I worked for a construction contractor in NYC. He became a millionaire in less than 10 years. No mystery how he did it. He employed minorities and illegal immigrants who earned less than half of what a union construction worker earned and paid no benefits. In fact he carried no workmens comp. Injured workers were left to fend for themselves. 😡
that’s unfortunately often the ugly truth about becoming a self-made multi-millionaire/billionaire, it’s not that it’s impossible, but rather that you might end up finding at least one or a few skeletons in your closet (and that’s if you somehow didn’t have any to begin w/)
so why don't *you* start your own construction business and employ illegal immigrants and minorities and pay them 2x as much? At least he was helping illegal immigrants get a job that still paid several times more than what they would otherwise make back in Mexico
I was just thinking that. Converted to today's value, that's over 530k USD. If you worked for 40 years full-time at minimum wage and saved every penny, you still wouldn't have that much money.
@@Youreplywasalie Investing is by definition not work - you're using money you already have and effectively paying other people to go make you more money. Gambling on stocks is just... gambling. Literally anyone could do it, and it's up to chance whether they succeed or not.
@@astecheee1519 "Literally anyone can do it and it's up to chance if it succeeds or not." Wrong. Imvesting in a company is not a guarantee to become a millionaire, nor even a guarantee to get a return on your investment. But working a job isn't a guarantee either. Even if you work hard, the company could go bankrupt, or you could be working hard for exploitative employers. For easy examples of those two concepts: I worked at an office where I'd show up at 5am and leave at 8pm on average, and was finally looking at a promotion because of my hard work. Then all our investors pulled out and we had massive layoffs. I was one day away from promotion, literally. At the same company, we had a cleaning crew come by morning and night. One of the guys working there was an immigrant from India with a university degree in computer science. Working as a toilet cleaner. At an IT firm. Meanwhile, I was looking at a promotion, even though I actually never finished my education. Point is, investing is no more of a gamble than the rest of life. We're all picked at random, and while it's easy to spit vitriol about how everyone who's successful cheated or won the lottery of fate or doesn't deserve it and they're evil and it should be your money!, there's just no point to doing it. Rich people aren't anymore evil than poor people, that might be a tough pill to swallow, but for every Epstein there's a million regular people out there exploiting children. Hell, how many people do you pass as you walk down the street? How many people sleep a few feet away from you, separated by a wall? And how many of those people have slipped something into a teenager's drink at a bar? How many of them beat their spouses/partners? How many of them steal from their own friends and from strangers? No, rich people are just regular people with the ability to get away with it. This is not a defence of rich people btw, these are just things to consider, such that you may better focus on things that matter. It is best to understand the beast, and let go of your hatred for it. The REAL reason you don't see self-made billionaires is because no one is self-made, we're all reliant on each other, and we all serve a different function, and the harm of "The American Dream" extends far beyond the usual complaints about how it's too hard to climb that far. The real danger this poses is the way that it has so thoroughly separated people from each other. People think they should achieve results on their own to have value, but no singular human has ever accomplished anything of value. It's all about what we can do together. Anyway tangents aside, investing is perfectly fine, but you can't just randomly invest and expect to get a million dollars. I invest from time to time, and I usually get a decent amount back, and I've never lost money on it, because I do my research, pick carefully, and exercise patience instead of panic investing and panic selling.
People sometimes forget that Donald Trump grew up surrounded by poverty. The maid was poor. The gardener was poor. The chauffer, cook, masseuse, all poor...
This is the same with those saying bill gates, elon musk and mark Zuckerberg is college dropout. They just leave the details they're dropout from havard
There is a lot of Marxist rubbish in all this. Why can't you believe that there have been men who were poor and could become millionaires? What about the first explorers who discovered oil, gold, silver, railways, the shipping industry, the construction of apartment buildings, as was the case with Donald Trump's father, etc.
Alot of blood on the jew hands then. We know how they all got rich. "Boo hoo, poor us, we were almost annihilated. Give, give, and serve Israel. The jew collective made serious bank when they and the Bush administration bombed the Twin Towers. Just remember for all of us who served in the early 2000s, we didn't go to war to defend America from terrorists. We went to war to make jews wealthier.
Or go to college become an orthopedic surgeon which pays enormously good of course democrats would take most of your money away for handouts to the less educated
Over ninety percent of the rich did not inherit there wealth and the top five percent in two thousand twenty two paid sixty percent of the federal taxes Democrats party of handouts
"Underpaid" more like work that literally anybody can do. Skill is your value, not work. Anybody can do construction, but few can do computer programming.
in the 2 years since this was posted, the wealthiest have increased their wealth exponentially aided by even more favourable government policies being passed
I mean at this point of time in US, there’s no real difference between mafias/mobs and governments unlike before. They practically own it via middlemen known as billionaires, and while politicians are left to fend on their selves and the “weak” honourable ones either forced to quit or simply got too much in them they have to quit. If you justify saying that’s how the e system is, the whole system is that bad, US would had been a wasteland of failed corruptions 100 years ago…
@@ianalan4367 yeah, I mean still… really don’t find it fair that we as taxpayers have to front money for something that does a “billionaire” a favor. Shoot, they can afford it.
@@artandarchitecture6399 not as often as you might think. The owners also threaten to move the local teams to another state if they don’t get their free stadium, too.
That’s why I’m so damned tired of those stories about immigrant grandparents or great-grandparents who claim they “came to this country with less than five dollars in their pocket but within a few years owned a company.” I’m like, “Okay, either it was REALLY easy to succeed back then, or you’re leaving some major details out of the story.” (Whoa! Just turned my notifications back on. Thanks for all the likes, but as predicted there are a lot of you getting personal and claiming I’m a “failure” for some reason. Hey, I’d rather be a supposed failure than a loser. Losers don’t even try, right? But seriously, I wish everyone the success they claim they and their family members supposedly deserve. Hope they didn’t have to lie, cheat, or step on anyone to succeed as much as you claim they did. Bravo to all the honest uncles, fathers, and grandfathers who started with nothing. You have every right to be proud.)
Part of the lie is that their immigrant ancestor was poor. Very few of those immigrants were, after all they were wealthy enough to afford passage. They were mostly middle-class-ish, not rich, but relatively well off and skilled in a trade, which they leveraged once they got here. But of course people love telling the rags-to-riches story because it sounds good.
@@matt2027 exactly this is why it is complex with migrants it is like getting most times another systematic white bootlicker that wants the system to stay the same oppressive
its all random wealth distribution if you are still unconscious to that with all of the resources and ability for cognative freedom you have and dont know that your just beyond brainwashed you know in WWII they made the japanese "leader" or king or whatever titles he gives himself through abuse of technological advancment made by other ppl to legitimise himself and maximise his control make ppl feel like there are much bigger structures above them to keep them in isolation and incompetance believing whatever lies they feed them out of the mind structuring of having blind belief in power as the only option mind structure they are put into inescapably and directed told to go into a path of survival of which they are unconsciously being hereded into and is all they know and slowly become an isolated dehumanised slave to a robotic entity of destruction for sustainment for a singular mans power who they through technological advancment of a never seen before magnitude and abuse of it brainwashed to believe he is some sort of god when in reality he was just a toddler little brat warlord who went a did a bunch of evil sh*t and scared everyone into submission until he got his hands on technological advancment of which he used and abused for further consentration of power and destruction of humanity anyways whatever you get the point they made him admit that he wasn't some megasized god that could stomp mountains through abuse of technological advancment through hiajacking with violence to propagate and consentrate waste humans minds put them into a state of incompetance into blind subserviancy belief in the god by putting him besides the leader of usa if china came over and dominated us with there authoritarianism they'd likely do the same they'd dominate our authoritarianism of which we've suffered under the illusions it propages as a justification for itself and in ppls incompetance so they with there authoritarianism come and dominate our authoritarianism and make billionaires say workers work 10x as hard in a day than in there entitled corrupt handed to them lives and that hard work isn't even remotely a metric of reality or substance in the structuring of this system based fueled on degeneration and self destruction and that everyone suffered for nothing under an illusion a lie we propagated and were inescapably able to get you into herd you socially cultural conditioning into a state of incompetance and behavioral charactoristics and prioratisation and basing your life around what we wanted if they came in authoritarianised our authoritarianism and dominated our authoritarianism into submission of there authoritarianism that wouldn't be so bad
I think honestly that sorta thing was really only possible if you shined shoes for some mafia boss in the 1920's or 30's and he liked you enough to give you a shot. In that sort of situation it would be possible to prove yourself and work up the ranks from "rags to riches". Also before the 70's it was way easier to start brick and mortar businesses with less competition, fewer regulations, less ethical treatment of workers, etc. Nowadays it would be nearly impossible for most people to start some thriving business from nothing in the middle of Chicago or NYC...
You also have to remember that hundred years ago 5 dollars was considered alot of money. The average wage was in the 10s of cents a day so basically the translation is I had a at minimum a months wages at the time. Then that person probably never mention the departments and family members that may have assisted him in getting a job to make the money needed to achieve "the dream" or the economic policies the government did at the time, the new deal was and fdr really set up the ground work for the middle and lower class prosperity. But I'm still stuck on I wish 5 bucks could last me a month........
Unfortunately, one of the only ways to stop these crookiticians is….to also become a politician. Which is why-despite loving these billionaires and grifters fleecing them-right wingers will claim that AOC is a greedy politician desperate for more power. AOC, a working class bartender who entered Congress to be a voice for the working class and has been largely successful at that to this day. These people are actual psychotics.
You have to reward wealth over work. There is already too much useless made up bullshit jobs. Just imagine if more was rewarded. On the other hand... wealth is just wealth. Gold is gold. Pretty hard to fake gold and land.
Elon musk puts in seven day work weeks without him telsa would not have survived and thousands of jobs would have been lost Democrats party of handouts vote out handout Democrats before it's to late our childrens future depend on it
I definitely disagree, you can bevine a billionaire in Europe by spending less than 15 000 eur per year on your life Whisky building a self founded company. The secret sauce consists og a hughe added value scalability of said offering and very great margins + cash in advance payments by customers. The problem is you need to carve out 5 years of your life to get there.
@@CoockerooThis approach may be feasible for some, but this path is not accessible or realistic for many people. The system still favors those with existing wealth, resources, and connections. You can't deny this. Your strategy requires a significant investment of time (5 years) and likely a substantial amount of initial capital. Not everyone has the privilege of dedicating years of their life to building a business or has access to the necessary resources. Your comment is an oversimplification of the wealth creation process.
Corporate greed is off the rails. Then they spend millions or more to fight unions. Such hypocrites. Make them pay their part. Thx Professor. You’re the best
Even though I don't make a lot of money I'd donate a freaking kidney just to support groups the sue the union busters ans sue them good. I really despise union busting. It's near the top of my hate list.
@@peterbullen4956 No....it's the best, most equitable system yet. Is it Socialism, Communism and the 'Lite' version of those- unions- you are thinking of? They fail and always will. Visit Detroit if you think Unions work. Why would a smart person want some 'committee' to decide their working conditions?
He may have forgotten the sage advice, "No man is an island entire unto himself ..." Whatever great business a person might create that makes them a big pile of money, the big pile of money only comes if there are sufficient numbers of other people with money to spend. Same story is true of genius artists, unless they hitch their wagons to patronage from the already very wealthy.
@@Aikidoman06 possibly, but not likely. 7 years is easily over $100,000. If his mother hadn't covered that, then he'd be paying on that as soon as he graduated. If he didn't land a very well paying job right out the gate, then he'd be paying every month while huge amounts of interest accrued and he'd probably still be paying that off. College being paid for absolutely gave him leeway to save or invest his money after graduating.
