Should We Abolish Billionaires? | Robert Reich
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- Опубліковано 30 чер 2019
- Former Secretary of Labor explains why need to reform our economy to combat inequality.
Watch More: Everything You Need to Know About the New Economy ►► • Everything You Need to...
There are a lot of financial laws that need to change. First we need to go to publicly funded elections and eliminate professional lobbyists.
Timothy Powell I couldn’t agree with you more my good man! Many more ethical corrections also need to be made.
Yes, publicly funded elections are a vital first step. But there are many more steps needed to free the economy.
In the absence of professional lobbyists the monied class still has obtuse influence by being able to play regions against each other. A fully publicly funded politician will be elected based on jobs in their constituency. The monied class dangles jobs on the proviso they get labour, environmental and tax concessions.
And a politician is not blind to the possibility of a cushy private sector job in their future. A subtle wink from the factory owner and regulatory concessions will be coming their way.
So long as wealth is allowed to accumulate to corrosive proportions greed will work its way into the system. It will demand fundamental changes which harshly punishes accumulation and overtly rewards shared prosperity. The market has been tilted toward capital ownership for at least 40 years. It's time to tilt the field back to rewarding labour. Mandate strong unions. Convert corporations into worker co-ops. 70-80% top marginal income tax rate for a few $million.
Tim, how do we change the laws for good when the lawmaking is bought and sold.? Please forgive the pessimism.
I have been saying this for years.
Get rid of the electoral college so the people's vote actually means something.
I'm tired of seeing hard working people in poverty.
Then they need to work harder or at least smarter.
@@carolmosher7745 No. They needed to pick better parents or find better luck.
@@lynnwood7205 No one can pick their birth parents, or find luck, but we can all work to become luckier. No excuses.
Lynn Wood Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. The only people not prospering are those choosing not to.
@@bradchristy8429 The second sentence does not follow from the first. Life sometimes interrupts, fate intervenes, the gods decide to have fun.
I’m a conservative and I approve this message. The US has been lost to greed for decades. Hard to change that
youll find that conservative values tend to align with billionaires far more than they do with the public's.
🤡🤡🤡🤡@@winteroostenboom5046
I agree there is greed that is destroying our nation and that person is you not billionaires @@winteroostenboom5046
Here is proof if you draw fifteen hundred a month in ss till your eighty that's over two hundred thousand dollars and you did not pay that much in ss taxes and the average person draws out three dollars for every dollar paid in medicare taxes the difference between what you pay in taxes and what you receive is added to our enormous unimaginable debt our children will have to pay for the top five percent pay over half the federal taxes
Elon musk paid over 12 billion dollars in taxes last year and what did the government do with his money things like paying Harvard university seven hundred thousand dollars to blow lizards off trees with leaf blowers musk on the other hand lives frugally and reinvests most of his money back into the corperations he runs employing thousands of people makeing environmentally friendly products mabey musk should get a tax cut so he can create more environmentally friendly products and employee more people or should lizard blowing government get more of his money@@winteroostenboom5046
Absolutely. It doesn't serve society, civilisation, innovation, and it doesn't even serve the billionaires themselves. It just undermines effective governance, productivity, technology, philosophy and justice to have small groups or individuals exert such gravity upon states and communities.
So what's the INCENTIVE to create a product like Ring?
I think it's due to a human flaw in that we only see things in relative terms. We only see what makes us get ahead and what makes us fall behind.
Even though falling from 100 billion to 1 billion makes no difference in living standard or even your sense of worth in the company it's still a reduction of yourself and so people resist it. It's been shown many times that increases in wealth do provide happiness. The crucial thing though is that it's INCREASES that do it, not wealth itself. A doubling from 10k to 20k has the same subjective effect on people as doubling from 100b to 200b.
Because of my fixed income, medical expenses, small donations, mortgage interest, and real estate tax, I had no tax liability for about five years. This year, I owed taxes while the super rich and many corporations paid nothing.
Then you should start a corporation. Participate or be quiet.
@@carolmosher7745 Personal attacks get people nowhere. Suggest you research the 2010 Citizens United decision and how it's affected campaign finance.
@w9j15g I did post something constructive But you are to lazy or stupid to recognize it.
@@valeriestasik3252 No one attacked you. And complaining and whining like a victim gets you nowhere fast. Citizens United has nothing to do with your tax liability, or ability to get rich, or even become a billionaire. Give up the liberal leftist, socialist agenda and get to work!
Corporations have never paid taxes. They pass those onto their customers. Increase their taxes you just increase the prices you pay for things. Since they employ a lot of people, develop most technology and engage in a lot of philanthropy, why are we taxing them at all? The super-rich pay the majority of taxes. The 47% at the bottom pay no income tax. When the 47% start paying their fair share, when everybody has some skin in the game it will make sense to ask the people already paying the lion's share to pay more.
the sad thing is most people assume we have functional monopoly laws
Where I use to live I had city owned fiber to my home and a choice of four ISPs to choose from at a cost of about $20 per month unlike here where there is no choice. Where was that: Da Nang, Viet Nam.
