Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich explains what's wrong with the economy in 2 minutes

Popeye [Peot1b] is right on this argument and people here defending rich people are very strange indeed, unless they themselves are rich.

Why do people care whether rich people’s taxes are high? Are people so brainwashed that they loose sleep over the high taxes of the rich, why don’t you worry about your own interest and cease crying for rich people.

Regarding this topic, it is clear that the Republican conservative obsession with coddling the rich, starting with the huge tax cuts by Ronald Reagan in the 80’s, was the beginning of the end of the health of the US economy. In-fact Reagan because of those huge taxes cuts had to eventually raise taxes on the middle class to make up for those stupid tax cuts for the rich he initiated. Of course conservative who idealize Reagan never mention that he raised taxes.

Now again George W. Bush cuts the taxes of the rich and again the economy nosedives for that reason and others relating to policies that coddle rich people e.g. the 2008 bailout of the banksters.

What people don’t realize is that every time the politicians, usually Republicans, cut taxes on the rich, the economy takes a dive. Check it out; it happened even in the period of the 20’s and 30’s in the great depression.

Now today, the revenue through taxes is less than any time in modern history, and while that is the case they are cutting services to poor Americans.

At the risk of sounding obtuse , we already know the reason why this is happening and why there will be no solution to fix the economic contagion but more failing solutions.

The people in charge don't want it fixed. They want this illusion swapped for another illusion ; The One World Economy. People simply need to mature and cooperate , just like the corporations do and shake off plutocracy.

Our systems have now become a farce where the moneyed fanatics subvert society and government , what their payed for media says becomes fashion and fact , their lobbyists become the true representatives of government as they make the real policy . Elected officials become just mendicants , brigands , sycophants and supplicants. All this needs to happen is the compliance of the people , without it it would never occur.

Originally posted by inforeal
Why do people care whether rich people’s taxes are high? Are people so brainwashed that they loose sleep over the high taxes of the rich, why don’t you worry about your own interest and cease crying for rich people.

Stop comparing the economy of today to yesterday's. Back then there wre no globalization. Now they can transfer assets at the click of a mouse. What's to stop them from moving to where they'll earn the most? How's that any different from an employee moving from one company to another or from one state to another in search of better pay? I'd rather my nation's rich remain in my nation. It is in my interest. Unless you want to put up an economic Berlin Wall. Good luck with that.

reply to post by Rockdisjoint


I watched enough of the first video where the guy makes his first point about using some particular source, when the fact is that there are numerous sources out there that give the information that Reich gives, so right off the bat he proves that he doesn't have a clue. It wasn't worth watching more. Yes, taxes have redistributed wealth, from the middle class into the bank accounts of the super rich. Those who are unaware of this, and continue to claim otherwise are pathetic puppets dancing to the beat of their puppet masters.

The second guy from the Austrian school of economics can't even read a calendar. He claims tax receipts dropped under Obama, when his own chart shows that they bottomed out in 2009, which is the last year of GW's last budget. Obama didn't get sworn in to office until the second month of 2009, at which time tax revenue was already in free fall, by this morons own chart. The first year of any budget signed by Obama is 2010, where, by this guys own chart, tax revenues began to increase again.

Nice videos demonstrating how ignorant of basic facts someone has to be to believe in voodoo, er free market economics.

The free market theory basically goes like this. "Well, we will get rid of the rules that prevent fraud (regulations), because of course markets self regulate, so the bankers won't be committing fraud on a massive scale, because the free market with force them to behave morally (cough)."

Then of course the bankers commit large scale fraud and destroy our economy, and the voodoo economics people claim it wasn't deregulation that did this, and if we had a true free market this wouldn't happen, which is the exact same argument the communist made about communism.

At what point do you people start to see the huge amount of evidence that free market policies not only don't work, but essentially destroy our economy, and by the way, the politicians preaching free market economics also are the same people writing laws to take away our liberties.

reply to post by eldard


You don’t read do you? If we raise taxes on the rich to the level they were paying in the Bill Clinton administration, which btw was in the globalization period, if they leave then . . . so be it, they can go to hell as far as I am concerned. We can get decent patriotic Americans to become business owners who aren’t selfish greedy pigs bribing the politicians.