@@AquilaCat he could have easily served in the Peace Corps or military to pay for school. If you are going to what if all day. I have three degrees; GI Bill paid for the first one and a semester of grad school. I paid out of pocket for the remainder of my masters and all of my PhD. The point is it wouldn’t matter how it was paid for; it’s the student that earns the degree. Had I taken loans it would have been a car payment level bill, so my life would hardly be any different
Took a finance class where the teacher kept talking about how to skimp and save and invest to eventually become wealthy. I remember going to Wells Fargo that semester to open an investment account to start applying what I had learned. Minimum balance for such accounts is $1000, and you need to have a "relationship with the bank" before they let you open one.
Disagree, a millionaire can be an average person who worked in a good job, saved and invested well. A couple of million doesn't mean you stood on anyone. Billionaires however, we agree...
@@Zach-ju5vi You're right it's because they don't show profits on paper, but that's due to loopholes engineered by lobbyists over decades. Bezos pays an effective 0% tax rate on his $140B per IRS documents released by Propublica, which wouldn't be the case without loopholes. This is why the Inflation Reduction Act included a minimum corporate tax rate that even bipartisan analysts agree was long overdue. Former hedge fund executive Morris Pearl has written extensively about this topic.
The boss comes at the office with a brand new Lamborghini. When all of his employees gather to admire it, he stands and tell them: "If for the whole of this year, each and any of you will work very very hard, next year I'll be able to buy me another one"
@@artandarchitecture6399 I would point out something, though... How many people do you know that went from "doing that same job" to buying Lamborghinis? It may have been possible in the 70s or the 80s, but I don't know if it happened with any appreciable frequency in the last 30 years...
mine didnt buy a new lambo, but it WAS a rather rare and particularly valuable lambo... along with the "business trips" to china every few months (partly legitimate) that job started to seem less inviting every day... one of those niche businesses where he got to charge what he wanted, and lets say, if "daddy" hadnt inherited it to him, and if it was a "regular" business... there was no way he could have built it to what it was with some of his managerial decisions...
The fact these billionaires became even richer during the Covid pandemic is utterly insane. We scrounge around for any kind of assistance and they take it in like any other typical Tuesday afternoon.
That's a good thing Amazon provided online shopping during the pandemic comeing in real handy during the shutdown due to the pandemic Amazon made money during the pandemic by providing a valuable service
Are you saying Amazon should have shut down online shopping during the pandemic if not then what's insane about them makeing a profit by providing a valuable service during the pandemic
What’s more disappointing is working class folks who work 100 hours a week will rabidly defend these billionaires as if they will be like them one day.
John Steinbeck once said that socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.
I worked my ass off at FedEx. After 3 years, my back didn't work well enough to keep doing it. Now I'm limited in the kind of jobs I can do. Hard work got me a harder life. That's it. I'm making less money than I was a few years ago and everything costs much more. But hey, at least my landlord is doing great. Must be nice to pay other people to build a house then profit off it without ever having to actually work yourself.
Yes and then the wealthy portrait themselves as if they were very intelligent and would just know how to make money. The other folks who work hard are just stupid
Their greed is insane. Yet most people don't want to be billionaires. The rest of is just want to live comfortably. Pay our bills, own a home, being able to take care of our families and still have some money left to enjoy life. Not working 2-3 jobs and feeling stressed.
I’m living a comfortable life and I am very happy that most of these billionaires have changed the world for the better. They are not taking money from anyone. Want to be comfortable? Get off your ass, work a good profession and save and invest. Focus on yourself . It’s pretty simple.
@@nedegt1877 hasn't there been a survey that showed that people are basically ok if they have 6000 dollars in savings ...a nice little buffer to deal with life's curveballs
@@atomiccritter6492 That is true, in fact 90% of the world's problems can be solved easily if peoples had that. Sometimes I feel like I'm from another planet. Because it's only logical to me that a lot of problems are caused by the way the money system is manipulated. It doesn't make sense. Humans can design and build all kinds of complex systems, perform impossible calculations, navigate the cosmos and all. And you tell me they can't implement a more intelligent system to live by? You don't fool me; this world is run by crooks!
"There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own - nobody. You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police-forces and fire-forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory - and hire someone to protect against this - because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea. God bless - keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is, you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along." - Elizabeth Warren, 2012
I had not heard that speech before and it sounds great. Nicely highlights the boost that the rich got in the first place; the things they don't want to have to pay for now.
Here's the thing. The Reich and his followers do not want the creators of those great ideas to keep a great chunk of them. In all likelihood, Ms. Warren doesn't either. When he talks about billionaires not paying their "fair share," there is no amount that will satisfy him. He will always want to take more. Those billionaires _do_ pay taxes. They didn't hire workers "the rest of us" paid to educate. They were subject to property taxes, too -- both on their homes and on their factories. Think they didn't pay for that infrastructure? Think again. That was paid for though gas taxes they paid at the pump like everybody else. The Reich talks specifically about "federal income tax" because it is misleading. There are a lot of taxes that they still pay. But they run their finances through legal frameworks not in their own names and pay taxes largely through those same frameworks. The Reich, and his followers, simply pretend that the money somehow counts but the payments don't. The Reich and Ms. Warren, along with several others, are seeking to acquire power for themselves by giving you people to hate. They can't produce anything of value themselves, even a great idea. They only know how tor take. It is true that billionaires used resources provided by the government. They also paid into them. But the Reich wants you to hate them because they "have too much." Well, do you want to know how they got to have so much? People like you _paid_ them for providing goods and services you wanted. Now, you turn around and say, effectively, that you don't want them to have any benefit from that. You are rewriting the "social contract" to say that they have to give up everything, and then you still won't be satisfied.
Hey, I'm not against a CEO being wealthy. I'm against a CEO taking everyone else's hard-earned money for themselves. We do the lion's share of the work, they take more than the lion's share of the money. They're like dragons hoarding treasure and need to be dealt with the exact same way. Greed destroys everything.
@@jsebby2284 au contraire! How wrong you are. Systemic theft of American wages couldn't be more obvious. Here are some facts: The Top 1% of Americans Have Taken $50 Trillion From the Bottom 90%-And That's Made the U.S. Less Secure By Nick Hanauer and David M. Rolf September 14, 2020 9:30 AM EDT Hanauer is an entrepreneur and a venture capitalist, the founder of the public-policy incubator Civic Ventures, and the host of the podcast Pitchfork Economics. Rolf is Founder and President Emeritus of SEIU 775 and the author of The Fight for Fifteen (New Press, 2016) Like many of the virus’s hardest hit victims, the United States went into the COVID-19 pandemic wracked by preexisting conditions. A fraying public health infrastructure, inadequate medical supplies, an employer-based health insurance system perversely unsuited to the moment-these and other afflictions are surely contributing to the death toll. But in addressing the causes and consequences of this pandemic-and its cruelly uneven impact-the elephant in the room is extreme income inequality. How big is this elephant? A staggering $50 trillion. That is how much the upward redistribution of income has cost American workers over the past several decades. This is not some back-of-the-napkin approximation. According to a groundbreaking new working paper by Carter C. Price and Kathryn Edwards of the RAND Corporation, had the more equitable income distributions of the three decades following World War II (1945 through 1974) merely held steady, the aggregate annual income of Americans earning below the 90th percentile would have been $2.5 trillion higher in the year 2018 alone. That is an amount equal to nearly 12 percent of GDP-enough to more than double median income-enough to pay every single working American in the bottom nine deciles an additional $1,144 a month. Every month. Every single year. time.com/5888024/50-trillion-income-inequality-america/ Rand Report: www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WRA516-1.html Time Summary: time.com/5888024/50-trillion-income-inequality-america/
@@Zach-ju5vi Nothing ever changes from this channels corporate bootlicking sedative troll, Ambien Zach the cure for insomnia. Again you are triggered by anyone who agrees with the great Professor Reich's fact filled videos that set off your derangement for everyone to see, you poor sick little man.
There will unfortunately always be a large swath of people who either won't see/believe it and will actively defend the system that generates billionaires out of hope they'll be one of them one day.
@@jsebby2284 How did you arrive at 70% of the billionaires are self made men/women? BTW, there is nothing wrong with receiving help. Name a credible source. If I am wrong, I am the first to admit it.
Just remembered an article/study that CEO's "work hard all day!". Something like 3 breakfast meetings, 2 lunch meetings and 3 dinner meetings! Whew, tough day stuffing your faces!
I remember at my previous job, that the head of the family company loved to tell people that he used to wash transportation carts in the factory for 5 years but after all that hard work, he was now the head of the company. A story about hard work paying off. Leaving the detail that he was a family member of the family business + no family member wanted that much work/responsability in the company. This is also the same guy that held a speech at a christmas party for the company, where he told everyone that the success of the company, was thanks to money and investment. This was 25 minutes long and then 5 minutes of future plans. 1 line about thanking the workers.
I’ve never excepted the self made label. No one, I repeat, no one is self made. Even if you originated an idea and did a lot of the leg work to get things going someone at some point helped you take it to the next level. Someone invested in your idea or company, someone advised you along the way, someone inspired you or supported you or made it easier for you to focus more of your time and energy into it. Maybe it was a parent, a friend, a spouse or someone else but for some reason the we give all the credit to the person at the top and almost no credit to anyone else involved in making a company successful.
This is simply not true. What you’ve described is piggy backing off of someone else. The CEO does most of the work and still would be successful without “suggestions” or “investments”. This is what lazy people do to take credit and use that as an argument for why you should give them money. It’s the opposite. The CEO gives you the opportunity to get a job, the opportunity to invest and the opportunity to give suggestions to improve the company. If I do 70% of the project and you contribute 5% the credit is still mine. If you contribute 30% as a worker but I can easily replace you or I could have very easily have done it alone, the credit is still mine. Because as the project CEO/founder I came up with the vision, made the product, talked to shareholders, did fundraising, did charity work in the community, went to all of the meetings and continued to scale the business. You as a worker did nothing, and can be easily replaced by a guy from India who will be more willing to work harder and provide more value for less. All of the things I mentioned are things that you as a worker did not do and frankly you don’t have the intellect or diligence to do them. That’s why CEOs get paid so much and that’s what makes them irreplaceable. The workers are just schmucks that slaved away in school and handed in a resume that just happened to be good enough to get them hired. That’s it. They could also just leave and work for another company. I wouldn’t be able to do that, or at least it would be very hard for me to leave my position.
@@tomomihisayayou must be the CEO of bootlicking, you talk a lot of sh*t about blue collar workers and what do you do? write massive paragraphs on youtube that maybe 2 people will see? 😂😂
Even more to the point we are all born with certain genetics we did nothing to earn and in a certain environment our parents provided. Even our motivation to work is caused by genetics and environment and other such factors we did nothing to earn. at the end of the day it's all luck
Sadly, you’re wrong. Very few people are self-made, I grant you that. And to some extent we are standing on the shoulders of giants, in many ways, but quite often it’s not financial, and some of us get no help. But do it anyway. I know many migrants who built from nothing, and endured racism, derision, and unfairness. Which meant they didn’t waste their time, money, and life on hanging around idiots in pubs. They worked, making their own way, and created their own families. Not all of them are saints, but many were honest, at least those from cultures which are tolerant of other cultures. I’m proud of them.
I can't help but nod in agreement with much of what Dr. Reich is saying, but the ethos he describes is true of we Americans in general. We're the richest nation on earth, home to the richest people on earth. Our richest people avoid paying their taxes to take care of their country, and Americans more broadly turn a blind eye to the people around the world making all the stuff we enjoy for pennies on the dollar. We're a country with a waning sense of purpose and responsibility.