+ih8. Plenty of examples were "monopoly" laws work. Where I live regulation dictates that only a single company, partially owned by the government, can "own" (more like own the responsibility for it) the telecommunication infrastructure. In turn regulation also dictates what they can charge for anyone, including themselves, for using that network. In short, plenty of ISP choices and no shitty infrastructure nation wide. Then we have the Wine monopoly (governmental owned alcohol stores), the only place you can buy booze if you are not on the town drinking at a bar....
Oh you meant in the US? LoL, yeah, there its "private solves everything", more like if some company has the infrastructure and the cost to impose on that is too great for their competitor. Why bother upgrading when people are forced to use the shitty private service anyway!
@Dim Standard oil back in the day. Some telecommunication companies in some areas, water companies in other, train etc etc. Monopoly doesnt mean it has to be nationwide, you dumb fuck. If you have ONE choice between X and Y area to travel. THAT is a form of monopoly.
Lobos222 those monopolies are/were maintained by the government. The phone companies claimed if they didn’t have full control over the system they couldn’t guarantee it would work. The only monopoly I know of that wasn’t endorsed and defended my government is de beers (the diamond distributor).
ih8myfriends i agree . Let’s fix the monopoly laws instead of over taxing
Thank you Robert Reich for your continual efforts informing and enlightening the public, we cannot mobilize without educating the uninformed. And you do it in such a succinct way, making it easy to comprehend, brief and to the point.
Thank you Robert Reich for making these videos available and help us to think about the academic problems of governance.
Paying off politicians is the #1 offence against us that burns my butt. They are supposed to be working for us. And the results is the opposite. And the bastards line their pockets. If I was younger . . .
hence why so many like Bernie
This granny supports Bernie, even on my poverty level Social Security, I send some every month. My grandsons life depends on meaningful change stat!
@@katiekane5247 Try Warren...she'll get it done in your lifetime...and that's where Bernie got most of his ideas.
@@Gymnopediea warren has admitted in many interviews that she doesn't support a single payer healthcare system, already said that if she won the nomination she would begin holding fundraisers for corporate donors after running a grassroots campaign to get to that point, and stated repeatedly in interviews that she supports a pure capitalist system. She's only playing progressive now because of all the energy Bernie drew.
@@Gymnopediea no. if you haven't noticed Bernie is the one that kicked the entire discussion left. everything he's been talking about, he's been pushing for decades. now it's mainstream. even trump took his ideas and attacked HRC FROM THE LEFT! of course trump was lying.
warren even plagarized Tulsi's takedown of ryan on the debate stage the next day.
. drumpfh will wipe the floor with warren.
Sanders/Gabbard could beat the DNC and the RNC if you "centrists" (Reagan repubs) would get the hell out of the way.
you've been warned.
It's communism for the rich because they can control their tax 'fate' . Capitalism for the rest of America that plays by the rules which were enacted in the rich people's favor.
@Dim the money they use to pay the tax came from the labor of the people they exploited.
The "freedom of capitalism" is the freedom to either starve or be treated like shit. People have many reasons they can't find another job and the employers set out impossible standards for applicants. Capitalism is a lottery where 80% you're guaranteed to die from lack of accessibility to basic necessities. You're a naive and entitled bootlicker.
Dim lol bullshit.
Socialism for the Rich, Rugged Individualism for the Poor.
- MLK, jr.
Must be nice to never experienced homelessness or get denied government support
Everything you say makes complete sense, and I like that you finished with four definite means to rein in runaway capitalism. I began a losing streak in the recession of 1981-82. I had two young children and a wife and a union job. I worked for the next thirty years after losing my union job in 84. I never did get a chance to work for a union company again, and my income dive bombed, taking my benefits with it. I had to work twice the hours to make what I used to make in a regular fourty hour week. Two divorces later and by 2007 I was able to semi-retire in a rural location and was learning to accept that my entire working life was a waste as we were never able to buy a house or save any money. Then 2008. One year later, my job gone, I had to work a hard physical job for ten bucks an hour and no benefits whatsoever. I'm Canadian, so at least my medical was free. I hope you can understand, but I don't believe you will be successful in your endeavours. You got Trump and we suffer. You get rid of Trump, and he'll be back or someone more competent than him. At our age, I think our generation expected to be a lot further advanced as a people. I really dread the next twenty years of my life and what will become of my adult children and grandson. We've all been asleep at the switch.
It makes me feel good knowing some people can live lavish lifestyles without working a day in their life while I work 65-90 hours a week to live paycheck to paycheck. It's a real warm happy feeling. It feels fair.
Those people are born rich. They got lucky. How would you feel if people shit on you for winning the lottery. And self made billionaires work smarter. It’s no ones fault but your own if you decide to be a worker bee and nothing else
@@flan6449 So you've never heard of estate tax? You're unaware that Trump lowered it significantly? I'm for a fair system that will enable the most citizens to prosper. You just throw your hands up and claim the issue is random chance. I'm going to disagree with you on that. The system is rigged to favor generational wealth. There is many tax loopholes that can be closed. I will pay over $15,000 in federal income tax alone this year. Which happens to be $19,500 more than Jeff Bezos paid in federal income tax in 2017. If that seems fair to you I promise you are overestimating my yearly income.