If you want to surrender to the elite scam and be forced into serfdom, then go ahead, enjoy yourself.

reply to post by eldard


Um, sorry, but international trade has been going on for centuries, and globalization as well. Don't you know anything about history? Why do you think they imported all those slaves into S America? We fought wars and demanded policies that ended global slavery.

Under the con job of the free market, and global trade policies, and fixing of monetary policies, slave labor has again raised its ugly head. By your comments in your posts, apparently you love slavery.

Originally posted by eldard

Originally posted by Flatfish
Our current economic situation has a two fold cause and it includes both overzealous spending, especially when it comes to national defense and corporate subsidies, as well as the destruction of our tax base or revenue source via the Bush tax cuts, especially at a time when our nation was engaged in two wars. I am convinced that our current situation cannot be overcome without addressing both issues simultaneously.

edit on 18-6-2011 by Flatfish because: (no reason given)

Don't forget high fuel costs that ate up most of the lower middle class and the poor's budgets. Leaving them unable to pay their mortgages which led to the subprime crisis.

Then there's Bush's encouragement of cheap housing (which can only be possible with easy credit) for everyone. I thought only dems do that?

Can't tell if you're opposing what I said or not, but make no mistake, I agree with your post regarding sub-prime loans and the easing of requirements for home loan applicants during the housing bubble. It was all a trick used to entrap unsuspecting people into purchasing homes that they couldn't afford. On the other hand, I seriously doubt that the money spent on over priced fuel would have been enough to prevent many of those mortgage foreclosures, as the ballooning mortgage payments far exceeded the amount being spent on fuel.

IMO, the primary cause of over-priced fuel is due to greedy energy speculators on Wall St. just like the ones that orchestrated the economic collapse via their creation of mortgage backed derivatives knowing full well that the mortgage payment obligations would not be met in the future. (why do you think they took out insurance on their transactions anyway?)

Until such a time when the American people decide to incarcerate these white collar criminals instead of imposing monetary fines for their illegal activity, it will not cease. Fines mean nothing to these people. The more we fine them, the more ways they create to steal the money from the taxpayers. What we need is mandatory jail time for white collar crimes.

reply to post by inforeal


And of course the super rich won't leave the U.S., because the U.S. is still the most productive economy by far, and there is no way they are going to leave their golden goose.

It is really sad how completely brain washed people can be.

He's on to something but yet way off.

1/3rd of America will be dead in 9 years. Until then we must pay SS, Medicare, Retirements to a massive Baby Boomer Generation. We used to have a MASSIVE military and there are many retirements we promised those people. Plus we promised them free healthcare.

Plus we now have 100 million on Food Stamps. We've got 1/3rd of Mexico's work force in our country now expecting free school for their kids, free meals, Section 8, food stamps as well.

Plus we must spend nearly $100 Billion in DOD on R&D if we are to create the next new things to stay ahead of the 1.3 Billion Chinese who were just enlightened with new technology and factories we gave them for free.

Essentially we have created a halves, and halve nots and eliminated the middle class. Our rich and elite wanted to keep getting vast amounts of money and retirements and took great risk throwing our entire National Wealth into China. They hoped we could end up making them our friends. It backfired, they hate us with every molecule in their body and are now working with Russia to create a new world order.

Leaving us insolvent and bankrupt. How could we get back the Hundreds of Trillions we poured into China?

Are we going to go to war against them? If so..we die. When we die Russia will leap on Europe like a rabid dog. Indonesia will leap on Australia.

Our entire problem was created was when President Nixon decided to pour the US National Wealth into China.

It's Nixon's fault.

reply to post by poet1b


To let the elite stomp on you because you fear they will leave the country is to me ridiculous since as you point out, they like it here where strangely poor and ordinary people idolize them so much that they go to bed worrying about the tax bill of the rich! Indeed, as you said, that is brainwashing IN SPADES.

As for some of the elite . . . the most destructive of the so-called rich people should be put in jail and their wealth confiscated; like the scammers behind the bailout such as Goldman Sachs. But since they bribe the politicians so well, its unlikely we will ever see them in jail were they belong.

I want to point out that I don’t hate rich people or the elite; I just don’t like those who get in a powerful position because of their wealth and then abuse those of less rank. (They should remember what they learned in school about the French Revolution!) They may create jobs but without the workers they couldn’t make a dime, therefore they should respect and honor ordinary people who have made them rich.