Most of the billionaires come from humble beginnings and working class families. They were privileged in some ways but weren't the significantly privileged. Examples include : Michael Bloomberg, Warren Buffet, David Rubinstein, Larry Ellison, Stephen Shwartzmen, Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Ralph Lauren, Jan Koum, George Soros, Steve Jobs, Carl Icahn, Howard Shultz and many MANY more. All most all the people I listed and most others didn't receive significant funds from their parents and they were from families of middle class or lower. Your argument with Warren Buffet not doing on it himself was also very far from the truth. His father was a congressman but was not wealthy, he owned a small brokerage firm in Omaha and lost all most everything he had in the Great Depression of 28. All most every single dollar warren buffet invested was earned through the various jobs he worked and other side hustles he conducted. (source : The Snowball : Warren Buffet and the business of life). You are just another jealous guy, very demotivating man. "Behind every ten figure net worth..." is that so huh, well then tell me, what inheritance did people like Larry Ellison, , David Rubenstien, Howard Schultzand multiple such other billionaire get??? I think you are just another jealous person, who wants to demotivate the emerging youth...
I still can't believe people believe the idiocy that businesses hire people just because their profit margin increased. Businesses hire only enough people to meet demand. You want to create jobs? Increase demand by creating more customers. You do that by giving people that don't have it enough money to buy things.
First, cutting corporate taxes hasn't created jobs in the past, why would you believe it would in the future? Second, if higher wages doesn't lead to increased inflation in all the countries that have living minimum wages why do you believe it would in the US? Third, policy should always be based on reality, not talking points.
@@Zach-ju5vi Oh sweetheart! This topic is a little too complicated for your little brain, you really need to run along and go play with your big trucks before you get a headache :) . Inflation is caused by companies raising prices in relation to demand, they don't HAVE to, they merely choose to. Now you let the adults talk about this before you get hurt. Here's an adult to explain things to you so you don't embarrass yourself further: ua-cam.com/video/7Z7tEc5t-Wg/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/Zi4KMCQuQYE/v-deo.html
@@Zach-ju5vi Let me give you an example. In Australia the minimum wage is about twice that in the US. A McDonalds Big Mac costs 15 cents more. Inflation can be greatly curtailed if corporate executive salaries go from 900 times the average wage of the corporation to, say 700. If you want to know how actions play out in the real world actually looking at the real world is a great start. Another great example is the US. When the minimum wage was enacted that wage had a great deal more buying power than it does now, it was an actual living wage. What followed was one of the greatest economic booms in our countries history. Wages went up, economic activity increased, wealth was generated. It might help you to remember that money always flows up, every time someone buys something it goes to a wealthier person. It's no sin to let the poor folk use it before it gets to a billionaire. Oh, and I'm not struggling with indoctrination. It's all those business management courses that went on and on about managing staffing levels and not pissing away money just because your margins rise a little. Utility costs fluctuate too, but you don't hire and fire based on them. Staffing levels are regulated by the businesses need for labor. Which is regulated by demand for whatever you are selling. Business are there to make a profit, you don't do that by spending all the profits needlessly. Although, to be frank, bloated salaries and bonuses at the top are wasted expenses from the point of view of the corporation and it's shareholders. If some of payroll gets shifted downstairs the worst that will happen is productivity will rise. People that are one minor infection away from homelessness don't do their jobs very well.
@@Zach-ju5vi You have it backwards. Not paying a living wage gives workers no incentive to break their backs for you. They have to save something for their second or third job. The minimum wage was always intended to ensure a full time worker could live a decent life, the people that created the minimum wage were very clear about that. Also, if workers are so lazy these days why does productivity continue to rise year by year? The only argument in support of continuing to let wages decline is that you want to side step into slave labor. If that's the goal then own it. Thank you for correcting me on those price statistics, I admit my numbers were old and I hadn't checked.
If by “helped” you mean I paid them via a paycheck to accomplish my wealth goals, then you are correct. Nobody “helps” for free. Release your anger and just do whatever it takes to get there. Don’t just complain cuz you ain’t one of us…
Social connections they got at the start probably is the greatest booster. Imagine having access to all of the previous rich generation knowledge and links right away, things no one else can share with you...
I've always said this that there is nobody who is genuinely self-made. It takes people mentoring you, opening doors, investing in your products/services, and even receiving handouts to grow wealth. Nobody is truly selfmade
Yes but some wealthy people believed in you and took the risk to invest in your company or at least to buy your goods. There are some really generous people around who wish to help
A million Euro please :D Half a million would go straight away for tax. But the rest would give the safety net to do anything ‘random’ for the next ~10 years. Such as spending lots proper of time with kids and witness them grow up. Evolve your own home over time rather than letting it degrade. And evolve your own body and health rather than letting it degrade. On the other hand work has taught me a lot and if I hadn’t made all those experiences I’d be a ‘less complete’ person. Or maybe just a different person… As you grow older time gets more and more valuable. There is so much to do, yet the day stays at 24h duration. These days I wish the day had 48 hours. Not being forced to work for income surely would be an insane help. 😅
Well will take we’re just one example. No one opened doors for Elon Musk. Yet he’s ended up on par with the wealthiest people on the planet. He’s 100% self-made through his own vision and execution. Your post is just other rubbish. It’s just a slotted hand like Robert Reich. He’s really just fooling around with the definition of self-made to exclude just about everybody.
In the Office, Ryan says "everybody wants to be a millionaire, but nobody wants to work for it". Funny thing is, nobody "works" for it. You don't work your 9-5 job and become a millionaire.
I'm a millionaire and I work a 9-5 job. I am just a high wage worker doing programming. I however was already middle class, my dad having a union job that could send me to higher education at a time before the GOP privatized the student loans and skyrocketed the price of education. This is why I am a progressive, I got lucky and I know it.
@@HistoricLifeThen you are not a millionaire. No successful person would ever say that they only got rich because of “luck”, unless they won the lottery. You are probably just a MacDonald’s worker😂😂
@@elshamaro4658 I have 3 million in investments and my house is over a million and paid off. Yes luck is a factor. I was born into a stable family in a top notch public school district. I chose programming because I liked it not because I thought it would earn a top salary. I am nearly 50 so I graduated from collage before the republicans deregulated Fanny Mae and caused the major increassed costs of higher education. I did not get a home in the 4x average salary era but I also got it before it hit 8x. Since I am a high wage earner I only paid 4x my household wage even though my area is expensive. Lucky timing by age, my homelife, my school district. I also educate myself on the things I invest in but my good luck in where and when I was born is in fact a major factor.
First time watching your channel. Love it! I've been saying this for a long time but most Americans vote against their own best interest while they worship the very people to who hold society as debt slaves. Great job! Thanks!
Exactly, voting repubicKKKan is the way to maintain all this abuse of power through policies that protect them and make them more powerful, destroying democracy in the process.
I've never & will never understand the mentality of people defending/shilling for these billionaires all while they continue to get richer & the people shilling for them continue to sink further into poverty. Humanity is truly mind blowing
@@BenotzJoethat's simply not true. Their "success" is a direct consequence of soaking the blood out of every other person around. If you're a billionaire and your employees earn a loan under the lower average it's you who keeping this inequality running! Besides of preventing other businesses being built on fair conditions, by creating this inequality in the first time! This is why "the market will take care of it" is just not working. The state have to or sooner or later the people will by their own!
Who is shilling for billionaires? People become billionaires by providing billions of dollars worth of value for other people. For the most part their billions are in shares of companies they operate. To the extent they have money or wealth is because other people have essentially handed over wealth to them because they’re receiving a value in return. I know it’s really hard to understand when you are not a person who provides value but that’s how it works.
@@alexanderSydneyOz bullshit. You wouldn't say this about a criminal or mobster, but it's actually the same thing. The only difference is that usually the law is made by rich people for rich people, with many who have to fight for their right but are repressed by police in their legimit fight for equality! You my friend are just another brainwashed servant for their good who believe the lies the media owned by other rich people tells you!
@@alexanderSydneyOz I don't know why my comments frequently get deleted, but I try it in a even nicer way. You talking nonsense! You wouldn't say that about mobsters or dictators... The lack of a fair system doesn't make greed a supportive behavior! The law is made by rich people for rich people, while hard working and honest people have to fight for every single cent. The system is the problem. And people like you, little servants make it just way harder to change something!
Note that the that well-known expression "pull(ing) yourself up by the bootstraps" is nearly always misunderstood. It is a description of the impossible, i.e. defying gravity which can't be done.
That's not true. I distinctly remember reading about how Baron van Munchausen pulled not just himself but also his horse up out of quicksand by his own hair. Google it.
@@Zach-ju5vi You have merely contradicted the author by using a different definition of the word "exploitation". Whether or not the worker agreed to the terms of employment is not the meaning of the term "exploitation" in this context. Here "exploitation" refers to an economic phenomenon. The monetary value of a employee's output is higher than the monetary value of their compensation, and this difference is retained by the employer. If you would like to argue that this is okay, good, just, etc then go ahead and make the case for why this private accrual of wealth is a good thing in a democratic society. Otherwise you can hardly make a convincing argument.
@@Zach-ju5vi 53% of inflation over the past two years is directly tied to corporate profits while increased labor costs account for only 8%. Meanwhile, the increase in median household income was "statistically insignificant" per the census bureau, while CEO salaries increased by 18%, an average increase of $2.8M. As former Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly says in his recent book, an extreme ideology of profits over people overtook the US business model starting in the mid-70s, transforming what used to be a goal of creating jobs and national prosperity into one that undermines domestic innovation and long-term growth.
@@Zach-ju5vi Per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the greatest killer of jobs over the decades has been the swallowing up of small businesses by large conglomerates. The 2017 tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy with no new job creation gave corporations the leverage to buy up competitors, helping to create the oligopolistic market conditions we see today, and which are a textbook driver of inflation. That is, in econ 101 a lack of competition causes arbitrary price hikes. The point is that in a healthy capitalist market, the nation and its people share in the prosperity of their labors, but the data shows the opposite to be the case.
and stealing other ideas and also producing products of destruction and degeneracy well atleast in case of elon musk psychological labour of his fans having blind belief reliant in a state of incompetance but for the rest of them this applies degenerating other ppls ideas into mass production of degeneration of which the already astablished previous system is prone to and of which a couple mediocre losers apealed and degenerated ruined this technological advancment for further incompetance degeneration for immediate power and profit and enabling even further incompetances idiots to make a bunch of be handed a bunch of money through a sliver plate that they couldn't fathem it is like watching primative mnkey on an unfathemtable technological advancment and propagate this waste this degeneracy and that they used and abused by exploiting a schemey loophoole integrating with that garbage system irresponsibly and then for that use and abuse of propagationg of degeneracy at a magnitude scale we've never seen before for immediate short turm profit and then for the lesser extent they used and abused on a very minor front line part of the plan used exploitation of workers for a product that shouldn't even exist and is the quickest easiest way in which this person with no appreciation has to exploit this thing they have hijacked being pout into a culture of degeneration through unconsciousness that encourages incompetance and subconsciously being herded into something you shouldn't like
As a young boy I didn't understand my grandmother's reference to 'Fat Cats'. Now, as I near retirement, seeing savings losses mount and inequity rampant, I know what she meant. Then I thought her a radical. Now I see she was clear sighted. Thank you Robert!
There is no "upper middle class." There is only the working class and the owning class. They can lie and say they work, but their work is a text while on a yacht trip. That's the ultimate difference.
If you have a yacht you're not upper middle-class. Upper middle-class are usually suburbanites. People who are wealthier than most, but definitely not rich. Not even millionaires.
One lesson I've learnt from billionaires is to always put your money to work, and diversifying your investments. I'm planning to invest about $200k of my funds in stocks this year, and I know I’ll make profits.