@@brentb5303 Jeff bezos is not generational wealth nor was bill gates. They thought if something and enough people bought it simple as that
@@flan6449 You're right why should billionaires pay any taxes when working people can pick up their tab. Your making a lot of sense.
@@flan6449 ...and I thought you were a child with your ridiculous anime picture. Well played sir.
This all stems from:
-Corporation is a person-
-$ are votes-
(Numbers are valued, humans are chattel)
Don't worry, Billionaires and even Trillionaires will all die one day from something, will forget everything they ever knew and experienced, and will all be forgotten one day in future eternity as if they never ever existed at all in the first place, (just as the rest of us will too).
(Copy and pastes from my files):
Consider the following:
* There are 3 basic options for life itself, which reduce down to 2, which reduce down to only 1:
a. We truly have some sort of actual conscious existence throughout all of future eternity.
b. We die trying to truly have some sort of actual conscious existence throughout all of future eternity.
c. We die not trying to truly have some sort of actual conscious existence throughout all of future eternity.
* 3 reduced down to 2:
a. We truly have some sort of actual conscious existence throughout all of future eternity.
b. We don't. And note, two out of the three options above, we die.
* 2 reduced down to 1:
a. We truly have some sort of actual conscious existence throughout all of future eternity.
b. We truly don't have any conscious existence throughout all of future eternity.
(And note, these two appear to be mutually exclusive. Only one way would be really true.)
And then ask yourself the following questions:
1. Ask yourself: How exactly do galaxies form? The current narrative is that matter, via gravity, attracts other matter.
2. Ask yourself: How exactly do galaxies become spiral shaped in a cause and effect state of existence? At least one way would be orbital velocity of matter with at least gravity acting upon that matter, would cause a spiral shaped effect.
3. Ask yourself: What does that mean for a solar system that exists in a spiral shaped galaxy? Most probably that solar system would be getting pulled toward the galactic gravitational center.
4. Ask yourself: What does that mean for species that exist on a planet, that exists in a solar system, that exists in a spiral shaped galaxy, in an apparent cause and effect state of existence? Most probably that if those species don't get off of that planet, and out of that solar system, and probably out of that galaxy too, (if it's even actually possible to do for various reasons), then they are all going to die one day from something and go extinct with probably no conscious entities left from that planet to care that they even ever existed at all in the first place, much less whatever they did and or didn't do with their time of existence.
5. Ask yourself: For those who might make it out of this galaxy, (here again, assuming it could actually be done for various reasons), where to go to next, how long to get there, how to safely land, and then, what's next? Hopefully they didn't land in another spiral shaped galaxy or a galaxy that would become spiral shaped one day, otherwise, they would have to galaxy hop through the universe to stay alive, otherwise, they still die one day from something with no conscious entities being left from the original planet to care they even ever existed at all in the first place, much less that they made it out of their own galaxy. They failed to consciously survive throughout all of future eternity.
6. Ask yourself: What exactly matters throughout all of future eternity and to whom does it exactly and eternally matter to?
Either at least one species truly consciously survives throughout all of future eternity somehow, someway, somewhere, in some state of existence, even if only by a continuous succession of ever evolving species, for life itself to have continued meaning and purpose to, OR none do and life itself is all ultimately meaningless in the grandest scheme of things.
Our true destiny currently appears to be:
1. We are ALL going to die one day from something.
2. We are ALL going to forget everything we ever knew and experienced.
3. We are ALL going to be forgotten one day in future eternity as if we never ever existed at all in the first place.
Currently:
Nature is our greatest ally in so far as Nature gives us life and a place to live it, AND Nature is also our greatest enemy that is going to take it all away. (OSICA)
* (Including the rich, powerful, and those who believe in the right to life and the sanctity of human life, nature is not biased.)
The game is fixed. Plain and simple. People learn so very little from history.
Imagine capping wealth at 100,000,000. After that they must retire and take no part in any of the worlds markets. Also, pegging ceo to lowest worker pay would be amazing. No CEO should make 20 times more than the lowest wage employee. This would help our system much than any other idea. No need to have billionaires and the mega rich soaking up all wealth while the rest suffer.
@@r.d.9399 why stop at $100000000? Why not $1000 000 or $100 000? By wealth do you mean liquid cash or assets owned such as businesses and real estate?
What if as a result of CEO quitting, said company goes bankrupt and all employees lose jobs? Is this good or bad?
Just trying to understand this idea better. 👍
@@hman2912 Once you have 100,000,000 in cash you should leave all markets. That's enough money to care for a family for multiple generations. Replace the CEO with another CEO that's not as rich. They do it all the time as is.
@@r.d.9399 fair point. 100 million is a lot of wealth. Why stop there? Why not 1mil? Would be easy to have a billion dollars worth of assets and zero cash, is that fair game?
@@hman2912 Once the assets reach that point you will sell and take your earned cash. Trying the avoid leaving the markets should not be tolerated.
