfishness of their views from the hoi-polloi, but all they have to do is attack the President and give them such soothing phrases as "put America back to work," and so on, something they couldn't care less about.

I am still amazed that the GOP can still muster candidates who continually support the view that lowering taxes on the super-rich somehow can benefit the people who work for salaries. It never worked under Reagan or Bush I or II, so why should it work under Romney and Ryan? Our government's own statistics clearly showed that under Reagan and W the rich got richer, the poor got poorer, and the middle class lost ground, yet Reaganophiles tout the "Reagan Miracle" to support their belief in "voodoo economics." I think the American people have had quite enough of being "trickled" on, but it remains to be seen if they're aware of it.