You are right. The best approach I feel is to diversify investments by spreading investments across different asset classes like bonds, real estate, and international stocks, they can reduce the impact of a market meltdown.
A few summers ago, after a lengthy divorce, I needed a boost to keep my firm viable. I looked for licensed advisors and found one with the highest qualifications, and despite inflation, she has helped me increase my reserve from $275k to $850k. Many people undervalue advisors until their own feelings become intense.
I really want to get in with a financial advisor this year, especially as all markets are hitting lows. I don't want to be too optimistic and end up losing everything.
People say that Musk had all thos wealth behind him, but him and his father hated eachother and he received no wealth from his parentage. He double majored in college, got his degree, then started or simply developed multiple small businesses before any major financial breakthroughs. That's not to say I agree with the man's behaviors nowadays, but he really did have to work his butt off early on.
'If you safety net to joining the billionaire class is remaining upper class, that's not pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. Nor is failing to pay your fair share of taxes along the way.' - Robert Reich'
Not paying your fair share of taxes is a theft in the rest of us. I don't get how politicians have sold people that taxes are bad, they're patriotic. It's how they're used, and if they're not acquired fairly, which they're not.
montecristo is CORRECT. I used to hear Filipino doctors, attorneys and engineers say, "I came to this country with nothing and built my own success." I was "damned tired of hearing these stories" too and told them what they started with. They came here with college degrees from prestigious Filipino universities PAID FOR BY THIER DADDIES. I however, as a native-born citizen, worked and loaned my way through college and paid the loans off over several years of scrimping.
@@fritzforsthoefel8031 I worked 2 full time jobs at the same time. My son works 65 to 70. No one is impressed. Most workers work at least 60 hours. They still can't make it. It's called wage gap.
I worked for an electronics company once. The owner was a very wealthy man. And he has this same "started his company in his parents garage" story. It's obvious he never had to truly struggle like us poor people. I knew it was an exaggeration.
@@jsebby2284 no they dont - they all came from pre-existing significant wealth combined with massive worker exploitation they did not make themselves or earn it - they were rich and then proceeded to steal more
Part of this rags riches in America story comes from an author named Horatio Alger, a failed Unitarian minister (lost the gig from getting sexually out of line with a couple of teenage boys) who leader reinvented himself as a novelist. A key point to a lot of his stories was a troubled teenage boy that was rescued by a wealthy older man.
@@artandarchitecture6399 No, it didn't. You're trying to sell the lie that you swallowed because, either couldn't be bothered to look into it for yourself, or deliberately avoided learning the truth to rationalize your own questionable actions. "If I didn't do it somebody else would have" and "Everybody does it" are the most common rationalizations.
@@rickb3650 “learning the truth”, there are currently 32.5 million small businesses in America. They are created by ordinary people. This hatred of “the wealthy” is fueled by nothing but anger and jealousy. If they are paying their workers too little, the workers don’t have to work there. If they are selling their product for too much, you don’t have to buy their product. It’s that simple.
@@artandarchitecture6399 my grandfather was an immigrant that lived in poverty and started a business. He sold the business to a rich man and managed to live as middle-class. He never became rich. He had to continue working throughout his life and went from middle middle-class to lower middle-class to lower class over a span of living in the USA for 80 years. This nation bled him back into poverty after rising him to a basic standard of living. There is no immigrant that became rich on hard work. Just struggles of maintaining the wealth we acquire. He did everything correct in the end. But the nation decided to screw him over in his final decades with healthcare costs.
True... I worked in the High-line and Exotic car business for 45 years. I know and have met many Billionaires. Not one of them came from nothing. All BS
@@jsebby2284 Nobody is "self made." Adam Smith argued as much. T hat was the whole point of his argument. All of us depend on others. This is just as true of billionaires as it is for those of modest means. Let's applaud the contributions of billionaires but realize that there were many who helped them along the way.
@@Zach-ju5vi More of the same sedative nonsense expected from this channels Mr. Sandman the cure for insomnia our boy Ambien Zach. YAWN....ZZZZzzzz.....
Born rich - Die rich Born poor - die poor Yes, the likes of the uber rich people we're well aware of like to portray they had humble beginnings and every1 can make it to their level, if they work tirelessly for years on end! - Reality Check : It sugar coats their reputation and skewers the dark truth - as seen in this video 😐😑
(Sayer, 2015) Why We Can’t Afford the Rich (McQuaig, 2010) The Trouble with Billionaires: Why Too Much Money at the Top Is Bad (McQuaig, 2013) Billionaires’ Ball: Gluttony and Hubris (Pizzigati, 2018) The Case for a Maximum Wage (Nolan, 2017) Time to Make Life Hard for the Rich
@@BondJFK No you're the loser who keeps them rich in the first place. You don't understand what they're doing, that's why they keep doing it and make you believe you need them. LMAO
@@BondJFK They keep deleting my replies because they don't want me to wake you up. But if you think I'm the loser, think again, they're not deleting my replies for nothing. You are being fooled, that's all I will say.
Robert, can you explain the history of how overtime rules got changed in the US? As an hourly worker in the 80s early 90s, I used to get OT for anything after 8 hours worked. Sometime that changed by the 2000s to where the only state that still pays this way is California. Take for example this last labor day week- a perfect sad example that includes "Labor Day". I had worked 50 hours from Tuesday to Saturday. Yet until I got over 48 hours worked for the week I only got 2 hours overtime due that labor day was a holiday and that doesn't count towards the 40 hour work week. In fact I worked Saturday but still didn't get any overtime until I crested ABOVE the 48 hrs worked level. I am scheduled Monday - Friday, every week as a robotics service engineer in healthcare. This changed for me under the same rules in 2009, so I'm guessing some house representatives introduced legislation to change the rules that used to apply in the early 90s when I used to get OT after 8 hours worked and double time on holidays. Those days are gone. I assume the house changed it in the days of Newt Gingrich, and the Senate confirmed it into law. Can you explain the history of this to us? It would make a FABULOUS video. Thanks, Jim in Ohio.
I don’t know nothing about over time. If labor day was holiday then work week should be 32 hours and anything more than 32 hours should be overtime? It doesn’t work that way ?
I know a tiny bit about this. In the 2000s, laws were enacted that created a new category of employee ‘salaried’, which gave an overtime exemption to anyone who is supervising other employees or performing a technical or administrative type job. That allowed employers to demand that workers put in more than 40 hours for no more pay. The only ones who are protected now by overtime laws are ‘hourly’ front-line workers. Most of the jobs I held since then, expected 45-50 hours/week as the norm
I believe that Robert Reich is doing a wonderful public service because he is able to explain it and put it in a short video that anybody could watch and learn Thank You Robert
The saddest part is how people defend the system because they started with nothing and by around 40-50 they have a house a car or cars and they still believe that they still have a chance to be billionaires
2:13 Any corporation whose employees qualify for public assistance ought to be taxed a minimum of double the amount of the total amount of public assistance for which their employees qualify, whether it's all claimed or not, until every employee is paid 50% more than the cutoff for public assistance eligibility, and maintain that level of wages for every employee indefinitely. Then their tax rate can be reduced to their fair share of corporate taxation.
LOVE IT! Been working nights, overtime, and going to school for my bachelor's and master's degree. Can't even afford no buy a home without using my VA loan benefit. Still going to wait for the housing collapse but as someone who comes from a poor family with limited resources. No one is going to help you but yourself! College should be free and there should be price caps on tuition...just another way to keep you as an indentured servant and keep your liquidity at a minimum. God forbid you want to start your own business and be your own boss.
Stop thinking like a poor person. Kudos to you for your work ethic, and yes, education should be free. It actually is, all of it, if you don’t need a piece of paper. And you don’t if you just start your own business. Which requires less than you already have. I know, because I did it.
"College should be free...." Ha ha. The typical socialist/capitalist-hater's dream. So, either the people working there must work for the love of it so you can have it for free, and the facilities and other resources must be donated (by 'other people') so you can use it for free, or.... the government should pay for it. Except... the government uses tax payers money to do that. In which case it isn't free after all, is it?
Great video, as always. These freeloading nepotism tax avoiders need to be called out and more importantly, taxed their fair share, with zero loopholes.
@@jsebby2284 Thanks bubba for proving my point. You are the typical corporate stooge who has never had a clear thought in their life, that the great Professor Reich triggers with his fact filled videos.. You are the poster boy for the phrase "Figures lie and liars figure".
@@jsebby2284 0% of billionaires are "self made" they exploit those around them and their workers to "earn" all that money while also doing everything they can to avoid paying their fair share. Literal parasites.
I have a master's degree and spent eight years and three months living in homeless shelters due to lack of responses to my job applications. You met me at Columbia University with Cathy O'Neil, who wrote about me in her book on Shame. I am constantly trolled by people want to shame me into thinking that I'm not working hard enough because I'm not spending every waking hour applying to job postings that never reply to me or because I am unwilling to work anything but a desk job when I have physical challenges and need to use a cane to stand for any length of time (and it's painful no matter what).
This reminds me of the joke (?) back during the Obama years... A billionaire, a Tea Partier and a minimum wage employee are sitting at a table with a dozen doughnuts in the center. The billionaire takes eleven, turns to the Tea Partier and says "watch out, that guy is going to want some of your doughnut.".
Sure some of the people who have vast fortunes did have to put the work in and take opportunity's when the presented themselves, what these people don't understand is most never get the opportunity they have been afforded. I've argued this time and again, no one is self made. Everyone gets a helping hand every now and again if they recognise it or no, but the system is rigged to give those who need the help the least the most.
Plus something that isn't talked about. It was a position of privilege to have early access to the internet. When most people were either using internet cafes or sharing a computer and phone line with other house members, these tech billionaires had personal computers, dedicated phone lines for internet, etc. There's a phrase with internet success stories "it doesn't matter if you're the best, as long as you're the first." It is so true. I personally feel this disparity between early internet behemoths and the rest of the population's access to the internet will be viewed in the future as a form of redlining. If, of course, the elites allow history to be taught objectively
🎯 So glad this channel has a pretty good following. Lotsa channels try, but very few get the info out far + wide enough as here, or maybe the Gravel Inst or Richard Wolff but we all gotta try + spread this knowledge - handy to have it in the video description too 👏
Yet there is a positive difference: families who stick together do achieve. Families who are full of hate and competition towards each other lose. Good video - thanks.
this is something that should be a part of all degrees: understanding economics and how they work for the average person, or more accurately, *don't* work for the average person.
which in and of itself a huge lie. lol Trump's casinos got in trouble with the gaming commission because his dad would come in and "lose" tons of money to bolster his casino's bottom line
50 years ago my grandfather used to tell me: son, nobody gets rich by working. Later someone said: If hard work were the way to get rich, women in Africa were all millionaires.
In a more equal society we wouldn't need as many people doing private investments like real estate and or passive income streams. A living wage should be the law of the land
Democrats want a livable wage healthcare paid family leave vacation time and pension and childcare so according to Democrats drop out of school get a low skilled job and live good
A surgeon in NYC who goes to college maney years and works long hours and earns four hundred thousand dollars will pay between state local and federal half his money to the government and the Democrats want more
The massive profits are earned by ordinary workers. That money doesn't simply get magicked into existence by the efforts of the board. The board and owners/stockholders then take the huge bulk of those profits for themselves and dole out a tiny fraction to the people who really created the wealth.
Calling them unicorns is actually a right fit for Musk. His sort of insecurity, he'd definitely have them surgically attach a phallic metaphor to his forehead.