Amazon is a monopoly with almost 50% of e-commerce sales
I don't think we agree on what "mono" means
Someone is forgetting basic economics... "I OWN 51% OF THIS INDUSTRY..." you tip into monopoly when you cross that line, darling. I thought that YOU, of all people, would know that, Mr. Wayne...
Thank you Mr. Reich for telling it like it is!! It pisses me that the 1% aren't held accountable while everybody else struggles. Ever since this pandemic started I've watched Americans really struggle,suffer & hunger it shouldn't be like this!!
You would have hated 2007
Why don’t you use that energy to actually build your own wealth instead being a hater?
@@mizzou1016 Lack of self-love. They don't want to lift themselves up, they find it more interesting to tear others down.
“Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth.” Lucy Parsons
That's why they cut their heads off in the French revolt. Hopefully that is not the path we're forced down, but with guys like the Koch's and Bezos leading the charge...... reminds me of King Louie the XVI. He loved gold as much as Trump does.... the new king? Will trump (yes I remove the capital. He doesn't deserve it) have his head taken in a guillotine?
Kenneth Haines Never be deceived that you can vote yourself successful. That takes work. The lazy always have the best excuses.
@@bradchristy8429 Sure, it takes such hard work to inherit wealth...
Druzidel Nope. It takes hard work to create it. Statistics show that family fortunes rarely survive the third generation. The only ones that do only do so because of the work that is, in fact, put into maintaining the wealth generating mechanisms that created it to begin with.
Such envy, spite and ignorance.
@@afarkinconspiracy6864 That conjures up the French lady at the guillotinings catching heads in her knitting basket. That particular head would contaminate the basket.
Everything benefits the super rich. The rest of us are just as fucked as ever. The beginning of the end was Trickle Up Economics, thanks Ron!
Warren for president!
It's more like a flood than a trickle!
Warren or Yang in that order.
Guapo da God Yup. And data shows that most family fortunes rarely survive the third generation. But facts are lost on Marxists.
@Rob Genson that's the fake name given to it. It really was just flooding up
I think this is one of the best explained and informative views of why people are “anti billionaires”
I wouldn't necessarily abolish them but I would definitely make it very very difficult to be one, like Europe. We used to have a top tax rate in 1959 of 91% very difficult to be a billionaire. In fact they really didn't start to become a "thing" until Bill Gates and Steve Jobs in the mid-90's. Before them you gotta go back to the Gilded Age to drum them up. Before Gates and Jobs, there were lot's of millionaires around, not a lot of billionaires.
In fact I would rather have one thousand million millionaires then one billionaire. They do soooooo much more for society. One thousand million millionaires buy more toilet paper than 1 billionaire, more homes than one billionaire, so much more kit kats, more flights, more condo's, more boats, more cars...more of just about everything, one thousand million more in fact! Talk about a boom to the economy!
The top tax rate is completeky meaningless. Nobody is making a billion dollar salary
I appreciate the way Robert breaks down complicated economic and political topics into bite-size chunks that laypeople like me can understand. I learn so much from this channel. Thank you!
I love it when he draws out his ideas. It's the icing on the cake. I bet his classes are really interesting.
@@brian-beeler I've seen some of his lectures online. They are very good.
His students are very lucky.
Just be aware he doesn't shoot perfectly straight. Everything he says and chooses not to say has its own bias. If you let someone break something down for you you pretty much give them carte blanche to choose the conclusion you arrive at.
@@totalvoid6234 That is true about literally every human being who has ever taught or explained anything on the face of the earth.
Yes we should by taxing already accumulated wealth. Billionaires are the excrement of our messed up economic system, i.e. corruption of all sorts. 60% of wealth is inherited? That's sick.
Start by going after Bernie and Hillary.
@@davidlafleche1142 How is Bernie Sanders 1-2 million dollars, which is still the poorest senator in the nation even in this 'debate'. You are comparing this to fucking Jeff exploitation 101 Bezos 150 billion. What you are is a Republican *HACK.*
Puts the lie to the ideallists' meritocracy. There are a huge number of untalented slackers with $billions to their name. Their only accomplishment is winning the birth lottery.
@@Schmidty1 I don't believe in Democracy (Hosea 8:4, KJV). We need a Monarchy. Judgment is coming to this devil-worshipping, baby-butchering, drug-addicted nation. "Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 3:2, KJV). Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
David Lafleche This is why I hate religion; it makes people stupid. Grow up!
Spot on Robert. One person making that much money is obscene, but you know what? Their money will never catch up with their egos. No one can even comprehend that much money, let alone spend it. The power that comes with it is dangerous to democracy. We need to be aware of it and end it before it concentrates money and power irreversibly.
I am an attorney that has worked closely with economists on cases involving lost wages and loss of earning potential in personal injury cases. Economics is not the sexiest topic to discuss, but I could listen to Robert Reich all day.
Want to make america great again start taxing everyone who makes over 50 million a year like they did in the 50s up to 50 mill. at the regular rate everything over 50 mill. at a 90% rate thats how we were able to build the U.S. interstate system and keep our infrastructure in tip top shape......