That said, I commend and respect honest decent capitalist and business owners who understand that we are ONE NATION UNDER GOD and need each other.

Originally posted by inforeal
reply to post by eldard

 

We can get decent patriotic Americans to become business owners who aren’t selfish greedy pigs bribing the politicians.

Good luck with that.

reply to post by poet1b


But not in the level they are now. And not as easy as now. Before China was just a factory. Now German luxury car makers are scrambling to get a share of the pie. They have models specifically just for China. And some models were debuted in China motorshows.

Originally posted by VAPatriot
Good find. But, Nobody should have to pay 70% taxes.

In less then 3 minutes he could have included the corrupt politicians and the Federal Reserve.

please show me one person that paid that 70% tax and i'll believe you. you can't...why?...because people in that tax bracket write down a large portion of that 70% due to tax breaks for the wealthy class.

reply to post by Pervius


Forget Nixon. Can you guess why Global Crossing had to spend $3.5 billion to build a fiber optic to India, then practically give away that network to the Indians under the guise of bankruptcy? Hint: it involves talking to a headset in front of a computer.

reply to post by Pervius


And inforeal.

I think that is a pretty good perspective.

What gets me about the boomers, is that they screwed everyone who came after them. If you graduated high school before 1977, you got into to the market place just before everything got crazy, and with very little effort could be one of the haves, verses the have nots. Everyone else after has been screwed by crooked business practices, and a job market locked up by the large numbers of boomers.

They then put their full support behind tax and business policies that gave all the advantages to themselves, and have screwed every generation that came after them. Now they are old, and think they can have their cake and eat it too. Good luck with that.

Things I would disagree with:

China doesn't so much hate us, they just want control of their corner of the world. That is a whole different topic.

Russia does not have the man power to over run Europe. I see Russia, Eastern Europe, and Western Europe coming together to face their real enemy, Islam.

The U.S. will get through this. U.S. domination of the worlds economy and technology is far from over. We continue to gather the brightest and most ambitious from around the world. I think it will be the ICs who will be the biggest losers in the end.

I think the people clinging to free market ideology are slowly starting to face the fact that it is an unrealistic ideology, that they deeply believed in, so it is very difficult to admit how badly they were fooled by the concept, and it will be a long process of denial and anger before acceptance.

reply to post by poet1b


reply to post by poet1b

Why isn’t the U.S. economy accelerating, especially with the corporate sector in such good shape?

Perhaps because corporate earnings aren’t being driven by strength in the U.S., but to some degree by its weakness. Companies have shifted production and sourcing overseas to cut costs and to tap demand in faster expanding markets. Capital spending in emerging markets like China and India has more than doubled in the past decade, and surpassed developed markets last year for the first time, HSBC estimates.

economistonline.muogao.com...

It's really sad how clueless (and apparently delusional) people can be.

Originally posted by poet1b
reply to post by Pervius

 

China doesn't so much hate us, they just want control of their corner of the world. That is a whole different topic.

Yes. They hate Japan more. They really do.

The U.S. will get through this. U.S. domination of the worlds economy and technology is far from over. We continue to gather the brightest and most ambitious from around the world. I think it will be the ICs who will be the biggest losers in the end.

Not for long. As India becomes more developed, Indians will stay put in their country. Or Indians in other countries will return to their homeland.

Let's see. Germany, Japan and now Korea makes better cars than you do. The Brits make better weapons than you do and better at financials than you are. Asians are better at electronics. You've lost plane-making to the Europeans. Russians make better rockets than you. America should just stick to cloud computing.

And since Americans are the best at whining and bickering with each with other, anyone wanna bet when it will split into parts?

The guy is a good illustrator!

But all he could really fit into 2 minutes was the fact that the huge majority of the US population has been weakened economically. He didn't get into what caused this.

So he is going to propose that the people, through their government, start stealing all the money back from the rich and then pay it back to "us" by some method to be determined. That's the whole liberal line. And it doesn't solve anything. Because, obviously there was criminality involved in bringing this whole thing about, and unhandled, the same criminals will just find some other way to do it. That's the huge liberal blind spot. But of course the right wing has this, too. It's going to take more than a political solution to get us out of this one!

You can't fight crime with more crime. We have to increase the level of honesty all around or we won't get anyplace.