I worked for a construction contractor in NYC. He became a millionaire in less than 10 years. No mystery how he did it. He employed minorities and illegal immigrants who earned less than half of what a union construction worker earned and paid no benefits. In fact he carried no workmens comp. Injured workers were left to fend for themselves. 😡
Expose the LEECH!
that’s unfortunately often the ugly truth about becoming a self-made multi-millionaire/billionaire, it’s not that it’s impossible, but rather that you might end up finding at least one or a few skeletons in your closet (and that’s if you somehow didn’t have any to begin w/)
so why don't *you* start your own construction business and employ illegal immigrants and minorities and pay them 2x as much? At least he was helping illegal immigrants get a job that still paid several times more than what they would otherwise make back in Mexico
Hahaha I know a guy in CA with a similar resume.
I can bet he was some Indian guy from Gujarat with surnames such as Patel, Gupta
A quarter million dollars investment 30 years ago isn’t “middle class” it’s “filthy rich”
I was just thinking that. Converted to today's value, that's over 530k USD. If you worked for 40 years full-time at minimum wage and saved every penny, you still wouldn't have that much money.
Not really. I was middle class and did so. It is called investing and a gamble.
@@Youreplywasalie Investing is by definition not work - you're using money you already have and effectively paying other people to go make you more money.
Gambling on stocks is just... gambling. Literally anyone could do it, and it's up to chance whether they succeed or not.
@@astecheee1519 But... but... that doesn't play into the narrative!
@@astecheee1519
"Literally anyone can do it and it's up to chance if it succeeds or not."
Wrong. Imvesting in a company is not a guarantee to become a millionaire, nor even a guarantee to get a return on your investment. But working a job isn't a guarantee either. Even if you work hard, the company could go bankrupt, or you could be working hard for exploitative employers. For easy examples of those two concepts:
I worked at an office where I'd show up at 5am and leave at 8pm on average, and was finally looking at a promotion because of my hard work. Then all our investors pulled out and we had massive layoffs. I was one day away from promotion, literally.
At the same company, we had a cleaning crew come by morning and night. One of the guys working there was an immigrant from India with a university degree in computer science. Working as a toilet cleaner. At an IT firm. Meanwhile, I was looking at a promotion, even though I actually never finished my education.
Point is, investing is no more of a gamble than the rest of life. We're all picked at random, and while it's easy to spit vitriol about how everyone who's successful cheated or won the lottery of fate or doesn't deserve it and they're evil and it should be your money!, there's just no point to doing it. Rich people aren't anymore evil than poor people, that might be a tough pill to swallow, but for every Epstein there's a million regular people out there exploiting children. Hell, how many people do you pass as you walk down the street? How many people sleep a few feet away from you, separated by a wall? And how many of those people have slipped something into a teenager's drink at a bar? How many of them beat their spouses/partners? How many of them steal from their own friends and from strangers? No, rich people are just regular people with the ability to get away with it. This is not a defence of rich people btw, these are just things to consider, such that you may better focus on things that matter. It is best to understand the beast, and let go of your hatred for it.
The REAL reason you don't see self-made billionaires is because no one is self-made, we're all reliant on each other, and we all serve a different function, and the harm of "The American Dream" extends far beyond the usual complaints about how it's too hard to climb that far. The real danger this poses is the way that it has so thoroughly separated people from each other. People think they should achieve results on their own to have value, but no singular human has ever accomplished anything of value. It's all about what we can do together.
Anyway tangents aside, investing is perfectly fine, but you can't just randomly invest and expect to get a million dollars. I invest from time to time, and I usually get a decent amount back, and I've never lost money on it, because I do my research, pick carefully, and exercise patience instead of panic investing and panic selling.
People sometimes forget that Donald Trump grew up surrounded by poverty.
The maid was poor. The gardener was poor. The chauffer, cook, masseuse, all poor...
How does he do it 😁
Underrated comment. 🤣🤣🤣
@@BrinnerDang 🎯🤣🤣🤣
This is the same with those saying bill gates, elon musk and mark Zuckerberg is college dropout. They just leave the details they're dropout from havard
😂 😂 !
My father used to say : you don't get rich by working. You get rich by getting the people to work for you.
The bank wins and the private bank of the company wins. Everyone else who gave to the company lost.
There is a lot of Marxist rubbish in all this. Why can't you believe that there have been men who were poor and could become millionaires? What about the first explorers who discovered oil, gold, silver, railways, the shipping industry, the construction of apartment buildings, as was the case with Donald Trump's father, etc.
I learned this in the military.
To be a successful NCO you need to know how to get people to work for you. If done correctly you'll make it look easy
But you’re still working I would even say that most billionaires worked harder to get where they are than average Joe
This is better: you get rich by persuade people to give you money.
Quote by Honoré de Balzac: “Behind every great fortune there is a crime.”
Yes, he was right but the crime will remain a secret.
my dude is really called ballsack
Taxation is a crime.
Alot of blood on the jew hands then. We know how they all got rich. "Boo hoo, poor us, we were almost annihilated. Give, give, and serve Israel. The jew collective made serious bank when they and the Bush administration bombed the Twin Towers. Just remember for all of us who served in the early 2000s, we didn't go to war to defend America from terrorists. We went to war to make jews wealthier.
El trumpo
A prof I had ( finance class ) said the easiest way to make a million dollars is to start with two million dollars.
I heard that too.
That's how the Bush's, daddy and Bubba made it .
Or go to college become an orthopedic surgeon which pays enormously good of course democrats would take most of your money away for handouts to the less educated
Over ninety percent of the rich did not inherit there wealth and the top five percent in two thousand twenty two paid sixty percent of the federal taxes Democrats party of handouts
great but they made those 2 million from scratch
"That's why they call it the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it." George Carlin
Tha's crazy.
George Carlin = CRAZY GENIUS !!!
RIP that genius
All that it takes to become a self made billionaire is dedication, hard work, and a couple of billion dollars from your parents.
The dedication part is optional.
The hard work is just plain wrong. Like elon who spends most of his time shitposting on twitter.
WOW !!! I knew it was easy !!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Hard work of the underpaid employees.
Except, that's just demonstrably false. Most billionaires grew up middle-class.
"Underpaid" more like work that literally anybody can do. Skill is your value, not work. Anybody can do construction, but few can do computer programming.
in the 2 years since this was posted, the wealthiest have increased their wealth exponentially aided by even more favourable government policies being passed
Yeah because of policies that Trump had put in place in his last scamming administration. He gonna help the rich again you watch!
GOV WELFARE !!! true definition !!!
I mean at this point of time in US, there’s no real difference between mafias/mobs and governments unlike before.
They practically own it via middlemen known as billionaires, and while politicians are left to fend on their selves and the “weak” honourable ones either forced to quit or simply got too much in them they have to quit.
If you justify saying that’s how the e system is, the whole system is that bad, US would had been a wasteland of failed corruptions 100 years ago…
Still can’t wrap my head around the “wealthy” sports team owners who use public funds to build stadiums. 😂
The argument (or reason cities claim) is the revenue generated are worth the price the city pays. Even if that’s true I still say BS.
@@ianalan4367 yeah, I mean still… really don’t find it fair that we as taxpayers have to front money for something that does a “billionaire” a favor. Shoot, they can afford it.
@@hamburgermatty They can print all the money they need - your taxes add up to very little - you are taxed in order to keep you broke.
what I can't wrap my head around is that the people allow that kind of thing to happen
@@artandarchitecture6399 not as often as you might think. The owners also threaten to move the local teams to another state if they don’t get their free stadium, too.
That’s why I’m so damned tired of those stories about immigrant grandparents or great-grandparents who claim they “came to this country with less than five dollars in their pocket but within a few years owned a company.” I’m like, “Okay, either it was REALLY easy to succeed back then, or you’re leaving some major details out of the story.”
(Whoa! Just turned my notifications back on. Thanks for all the likes, but as predicted there are a lot of you getting personal and claiming I’m a “failure” for some reason. Hey, I’d rather be a supposed failure than a loser. Losers don’t even try, right? But seriously, I wish everyone the success they claim they and their family members supposedly deserve. Hope they didn’t have to lie, cheat, or step on anyone to succeed as much as you claim they did. Bravo to all the honest uncles, fathers, and grandfathers who started with nothing. You have every right to be proud.)
Part of the lie is that their immigrant ancestor was poor. Very few of those immigrants were, after all they were wealthy enough to afford passage. They were mostly middle-class-ish, not rich, but relatively well off and skilled in a trade, which they leveraged once they got here. But of course people love telling the rags-to-riches story because it sounds good.
@@matt2027 exactly this is why it is complex with migrants it is like getting most times another systematic white bootlicker that wants the system to stay the same oppressive
its all random wealth distribution if you are still unconscious to that with all of the resources and ability for cognative freedom you have and dont know that your just beyond brainwashed you know in WWII they made the japanese "leader" or king or whatever titles he gives himself through abuse of technological advancment made by other ppl to legitimise himself and maximise his control make ppl feel like there are much bigger structures above them to keep them in isolation and incompetance believing whatever lies they feed them out of the mind structuring of having blind belief in power as the only option mind structure they are put into inescapably and directed told to go into a path of survival of which they are unconsciously being hereded into and is all they know and slowly become an isolated dehumanised slave to a robotic entity of destruction for sustainment for a singular mans power who they through technological advancment of a never seen before magnitude and abuse of it brainwashed to believe he is some sort of god when in reality he was just a toddler little brat warlord who went a did a bunch of evil sh*t and scared everyone into submission until he got his hands on technological advancment of which he used and abused for further consentration of power and destruction of humanity anyways whatever you get the point they made him admit that he wasn't some megasized god that could stomp mountains through abuse of technological advancment through hiajacking with violence to propagate and consentrate waste humans minds put them into a state of incompetance into blind subserviancy belief in the god by putting him besides the leader of usa if china came over and dominated us with there authoritarianism they'd likely do the same they'd dominate our authoritarianism of which we've suffered under the illusions it propages as a justification for itself and in ppls incompetance so they with there authoritarianism come and dominate our authoritarianism and make billionaires say workers work 10x as hard in a day than in there entitled corrupt handed to them lives and that hard work isn't even remotely a metric of reality or substance in the structuring of this system based fueled on degeneration and self destruction and that everyone suffered for nothing under an illusion a lie we propagated and were inescapably able to get you into herd you socially cultural conditioning into a state of incompetance and behavioral charactoristics and prioratisation and basing your life around what we wanted if they came in authoritarianised our authoritarianism and dominated our authoritarianism into submission of there authoritarianism that wouldn't be so bad
I think honestly that sorta thing was really only possible if you shined shoes for some mafia boss in the 1920's or 30's and he liked you enough to give you a shot. In that sort of situation it would be possible to prove yourself and work up the ranks from "rags to riches". Also before the 70's it was way easier to start brick and mortar businesses with less competition, fewer regulations, less ethical treatment of workers, etc. Nowadays it would be nearly impossible for most people to start some thriving business from nothing in the middle of Chicago or NYC...
You also have to remember that hundred years ago 5 dollars was considered alot of money. The average wage was in the 10s of cents a day so basically the translation is I had a at minimum a months wages at the time. Then that person probably never mention the departments and family members that may have assisted him in getting a job to make the money needed to achieve "the dream" or the economic policies the government did at the time, the new deal was and fdr really set up the ground work for the middle and lower class prosperity.
But I'm still stuck on I wish 5 bucks could last me a month........
My Grandfather told me,"When a criminal has made all they can as a crook,they become a politician."
Literally true. UK MP, Grant Shapps, made his money selling get rich quick scams to vulnerable people on the internet before going into politics.
He spoke the truth
Elon mao
Politicians are but a serfs to capital, hoping that some crumble falls from the have-alls
Unfortunately, one of the only ways to stop these crookiticians is….to also become a politician.