Funny, they will tar and feather you and bring out the boogeyman of socialism, if you pursued tax rates that were normal before. What has happened?
x_WARHOG_x How & why was that discontinued?
Really need to start it at 10 million.
@@magusyilie True I just through out 50 million just to keep the heads exploding to a minimum.
Warren for president, please. Most politicians don't even understand this level of things.
Nick Hanauer, an early investor in Amazon, wrote an interesting op-ed in Politico called "The Pitchforks Are Coming... For Us Plutocrats".
That was a couple of years ago and the things he wrote are still true.
If you haven't already, check out his podcast "Pitchfork Economics"
He's got A LOT of good talking points. There's also a TED talk:
www.ted.com/talks/nick_hanauer_beware_fellow_plutocrats_the_pitchforks_are_coming?language=en
Podcast is great
Funny thing is. No pitchforks are coming. We have a love affair with Amazon. That’s how Bezos got to where he is now. What large swaths of people are ready to stop ordering from the amazing Amazon?
@@donharris8846 - well, I have... ;)
The Billionaire should pay 50% on income....this would help the USA and put a good balance in the taxes.
I love this man. See him around town in Berkeley at farmers markets, restaurants, etc. To me he is a national treasure.
This video is exactly what everyone on earth needs to see, and exactly what the billionaires don't want anyone to know.
Those who support the Democratic Party elected a Billionaire for their Governor of of Illinois. Isn't at least one Democratic Party Presidential Candidate a Billionaire? Isn't Mayor Bloomberg of New York City a Billionaire? It is possible that the Democratic Party has more Billionaire supporters than the Republican Party. We may have Democratic Party Billionaire Collusion. The Democratic Party will not mind at all using Billionaire money to set up their Socialistic Tyranny, the masses will become equal, equally poor and our Political Leaders will continue to live in big houses on a hill forcing their sense of morality onto the citizens. Less government and more Liberty for me!
@@saulflores3624 Bye bye fluoride troll.
Saul Flores Agreed.
@steelhound duncan finish high school; just kidding, I don't know you or any of your achievements, but I would suggest that you also get a wider repertoire.
Billionnaires own social media sites. If they didn't want you to see, trust me, you wouldn't.
Step 1, take money out of politics. Step 2, reclaim our democracy.
Step 3, vote the billionaires out.
No more Lobbying
No more bail outs
No more corporate welfare and subsidies
No more corporate money in politics
And Term Limits. No more serving in Congress for twenty or thirty years. There are 327 Million people in America. We have enough honest, ethical people that we shouldn't have the same folks serving term after term after term.
Americans are bewitched by the rich and powerful. Why do we vote for these rich bastards?
@jdslyman It's worse than that. Boss Tweed once said, "I don't care who does the electing, as long as I get to do the nominating." People can't get nominated without financial support. Publicity costs too much. Guess who provides the financial support?
jdslyman You make excellent points re: electoral college, gerrymandering. But there were how many millions who watched The Apprentice?
No we should let people be free to give money in accordance with their values (which is what we've done by giving billionaires our money in exchange for goods/services).
This is the first of Mr Reich's videos that I've watched and I'm hooked.... And utterly impressed by the way the information is presented, in little, digestible and simple to understand bites....
Thank you Sir, you are truly the last of a dying breed..
Needless to say, I have LIKED and SUBSCRIBED... 👍🏽
Time to end predatory capitalism and rebuild democracy
So what's the INCENTIVE to open a business like Ring under your democracy?
@@youtubesucks1499 nobody said you can't earn more money when you get a successfull business the point is the power should lie with the people and you should not gain insane power by being rich. When these people do not have the power the laws will not change in their favour all the time. The rich stay rich because they themselves will decide on what laws get passed indirectly, which hurts the general public and therefore should be abolished, nobody wants communism.
Simple: marginal utility. Give a billionaire a $million and that money will get lost in a tax haven immediately. The billionaire is already sitting on more wealth than he/she could possibly use. That $million will not circulate, maybe forever.
Take that same $million and divide it up among 100 households that are hovering at or below the poverty line, just $10,000 each. They know intuitively how to spend that money most effectively. They will have been doing-without for years, acutely aware of what they most need but never having the means to get it. The 100 will immediately spend their $10,000 in ways that are most productive for them. And the $million will flood out into the economy to generate demand and jobs.
In the hands of a billionaire the $million a Swiss banking clerk will be kept occupied for 5-10 minutes. In the hands of poverty-line households that $million will keep hundreds of others busy for several months.
They invest that money. They spend that money in various thing. By your logic just spend all of what ever you have been saving and economy would be better.
To be an investor takes a lot of money, ability to manage risk, ability to read people , ability to read whats a loser whats a winner. An average person won't be able to do this. An average person is average because they don't want to take risks. In your idiotic economic model, there would be no innovation, productivity would decrease.
steelhound duncan most people who are poor are poor due to a lack of marketable skills. If you only know how to work a cash register you will most likely be poor.
The original comment reflects most of the people commenting on this video they do not know what is money and what is not.