Which is why-despite loving these billionaires and grifters fleecing them-right wingers will claim that AOC is a greedy politician desperate for more power. AOC, a working class bartender who entered Congress to be a voice for the working class and has been largely successful at that to this day.
These people are actual psychotics.
4:03 "Billionaires are not made by rugged individuals. They're made by policy failures. And a system that rewards wealth over work." 👈
You have to reward wealth over work. There is already too much useless made up bullshit jobs. Just imagine if more was rewarded. On the other hand... wealth is just wealth. Gold is gold. Pretty hard to fake gold and land.
Elon musk puts in seven day work weeks without him telsa would not have survived and thousands of jobs would have been lost Democrats party of handouts vote out handout Democrats before it's to late our childrens future depend on it
I definitely disagree, you can bevine a billionaire in Europe by spending less than 15 000 eur per year on your life Whisky building a self founded company.
The secret sauce consists og a hughe added value scalability of said offering and very great margins + cash in advance payments by customers.
The problem is you need to carve out 5 years of your life to get there.
@@CoockerooThis approach may be feasible for some, but this path is not accessible or realistic for many people. The system still favors those with existing wealth, resources, and connections. You can't deny this. Your strategy requires a significant investment of time (5 years) and likely a substantial amount of initial capital. Not everyone has the privilege of dedicating years of their life to building a business or has access to the necessary resources. Your comment is an oversimplification of the wealth creation process.
Work is useless. I can go dig pot holes 16 hrs a day and work harder than Elon musk. The labor theory of value is a joke.
Corporate greed is off the rails. Then they spend millions or more to fight unions. Such hypocrites. Make them pay their part. Thx Professor. You’re the best
Even though I don't make a lot of money I'd donate a freaking kidney just to support groups the sue the union busters ans sue them good. I really despise union busting. It's near the top of my hate list.
People can boycott and destroy any corporation - but the word "boycott" is never mentioned anywhere.
has capitalism failed yet?
@@peterbullen4956 It fails when people trust corporations to do the right thing. Trust. What a stupid attribute.
@@peterbullen4956 No....it's the best, most equitable system yet. Is it Socialism, Communism and the 'Lite' version of those- unions- you are thinking of? They fail and always will.
Visit Detroit if you think Unions work. Why would a smart person want some 'committee' to decide their working conditions?
My brother does this all the time. He’s a millionaire with no kids. He leaves out the part where our mom paid 7 years of his education.
He may have forgotten the sage advice, "No man is an island entire unto himself ..."
Whatever great business a person might create that makes them a big pile of money, the big pile of money only comes if there are sufficient numbers of other people with money to spend. Same story is true of genius artists, unless they hitch their wagons to patronage from the already very wealthy.
@@Hiltok that’s defeatist nonsense
But the story would be the same if he took out student loans right? Maybe you’re a little jelly?
@@Aikidoman06 possibly, but not likely. 7 years is easily over $100,000. If his mother hadn't covered that, then he'd be paying on that as soon as he graduated. If he didn't land a very well paying job right out the gate, then he'd be paying every month while huge amounts of interest accrued and he'd probably still be paying that off. College being paid for absolutely gave him leeway to save or invest his money after graduating.
@@AquilaCat he could have easily served in the Peace Corps or military to pay for school. If you are going to what if all day. I have three degrees; GI Bill paid for the first one and a semester of grad school. I paid out of pocket for the remainder of my masters and all of my PhD. The point is it wouldn’t matter how it was paid for; it’s the student that earns the degree. Had I taken loans it would have been a car payment level bill, so my life would hardly be any different
Took a finance class where the teacher kept talking about how to skimp and save and invest to eventually become wealthy. I remember going to Wells Fargo that semester to open an investment account to start applying what I had learned. Minimum balance for such accounts is $1000, and you need to have a "relationship with the bank" before they let you open one.
Find a good looking bank employee and ask them on a date to start that "relationship" 😉
Oy Vey
It's a big giant club .... And you ain't in it.
Wells Fargo is a sorry excuse for a bank.
I’ve been saying this for years. “Self-made” millionaires and billionaires are a fallacy.
Wealth is built in the backs of other human beings.
Disagree, a millionaire can be an average person who worked in a good job, saved and invested well. A couple of million doesn't mean you stood on anyone. Billionaires however, we agree...
@@bera0014Ronald Read is a case example of this. Guy built a $9m fortune and worked as a gas station attendant and janitor.
What do you think the Biden family is doing ? Jabroni!
Democrats voted for tax breaks for Billionaires three times. Once for Trump, twice for GW Bush. Oops. 😂
Reich is no doubt a millionaire.
Most money is made off the hard work of others from their employees to the infrastructure they use, but don't want to pay taxes for...
@@Zach-ju5vi "they didn't personally profit" LOL
Wanna buy a bridge Zach?
@@Zach-ju5vi You're right it's because they don't show profits on paper, but that's due to loopholes engineered by lobbyists over decades. Bezos pays an effective 0% tax rate on his $140B per IRS documents released by Propublica, which wouldn't be the case without loopholes. This is why the Inflation Reduction Act included a minimum corporate tax rate that even bipartisan analysts agree was long overdue. Former hedge fund executive Morris Pearl has written extensively about this topic.
@@Zach-ju5vi or little or virtually none at all that you know, they find many ways to evade paying taxes...but you DO know that huh, traitor?
@@tuberific454 don't bother...the pro-greed/pro-russian qult45 traitor loves to troll on every sensible topic reich is talking about...& it stinks.
@@tuberific454 Bingo + thanx for shouting out ProPublica 👏
The boss comes at the office with a brand new Lamborghini. When all of his employees gather to admire it, he stands and tell them: "If for the whole of this year, each and any of you will work very very hard, next year I'll be able to buy me another one"
@@artandarchitecture6399 I would point out something, though... How many people do you know that went from "doing that same job" to buying Lamborghinis? It may have been possible in the 70s or the 80s, but I don't know if it happened with any appreciable frequency in the last 30 years...
What a great boss. You must love working for him.
And then some time later, he’s wondering who keyed his Lambo.
Bulk Shit Alert
mine didnt buy a new lambo, but it WAS a rather rare and particularly valuable lambo...
along with the "business trips" to china every few months (partly legitimate) that job started to seem less inviting every day...
one of those niche businesses where he got to charge what he wanted, and lets say, if "daddy" hadnt inherited it to him, and if it was a "regular" business... there was no way he could have built it to what it was with some of his managerial decisions...
Thank you for this truth, Robert Reich. Deserves 27 million views, not just 27,000.
As Reagan once said, "A rising tide lifts all boats". Unfortunately.......few of us own yachts or even a rowboat.
The Reagan-style "rising tide" lifts all YACHTS.
Yep the rising tide just drowns the resto of us; its called inflation and its cause is corporate greed.
A rising tide lifting the boats, while the rest of us struggle to float
A rising tide eventually drowns everybody...
Reagan was vile.
The fact these billionaires became even richer during the Covid pandemic is utterly insane. We scrounge around for any kind of assistance and they take it in like any other typical Tuesday afternoon.
That's a good thing Amazon provided online shopping during the pandemic comeing in real handy during the shutdown due to the pandemic Amazon made money during the pandemic by providing a valuable service
Would you rather Amazon have shut down during the pandemic depriving people of online shopping during the pandemic
Are you saying Amazon should have shut down online shopping during the pandemic if not then what's insane about them makeing a profit by providing a valuable service during the pandemic
@@fritzforsthoefel8031 The problem is that the companies are willing to put peoples lives at risk without paying any reward.
No wonder Amazon, Google and Facebook were for the lockdowns and blasted Trump!
What’s more disappointing is working class folks who work 100 hours a week will rabidly defend these billionaires as if they will be like them one day.
John Steinbeck once said that socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires.
That’s until everyone begin to realise how stupid and foolish that is, which is soon given how much problems arises now.
I worked my ass off at FedEx. After 3 years, my back didn't work well enough to keep doing it. Now I'm limited in the kind of jobs I can do.
Hard work got me a harder life. That's it. I'm making less money than I was a few years ago and everything costs much more.
But hey, at least my landlord is doing great. Must be nice to pay other people to build a house then profit off it without ever having to actually work yourself.
I'm waiting for a fool to tell you that you should have worked smart like all those lazy millionaires.😊
Yes and then the wealthy portrait themselves as if they were very intelligent and would just know how to make money. The other folks who work hard are just stupid
Their greed is insane. Yet most people don't want to be billionaires. The rest of is just want to live comfortably. Pay our bills, own a home, being able to take care of our families and still have some money left to enjoy life. Not working 2-3 jobs and feeling stressed.
Very true, a comfortable life should be the basic norm for everyone on this planet. That will solve 90% of the world's problems.
I’m living a comfortable life and I am very happy that most of these billionaires have changed the world for the better. They are not taking money from anyone. Want to be comfortable? Get off your ass, work a good profession and save and invest. Focus on yourself . It’s pretty simple.
@@nedegt1877 hasn't there been a survey that showed that people are basically ok if they have 6000 dollars in savings ...a nice little buffer to deal with life's curveballs
@@atomiccritter6492 That is true, in fact 90% of the world's problems can be solved easily if peoples had that.
Sometimes I feel like I'm from another planet. Because it's only logical to me that a lot of problems are caused by the way the money system is manipulated. It doesn't make sense.
Humans can design and build all kinds of complex systems, perform impossible calculations, navigate the cosmos and all. And you tell me they can't implement a more intelligent system to live by? You don't fool me; this world is run by crooks!
If you have a billion dollars, you can live comfortably, pay bills, own several homes, take care of family, and still have some left over.
"There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own - nobody. You built a factory out there? Good for you. But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police-forces and fire-forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn't have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory - and hire someone to protect against this - because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific, or a great idea. God bless - keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is, you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along." - Elizabeth Warren, 2012
One of the best speeches ever. I have this video as one of my UA-cam favorites.
I had not heard that speech before and it sounds great. Nicely highlights the boost that the rich got in the first place; the things they don't want to have to pay for now.
You forgot the immune systems " to weak" to survive massacre for hundreds of years.
Here's the thing. The Reich and his followers do not want the creators of those great ideas to keep a great chunk of them. In all likelihood, Ms. Warren doesn't either. When he talks about billionaires not paying their "fair share," there is no amount that will satisfy him. He will always want to take more. Those billionaires _do_ pay taxes. They didn't hire workers "the rest of us" paid to educate. They were subject to property taxes, too -- both on their homes and on their factories. Think they didn't pay for that infrastructure? Think again. That was paid for though gas taxes they paid at the pump like everybody else. The Reich talks specifically about "federal income tax" because it is misleading. There are a lot of taxes that they still pay. But they run their finances through legal frameworks not in their own names and pay taxes largely through those same frameworks. The Reich, and his followers, simply pretend that the money somehow counts but the payments don't.
The Reich and Ms. Warren, along with several others, are seeking to acquire power for themselves by giving you people to hate. They can't produce anything of value themselves, even a great idea. They only know how tor take. It is true that billionaires used resources provided by the government. They also paid into them. But the Reich wants you to hate them because they "have too much." Well, do you want to know how they got to have so much? People like you _paid_ them for providing goods and services you wanted. Now, you turn around and say, effectively, that you don't want them to have any benefit from that. You are rewriting the "social contract" to say that they have to give up everything, and then you still won't be satisfied.
100% the rich use our infrastructure WAY more than the average American.
Hey, I'm not against a CEO being wealthy. I'm against a CEO taking everyone else's hard-earned money for themselves. We do the lion's share of the work, they take more than the lion's share of the money. They're like dragons hoarding treasure and need to be dealt with the exact same way. Greed destroys everything.
We need to adopt Donkey's strategy and seduce them! But how do we prevent them from falling in love with us?