The US government brings in like 4 TRILLION dollars a year. They can already do this - and do this this to an extent already.
Acting like billionaires are stopping this or we need to tax billionaires all their money to do this is juts nonsense
So poor people who are financially illiterate should get 10k that they will spend and they are entitled to someone else wealth because they are stupid and poor?? Wtf??
@@biplav32 Someone gets it.
Thank you for your clarity of mind expressing the true economic situation to those who are less skilled in such matters. Love your book COMMON GOOD. How I wish that principle were put into use more. Your insights still give me hope.
Yes, I think you made excellent points, there is an organization called RepresentUS that is working very hard to eliminate the legal corruption in politics. Please support the "For the People Act"!
The way its going, the super rich will find themselves in a situation like that of the French Revolution.
No they won't. Your government has betrayed you. One side steals your money the other side calls it negotiating. Either way you have no say
I'll be glad to help! I'll build the guiliteen
i'll be there. i don't consider billionaires human
@@jsmeswagner6104 we have guillotines.
Not as long as they own and control the police, who are too stupid to understand who their real enemy is.
Unfettered capitalism leads to this sort of thing.
Capitalism is competition.
*But no competition lasts forever.*
Eventually capitalism naturally leads to a few powerful corporations running the market sectors, they gobble up or shut down the competition.
And in many countries, these corporate overlords have gotten so wealthy that they have purchased the government...
This merger between government and business has been called corporatism.
Edit for spelling.
Exactly correct. No competition lasts forever...eventually the winner eats up the rest if they aren't regulated.
Look at feudalism.... Any similarity to where we seem to be heading?
bravo well stated!
You're describing crony Capitalism.
Without regulation , ALL capitalism degenerates into cronyism. Without fail.
Yes. I wouldn't have said that a few years ago, but our inequality situation is getting disgusting.
It's criminal this video only has 11k views as of October 2021. How do we get more eyes on this???
Success is most dependent on chance. If Steve Jobs had been raised 50 miles north or south of Palo Alto or born 10 years earlier or later he would've missed his chance to create a technical empire. Just like gambling winnings extreme wealth warrants extreme taxes.
Your first so sentences are ludicrous. Your last sentence hits the bulls eye.
@@chaist94 I disagree. He knows he was lucky too and acts that way.
@@gordonquigg9389 I've known some brilliant people that could've done some great things if got the chance but that chance never came.
All true, but you could add: if Job's had never met Steve Wozniak, the real mastermind behind the first apple computers. While I do think jobs was a visionary and a hell of a salesman, he rode on the backs of people with real technical acumen.
Losers will always believe power and wealth is the resort of luck; it's the only way they can explain their failure in life without facing their own inferiority, stupidity and incapability.
Robert Reich! You go! I get a lot out of these shorts. Thank you.
Too bad so few Americans view his videos.
ua-cam.com/video/1xXXZUK_ZNg/v-deo.html
Thank you so much! I’ve been saying this for years. The most response I ever get-if I get any response at all-is usually, “can’t do that.”
The difference between a million and a billion is so staggering and people don’t even realize it, at what point is it more than enough
I wish he would have spent more time discussing the constant lengthening of copyrights.
Imagine if Shakespeare's works were under copyrights and those copyrights existed for four hundred years. Someone would be collecting royalties, off a dead man's work, for centuries. No added value. There is something profoundly screwed up in that idea.
@@DanDeLeoninthefield Don't be ridiculous. Copyrights don't last for 400 years! And if you don't plan on stealing someones ideas then you have nothing to fear from Copyrights.
@@carolmosher7745 Copyrights currently last 120 years. Walt Disney made his fortune off characters and stories in public domain, yet the company that bears his name fights tooth and nail to make sure its characters and stories don't go back into Public Domain.
@@conchobar Wow! And you are upset because you can't steal Mickey Mouse until another 20 years or so?Here is a better idea. Why not create something of your own and apply for a copyright, then get rich? You will feel a lot better about yourself then you would trying to take from someone else handwork, vision and creativity.
Keith Warner Right, because someone else’s work belongs to random people. You meat puppet.
Just learned today that working in a warehouse is more dangerous than working in a mine, according to the John Oliver show. That should tell you something about Bezos, who is for some strange reason described as a philanthropist on the first page that shows up on Google about him.
Let smart people make good money, but never by destroying the health of others.
Share our wealth! We need a new Huey Long!
@Sheryl Kimball Fighters for equality will get murdered. Scary job to take on for most people.
Thank you Professor Reich. As I see it, we need, and would all benefit from, a market that is fair, not just “free”.
Amazing work! Thank you Robert and the team!
How do we do all that? How would we prevent lobbying when so much of it happens?
Vote out corruption.
@@richardbedford6657 sadly i think billionaires wont allow us to destroy them and they have the power to fight back we are ants compared to them
@@richardbedford6657
How do you prevent corruption: Vote out corruption!
How do we live longer: Don't die!