CEOs don't take everybody's hard earned money for themselves
then you're against rich people. they're mutually exclusive propositions
@@jsebby2284 au contraire! How wrong you are. Systemic theft of American wages couldn't be more obvious.
Here are some facts:
The Top 1% of Americans Have Taken $50 Trillion From the Bottom 90%-And That's Made the U.S. Less Secure
By Nick Hanauer and David M. Rolf
September 14, 2020 9:30 AM EDT
Hanauer is an entrepreneur and a venture capitalist, the founder of the public-policy incubator Civic Ventures, and the host of the podcast Pitchfork Economics.
Rolf is Founder and President Emeritus of SEIU 775 and the author of The Fight for Fifteen (New Press, 2016)
Like many of the virus’s hardest hit victims, the United States went into the COVID-19 pandemic wracked by preexisting conditions. A fraying public health infrastructure, inadequate medical supplies, an employer-based health insurance system perversely unsuited to the moment-these and other afflictions are surely contributing to the death toll. But in addressing the causes and consequences of this pandemic-and its cruelly uneven impact-the elephant in the room is extreme income inequality.
How big is this elephant? A staggering $50 trillion. That is how much the upward redistribution of income has cost American workers over the past several decades.
This is not some back-of-the-napkin approximation. According to a groundbreaking new working paper by Carter C. Price and Kathryn Edwards of the RAND Corporation, had the more equitable income distributions of the three decades following World War II (1945 through 1974) merely held steady, the aggregate annual income of Americans earning below the 90th percentile would have been $2.5 trillion higher in the year 2018 alone. That is an amount equal to nearly 12 percent of GDP-enough to more than double median income-enough to pay every single working American in the bottom nine deciles an additional $1,144 a month. Every month. Every single year.
time.com/5888024/50-trillion-income-inequality-america/
Rand Report:
www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/WRA516-1.html
Time Summary:
time.com/5888024/50-trillion-income-inequality-america/
Exactly!! Well said!!
Billionaires dont create jobs.
Customers do...
Bullshit
Money simulate customers.
@@robertagren9360 nope that's accurate
Thank you! Been saying for years that there is no such thing as self made
Over 70% of billionaires are self made.
@@Zach-ju5vi Same old MAGA cultist logic from this channels Mr. Sandman, Ambien Zach..
@@Zach-ju5vi Nothing ever changes from this channels corporate bootlicking sedative troll, Ambien Zach the cure for insomnia. Again you are triggered by anyone who agrees with the great Professor Reich's fact filled videos that set off your derangement for everyone to see, you poor sick little man.
@@jsebby2284 Name one.
@@geraltrivia6148 mark Zuckerberg
There will unfortunately always be a large swath of people who either won't see/believe it and will actively defend the system that generates billionaires out of hope they'll be one of them one day.
poor (and stupid) american: you're just promoting class warfare! 🙄
There is NO Republican that can TRUTHFULLY SAY that ANYTHING Professors Reich and Chomsky say is NOT TRUE!
Can't see something that doesn't exist.
70% of billionaires are self made. Reich is just lying as usual
@@jsebby2284 How did you arrive at 70% of the billionaires are self made men/women? BTW, there is nothing wrong with receiving help. Name a credible source. If I am wrong, I am the first to admit it.
@@JaimeGarcia-pe7bj it's from Forbes.
UA-cam doesn't allow links unfortunately
Just remembered an article/study that CEO's "work hard all day!". Something like 3 breakfast meetings, 2 lunch meetings and 3 dinner meetings! Whew, tough day stuffing your faces!
And I bet those meals were payed by the company too.
@@beebuzz959 of course, so its all a tax write-off. Just like they don't actually own their homes, the company does. The cars, boats, etc..
So just go become a CEO then.
@@theatomic430 you 'liked' your own comment? YIKES!
You told your (parents) to quit talking to losers, so they stopped talking to you
@@Adones09 You don’t like your own comments?
I remember at my previous job, that the head of the family company loved to tell people that he used to wash transportation carts in the factory for 5 years but after all that hard work, he was now the head of the company. A story about hard work paying off. Leaving the detail that he was a family member of the family business + no family member wanted that much work/responsability in the company.
This is also the same guy that held a speech at a christmas party for the company, where he told everyone that the success of the company, was thanks to money and investment. This was 25 minutes long and then 5 minutes of future plans. 1 line about thanking the workers.
Hard work never goes to waste, it always get's exploited.
I’ve never excepted the self made label. No one, I repeat, no one is self made. Even if you originated an idea and did a lot of the leg work to get things going someone at some point helped you take it to the next level. Someone invested in your idea or company, someone advised you along the way, someone inspired you or supported you or made it easier for you to focus more of your time and energy into it. Maybe it was a parent, a friend, a spouse or someone else but for some reason the we give all the credit to the person at the top and almost no credit to anyone else involved in making a company successful.
That's "trickle down" in credit too, it stays at the top.
This is simply not true. What you’ve described is piggy backing off of someone else. The CEO does most of the work and still would be successful without “suggestions” or “investments”. This is what lazy people do to take credit and use that as an argument for why you should give them money. It’s the opposite. The CEO gives you the opportunity to get a job, the opportunity to invest and the opportunity to give suggestions to improve the company.
If I do 70% of the project and you contribute 5% the credit is still mine. If you contribute 30% as a worker but I can easily replace you or I could have very easily have done it alone, the credit is still mine. Because as the project CEO/founder I came up with the vision, made the product, talked to shareholders, did fundraising, did charity work in the community, went to all of the meetings and continued to scale the business. You as a worker did nothing, and can be easily replaced by a guy from India who will be more willing to work harder and provide more value for less.
All of the things I mentioned are things that you as a worker did not do and frankly you don’t have the intellect or diligence to do them. That’s why CEOs get paid so much and that’s what makes them irreplaceable. The workers are just schmucks that slaved away in school and handed in a resume that just happened to be good enough to get them hired. That’s it. They could also just leave and work for another company. I wouldn’t be able to do that, or at least it would be very hard for me to leave my position.
@@tomomihisayayou must be the CEO of bootlicking, you talk a lot of sh*t about blue collar workers and what do you do? write massive paragraphs on youtube that maybe 2 people will see? 😂😂
Even more to the point we are all born with certain genetics we did nothing to earn and in a certain environment our parents provided. Even our motivation to work is caused by genetics and environment and other such factors we did nothing to earn. at the end of the day it's all luck
Sadly, you’re wrong. Very few people are self-made, I grant you that. And to some extent we are standing on the shoulders of giants, in many ways, but quite often it’s not financial, and some of us get no help. But do it anyway. I know many migrants who built from nothing, and endured racism, derision, and unfairness. Which meant they didn’t waste their time, money, and life on hanging around idiots in pubs. They worked, making their own way, and created their own families. Not all of them are saints, but many were honest, at least those from cultures which are tolerant of other cultures. I’m proud of them.
Thank you Robert for speaking the truth. I'm tired of all the fairy tales we've been told for decades.
I can't help but nod in agreement with much of what Dr. Reich is saying, but the ethos he describes is true of we Americans in general. We're the richest nation on earth, home to the richest people on earth. Our richest people avoid paying their taxes to take care of their country, and Americans more broadly turn a blind eye to the people around the world making all the stuff we enjoy for pennies on the dollar. We're a country with a waning sense of purpose and responsibility.
You are misinformed the top five percent pay over half the federal taxes do your homework before commenting democrats party of handouts
Most of the billionaires come from humble beginnings and working class families. They were privileged in some ways but weren't the significantly privileged. Examples include : Michael Bloomberg, Warren Buffet, David Rubinstein, Larry Ellison, Stephen Shwartzmen, Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Ralph Lauren, Jan Koum, George Soros, Steve Jobs, Carl Icahn, Howard Shultz and many MANY more. All most all the people I listed and most others didn't receive significant funds from their parents and they were from families of middle class or lower. Your argument with Warren Buffet not doing on it himself was also very far from the truth. His father was a congressman but was not wealthy, he owned a small brokerage firm in Omaha and lost all most everything he had in the Great Depression of 28. All most every single dollar warren buffet invested was earned through the various jobs he worked and other side hustles he conducted. (source : The Snowball : Warren Buffet and the business of life). You are just another jealous guy, very demotivating man. "Behind every ten figure net worth..." is that so huh, well then tell me, what inheritance did people like Larry Ellison, , David Rubenstien, Howard Schultzand multiple such other billionaire get??? I think you are just another jealous person, who wants to demotivate the emerging youth...
Behind every great fortune is a crime.
I still can't believe people believe the idiocy that businesses hire people just because their profit margin increased. Businesses hire only enough people to meet demand. You want to create jobs? Increase demand by creating more customers. You do that by giving people that don't have it enough money to buy things.
First, cutting corporate taxes hasn't created jobs in the past, why would you believe it would in the future?
Second, if higher wages doesn't lead to increased inflation in all the countries that have living minimum wages why do you believe it would in the US?
Third, policy should always be based on reality, not talking points.
@@Zach-ju5vi Oh sweetheart! This topic is a little too complicated for your little brain, you really need to run along and go play with your big trucks before you get a headache :) . Inflation is caused by companies raising prices in relation to demand, they don't HAVE to, they merely choose to. Now you let the adults talk about this before you get hurt.
Here's an adult to explain things to you so you don't embarrass yourself further:
ua-cam.com/video/7Z7tEc5t-Wg/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/Zi4KMCQuQYE/v-deo.html
@@mahlina1220 exactly
@@Zach-ju5vi Let me give you an example. In Australia the minimum wage is about twice that in the US. A McDonalds Big Mac costs 15 cents more. Inflation can be greatly curtailed if corporate executive salaries go from 900 times the average wage of the corporation to, say 700.
If you want to know how actions play out in the real world actually looking at the real world is a great start.
Another great example is the US. When the minimum wage was enacted that wage had a great deal more buying power than it does now, it was an actual living wage. What followed was one of the greatest economic booms in our countries history. Wages went up, economic activity increased, wealth was generated. It might help you to remember that money always flows up, every time someone buys something it goes to a wealthier person. It's no sin to let the poor folk use it before it gets to a billionaire.
Oh, and I'm not struggling with indoctrination. It's all those business management courses that went on and on about managing staffing levels and not pissing away money just because your margins rise a little. Utility costs fluctuate too, but you don't hire and fire based on them. Staffing levels are regulated by the businesses need for labor. Which is regulated by demand for whatever you are selling. Business are there to make a profit, you don't do that by spending all the profits needlessly.
Although, to be frank, bloated salaries and bonuses at the top are wasted expenses from the point of view of the corporation and it's shareholders. If some of payroll gets shifted downstairs the worst that will happen is productivity will rise. People that are one minor infection away from homelessness don't do their jobs very well.
@@Zach-ju5vi You have it backwards. Not paying a living wage gives workers no incentive to break their backs for you. They have to save something for their second or third job. The minimum wage was always intended to ensure a full time worker could live a decent life, the people that created the minimum wage were very clear about that. Also, if workers are so lazy these days why does productivity continue to rise year by year? The only argument in support of continuing to let wages decline is that you want to side step into slave labor. If that's the goal then own it.
Thank you for correcting me on those price statistics, I admit my numbers were old and I hadn't checked.
Fact! Nobody is "self- made". Somebody helped you get to where you are.
If by “helped” you mean I paid them via a paycheck to accomplish my wealth goals, then you are correct. Nobody “helps” for free. Release your anger and just do whatever it takes to get there. Don’t just complain cuz you ain’t one of us…
@t-bone3657 Angry? I just stated a fact. are you a billionaire? SMH...
loved "Billionaires are not made by rugged individuals, they are made by policy failures, and a system that rewards wealth over work". Amen!