Dear Prof. I am a student of economic history and development and take particular interest in the role of economic and political elites in the latter. I think there are many historical examples of what happens when the power of elites is left unbalanced: the slow decay of society and the eventual political revolution. perhaps you can draw on some of these in your next videos or lessons. not sure how many economists studied how much inequality leads to revolution but I personally find that it is a very interesting (and urgent) topic to analyze
Zohar - I bet the correlation is obvious...and tragic.
we are already seeing the start of a revolution, the sheer amount of theft, and the closing of businesses because of said theft.
It's my understanding that one of the reasons T Roosevelt pushed so hard for anti trust legislation was he believed no company should be so large and powerful that they could jeopardize the economy of the country or manipulate same.
Are we not witnessing his concerns become reality? Aren't these issues still in need of resolution?
Yes! They said that for blockbuster. They were definitely a monopoly and wouldn’t be going anywhere soon. They also said that Walmart, GM, Netflix and Whole Foods.
The reality is that no monopoly lasts forever without the government getting involved. Second if you have a problem with Amazon or any company that you find a “monopoly” then go find another company to support.
The government needs to give people like me more power to cap how successful others are allowed to be! If someone else has more stuff than you, that means they've robbed and are oppressing you!
ALL GLORY TO THE STATE!
Yes we should, even for the most expensive things in life, it's almost impossible to spend that entire $1b in a lifetime
No. Its not the right of anyone else to put a cap on what some else can achieve. IF they come with an idea, they should be able to profit from it. Also he LEFT out the athletes and super celebrities who are also in the billionaire or close to it club. What you telling me that some one putting their body on the line/working endorsements should be limited too? Fuck that.
Actually spending a billion dollars wouldn't last be difficult;the most expensive thing in life are over a billion dollars and some of the money they have are tied to the company and would have lower value if he/she took out. I'm not supporting billionaires and I don't think anyone should have that much money unless they're going to use it to help those in need
The rich pay almost all the federal taxes and get next to nothing in return
Bob Noyce - the founder of Intel and the co-inventor of the microchip - called money "just a way of keeping score." So you're right. If we sliced a few zeroes off Jeff Bezo's wealth, he'd hardly notice.
Mr Gus he would notice that the amount of the company he founded , that he owns is less than before you” sliced off a few zeros”. Robert Reich is counting on you not knowing that a net worth is not entirely money. By not explaining what he is actually advocating for he is lying to you.
@@gary_stavropoulos And if Bezos had been actually competing in an open market, rather than having a Monopolistic position in the market where his company is competing, he would still have a tremendous amount of wealth, but Capitalism would actually be working and he wouldn't have robbed other business owners of a chance to compete with him. Monopolies benefit no one, except for an exceedingly tiny group of investors and business owners. And they don't need the extra help, they are already SUPER RICH.
Lars Lund Andersen when did I defend monopolies?
Desire your claim amazon isn’t a monopoly there are other online retailers.
@@gary_stavropoulos you must be a 1% to come up with that bullshit.
So why bother starting Amazon if you can't be insanely rich,?
I was a little concerned by the title of this video, but the conclusion I definitely agree with. Well done. And also proud of myself for hearing him out till the end 💁🏼♂️
A new fan. Your blogs are ever enlightening. Thanks for your insights.
"Should We Abolish Billionaires?" - Yes. Yes we should.
Sieze the means of production ☭!
@@Airlane-rq9yd Rape and kill them like the Romanov Dynasty
Why
@@UpperCaseX Spoken like a true Commie Jew. How well did it work out for Russia? Not too good.
@steelhound duncan yea was thinking the same about @Dim.
I honestly thinks he believes that.
40% figure.
I keep asking myself Robert, why you don't go before Congress on a monthly basis and present your arguments to them!!!!! Since it's obvious, they don't watch your UA-cam videos.
Thanks for making this info available
I used to follow Reich and even saw his movie, but this is legit like in the Atlas Shrugged book:
1) Monopolies - stop letting government intervene in the economy to create regulation or higher curves to prevent new competition.
2) Insider information - can mean nothing. That whole system of laws is entire subjective to whatever the government at the time feels like.
3) Buying off politician - don't give politicians the power to influence the economy to begin with.
4) Avoid paying taxes - If small companies had the low taxes that large companies had, they could actually compete with them.
There's another issue to examine though - extremely tight control on venture capital by venture capitalists. Entrepreneurs today in the US find it difficult to compete with many of the monolithic companies like Amazon or Disney or...the list goes on. And while you mention trademarks and patents - reforming them doesn't help the entrepreneur who has difficulty finding investment capital. And no, this isn't about whether the entrepreneur has a good idea or not. It's a fairy tale to say 'well, if the idea is good enough..." I've been to various conferences, with young entrepreneurs who have great ideas - but where's the VC? Let alone the predatory VCs - some entrepreneurs get desperate and fall for the predatory scams of unsavory VCs. This is a huge problem that isn't being addressed on the national level.
Corporations only want ideas to steal.
Not only are these 4 forms but there is another one, innovation
If you have a lot of great marketable ideas you can make billions, albeit harder. Tesla is no monopoly yet Elon musk is a billionaire, Steve jobs was à billionaire who didn't care about money, he literally sold his shares before they got value because he was an innovator who happened to be billionaire
This is réductionist of the wealth creation process, even though most billionaires fit your description
Az4212 knowledge thirsty Some, not most.
I love your wise and informative talks. Thank you for being one of the voices of reason that I get information from. I agree with this fully! 💯%
About time we had this conversation as a society.
Robert, you are our hero by enlightening us, and you do it with humor.
DC lobbyists shouldn't be a thing.
absolutely true, we do NOT have a free market capitalist system. "the real failure is how our economy is organized" truth.
The rules you posed are correct in my eyes. But they would have to be instated and enforced globally.
It amazes me that the ultra rich feel no responsibility to the rest of society. Something must be done through government intervention because these billionaires clearly don't care about the needs of so many suffering Americans. Robert, keep enlightening us about the widening disparity of income in our country. I pray that things will change someday.
Why aren't you doing more? You could be helping homeless people right now
You are the hope of America. Thank you for the insightful video!
Another great video, glad to say I have been educated by Robert Reich, Thank you.
Very interesting, I've never thought about all of that!
We need to change who government represents and its objectives. Thanks for your explanations
No, just tax them at a very high rate and use that tax base to properly compensate their workers and public social programs.
you know taxing the rich cant help every one we need to tax everyone
Thanks Robert. Your knowledge and presentation of that knowledge is incalculable. Keep up the good work. 👍👏👏
I’ve got hardly any money but I’m happy 😀 But I guess if I had a billion dollars I would be much happier 🥳
Monopoly with nearly 50% of the market. Thats the biggest oxymoron ive heard all day.
Are you an idiot? Controlling 50% of econmerce is a monopoly
@@DarwinzTheoryz monopoly means controlling all of it. Why the name calling? Lol. Nice response to a year old comment tho. He prolly has like 75% now.
Daniel Barker lmao
you forgot Microsoft. That is a monopoly for very Long time now
This makes so much sense man, I don't know how the average person can disagree with it.
Man, this video hits so hard during the pandemic.
Would have used a word other than 'abolish'.
The word 'cull' comes to mind.
I was thinking annihilate.
Nice but that is never going to happen Till we change congress to work for the People. Not just lobbyist and Billionaires until then.
Those 307 people disliking the video are everyone who watched this with over 100 million dollars.
No they are just people that aren't sad moaning jealous people
I gotta be honest. I am not a fan of how this debate is frame. "Abolish" is kind of a weasel words that could mean many things. I know most on the center-left don't believe they want to punish people that made a billion dollars out of existence, just that the systems in place are meritocratic and that led to certain individuals making more than a billion when they probably did not earn of all. I think we need to be more specific in our debate formatting so people don't get the wrong idea.
We don’t need to get rid of billionaires, we need to get rid of the way people become billionaires. If people can become billionaires in a legitimate way, that’s fine, but the ways that billionaires have gotten their share of wealth and the effects of that on the rest of the people are a major problem.
Lobbying should be illegal.
Exactly what he said in the video.
Skep Kim I was just agreeing with him and saying it in a more concise way.
Andromeda Galaxy Nebula I think a complete ban wouldn’t be perfect, but severely limiting it is a great idea.
There is no legitimate reason for a person to have one billion dollars when there are so mant people living in slavery.
Thanx Robert, great content, clear and informative as usual!🙌🏼
Whose going to make it happen? Don't you want to run for president?
I like watching this and Prager University videos. They inform me and I can make up my own mind about things. So thanks for that.
I might not be American but your view on politics is an interesting and educative lesson any day.
Yes, we should tax billionaires and hundred-millionaires out of existence. No human needs even 50 million dollars of shit. It's all about greed.
says a brokester ☭
Says a sore loser.
And they put Martha Stewart in jail for "alleged" insider trading, pffft!!
Some may say it's because she's a woman, some may say it's because she's not jewish. Maybe she's just not part of the club.
When need to bring back that old term from classical economics: Rentier.
Once again, and as always, Robert Reich is spot on.
You are absolutely right, as always.
And still must people blame the every day hard working minimum wage minorities
Yep. That and welfare moms.
A fair progressive tax on corporations, inheritance, estate tax, etc. tax corporations that lays off workers and replaces them with automation in order to fund a universal basic income safety net.
Robert Reich is a master of simplifying enormous economic, social and political problems and providing fair and sound solutions to them.
Absolutely politician and policies are bought and paid for.
i would know what to do if I had a million dollars, but I have no idea where to start with a billion. What does Jeff plan on spending his 100 on?
Spot on IMO. Your channel should be one of the most watched non UA-cam.
Great video, please take a look into corporate stock share buybacks. And how it allows corporations to declare fewer profits and boost the price of the shares owned by the owners, thus their wealth...
After the S&P 500 started to recover from its financial crisis low in March 2009, companies that were flush with cash started to buy back shares. According to S&P Dow Jones Indices, S&P 500 companies have bought back $4.4 trillion shares over the past decade, including the record-breaking buybacks from Apple that totaled $226.6 billion.