Yes, government is the problem. Not success.
the fact that you can make money from money is the root of the problem
@@oldcowbb providing for society also providing for yourself is the goal.
Social connections they got at the start probably is the greatest booster. Imagine having access to all of the previous rich generation knowledge and links right away, things no one else can share with you...
Yeah, very important! Networking. The right summer camps as a child. The right clubs. The right golf courses
I've always said this that there is nobody who is genuinely self-made. It takes people mentoring you, opening doors, investing in your products/services, and even receiving handouts to grow wealth. Nobody is truly selfmade
Yes but some wealthy people believed in you and took the risk to invest in your company or at least to buy your goods. There are some really generous people around who wish to help
Yes there are. Not to Billionaire scale, but how much do you need?
A million Euro please :D Half a million would go straight away for tax. But the rest would give the safety net to do anything ‘random’ for the next ~10 years.
Such as spending lots proper of time with kids and witness them grow up. Evolve your own home over time rather than letting it degrade. And evolve your own body and health rather than letting it degrade.
On the other hand work has taught me a lot and if I hadn’t made all those experiences I’d be a ‘less complete’ person. Or maybe just a different person…
As you grow older time gets more and more valuable. There is so much to do, yet the day stays at 24h duration. These days I wish the day had 48 hours. Not being forced to work for income surely would be an insane help. 😅
You have to make yourself to be mentored, to go through doors, for other people to invest in you. Everyone is truly self-made.
Well will take we’re just one example. No one opened doors for Elon Musk. Yet he’s ended up on par with the wealthiest people on the planet. He’s 100% self-made through his own vision and execution. Your post is just other rubbish. It’s just a slotted hand like Robert Reich. He’s really just fooling around with the definition of self-made to exclude just about everybody.
it's true that tech giants have all started in the garages, shame most Americans can't afford a house with a garage...
I'd be happy to afford a garage, let alone a house. ^^;
I'm happy to be able to afford living in a slum in middle america
In the Office, Ryan says "everybody wants to be a millionaire, but nobody wants to work for it". Funny thing is, nobody "works" for it. You don't work your 9-5 job and become a millionaire.
Most rich people inherited their wealth
I'm a millionaire and I work a 9-5 job. I am just a high wage worker doing programming. I however was already middle class, my dad having a union job that could send me to higher education at a time before the GOP privatized the student loans and skyrocketed the price of education. This is why I am a progressive, I got lucky and I know it.
Trust me - even at 2 or 3 million you are one medical condition away from living in a Prius.
@@HistoricLifeThen you are not a millionaire. No successful person would ever say that they only got rich because of “luck”, unless they won the lottery. You are probably just a MacDonald’s worker😂😂
@@elshamaro4658 I have 3 million in investments and my house is over a million and paid off. Yes luck is a factor. I was born into a stable family in a top notch public school district. I chose programming because I liked it not because I thought it would earn a top salary. I am nearly 50 so I graduated from collage before the republicans deregulated Fanny Mae and caused the major increassed costs of higher education. I did not get a home in the 4x average salary era but I also got it before it hit 8x. Since I am a high wage earner I only paid 4x my household wage even though my area is expensive. Lucky timing by age, my homelife, my school district.
I also educate myself on the things I invest in but my good luck in where and when I was born is in fact a major factor.
In France there is a saying "l’argent appelle l’argent” because the more you have money the easiest it is to multiply it.
Money makes money in English or it takes money to make money
First time watching your channel. Love it! I've been saying this for a long time but most Americans vote against their own best interest while they worship the very people to who hold society as debt slaves. Great job! Thanks!
Exactly, voting repubicKKKan is the way to maintain all this abuse of power through policies that protect them and make them more powerful, destroying democracy in the process.
I've never & will never understand the mentality of people defending/shilling for these billionaires all while they continue to get richer & the people shilling for them continue to sink further into poverty. Humanity is truly mind blowing
It's called solidarity. We are all in this together. Another individual's success is not the cause of your failure. Your choices are.
@@BenotzJoethat's simply not true. Their "success" is a direct consequence of soaking the blood out of every other person around. If you're a billionaire and your employees earn a loan under the lower average it's you who keeping this inequality running! Besides of preventing other businesses being built on fair conditions, by creating this inequality in the first time! This is why "the market will take care of it" is just not working. The state have to or sooner or later the people will by their own!
Who is shilling for billionaires?
People become billionaires by providing billions of dollars worth of value for other people. For the most part their billions are in shares of companies they operate.
To the extent they have money or wealth is because other people have essentially handed over wealth to them because they’re receiving a value in return. I know it’s really hard to understand when you are not a person who provides value but that’s how it works.
@@alexanderSydneyOz bullshit. You wouldn't say this about a criminal or mobster, but it's actually the same thing. The only difference is that usually the law is made by rich people for rich people, with many who have to fight for their right but are repressed by police in their legimit fight for equality! You my friend are just another brainwashed servant for their good who believe the lies the media owned by other rich people tells you!
@@alexanderSydneyOz I don't know why my comments frequently get deleted, but I try it in a even nicer way. You talking nonsense! You wouldn't say that about mobsters or dictators... The lack of a fair system doesn't make greed a supportive behavior! The law is made by rich people for rich people, while hard working and honest people have to fight for every single cent. The system is the problem. And people like you, little servants make it just way harder to change something!
Note that the that well-known expression "pull(ing) yourself up by the bootstraps" is nearly always misunderstood. It is a description of the impossible, i.e. defying gravity which can't be done.
That's not true. I distinctly remember reading about how Baron van Munchausen pulled not just himself but also his horse up out of quicksand by his own hair. Google it.
@@cscoetzeein fact, he was Baron Von Munchausen, the guy depicted riding a cannonball...😂
Jeff bezos have 1,600,000 slaves
Elon musk have 128,000 slaves
and so on
And….if you work in the US you most likely pay around half your income in taxes, insurance & interest. Who there is not a slave?
And Elon Musk doesn't even want to pay his "slaves", as we all know..
Dont know employees are called slaves nowadays🙄! And....theres a big diferences between those words.
Land of the fee, home of the slave.
They become obscenly wealthy from the exploitation of their employees and the real wealth the working class produce.
@@Zach-ju5vi You have merely contradicted the author by using a different definition of the word "exploitation". Whether or not the worker agreed to the terms of employment is not the meaning of the term "exploitation" in this context.
Here "exploitation" refers to an economic phenomenon. The monetary value of a employee's output is higher than the monetary value of their compensation, and this difference is retained by the employer.
If you would like to argue that this is okay, good, just, etc then go ahead and make the case for why this private accrual of wealth is a good thing in a democratic society. Otherwise you can hardly make a convincing argument.
@@Zach-ju5vi yeah yeah says the traitor that sucks off to the wealthy...being pulled his strings!
@@Zach-ju5vi 53% of inflation over the past two years is directly tied to corporate profits while increased labor costs account for only 8%. Meanwhile, the increase in median household income was "statistically insignificant" per the census bureau, while CEO salaries increased by 18%, an average increase of $2.8M. As former Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly says in his recent book, an extreme ideology of profits over people overtook the US business model starting in the mid-70s, transforming what used to be a goal of creating jobs and national prosperity into one that undermines domestic innovation and long-term growth.
@@Zach-ju5vi Per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the greatest killer of jobs over the decades has been the swallowing up of small businesses by large conglomerates. The 2017 tax cuts that overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy with no new job creation gave corporations the leverage to buy up competitors, helping to create the oligopolistic market conditions we see today, and which are a textbook driver of inflation. That is, in econ 101 a lack of competition causes arbitrary price hikes. The point is that in a healthy capitalist market, the nation and its people share in the prosperity of their labors, but the data shows the opposite to be the case.
and stealing other ideas and also producing products of destruction and degeneracy well atleast in case of elon musk psychological labour of his fans having blind belief reliant in a state of incompetance but for the rest of them this applies degenerating other ppls ideas into mass production of degeneration of which the already astablished previous system is prone to and of which a couple mediocre losers apealed and degenerated ruined this technological advancment for further incompetance degeneration for immediate power and profit and enabling even further incompetances idiots to make a bunch of be handed a bunch of money through a sliver plate that they couldn't fathem it is like watching primative mnkey on an unfathemtable technological advancment and propagate this waste this degeneracy and that they used and abused by exploiting a schemey loophoole integrating with that garbage system irresponsibly and then for that use and abuse of propagationg of degeneracy at a magnitude scale we've never seen before for immediate short turm profit and then for the lesser extent they used and abused on a very minor front line part of the plan used exploitation of workers for a product that shouldn't even exist and is the quickest easiest way in which this person with no appreciation has to exploit this thing they have hijacked being pout into a culture of degeneration through unconsciousness that encourages incompetance and subconsciously being herded into something you shouldn't like
As a young boy I didn't understand my grandmother's reference to 'Fat Cats'.
Now, as I near retirement, seeing savings losses mount and inequity rampant, I know what she meant.
Then I thought her a radical. Now I see she was clear sighted.
Thank you Robert!
There is no "upper middle class." There is only the working class and the owning class. They can lie and say they work, but their work is a text while on a yacht trip. That's the ultimate difference.
If you have a yacht you're not upper middle-class. Upper middle-class are usually suburbanites. People who are wealthier than most, but definitely not rich. Not even millionaires.
One lesson I've learnt from billionaires is to always put your money to work, and diversifying your investments. I'm planning to invest about $200k of my funds in stocks this year, and I know I’ll make profits.
You are right. The best approach I feel is to diversify investments by spreading investments across different asset classes like bonds, real estate, and international stocks, they can reduce the impact of a market meltdown.
A few summers ago, after a lengthy divorce, I needed a boost to keep my firm viable. I looked for licensed advisors and found one with the highest qualifications, and despite inflation, she has helped me increase my reserve from $275k to $850k. Many people undervalue advisors until their own feelings become intense.
I really want to get in with a financial advisor this year, especially as all markets are hitting lows. I don't want to be too optimistic and end up losing everything.
Her name is Annette Christine Conte can't divulge much. Most likely, the internet should have her basic info, you can research if you like
Thank you for this Pointer. It was easy to find your handler, She seems very proficient and flexible. I booked a call session with her.
You can add Richard Branson to this list. He kept crying poor and had employees working for next to nothing while he was making a fortune.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Richard Branson whinged, requesting £500m from the UK government for his Virgin Group, specifically for Virgin Atlantic.
His parents were rich.
I at least respect Bill Gates for saying he was anything but self made. He admitted to having every possible advantage.
People say that Musk had all thos wealth behind him, but him and his father hated eachother and he received no wealth from his parentage. He double majored in college, got his degree, then started or simply developed multiple small businesses before any major financial breakthroughs.
That's not to say I agree with the man's behaviors nowadays, but he really did have to work his butt off early on.
He still dodged taxes for decades and funded documentaries about himself, had those Epstein ties too.
@@DistortedShelf0 Alledgedly. People lie, you know?
@@Dave1507especially psychopaths
Work his butt off? Hmmmm....like 12 hour days in the gem mines?@@DistortedShelf0
'If you safety net to joining the billionaire class is remaining upper class, that's not pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. Nor is failing to pay your fair share of taxes along the way.' - Robert Reich'
Not paying your fair share of taxes is a theft in the rest of us. I don't get how politicians have sold people that taxes are bad, they're patriotic. It's how they're used, and if they're not acquired fairly, which they're not.
The top 3 easiest ways to become rich
1. Be born rich
2. Marry someone rich(preferably a rich husband)
3. Start an illegal business
@Overdrive-_- So you see the problem with our current system of capitalism...
Good!
And this is why I love Prof. Reich!!!
montecristo is CORRECT. I used to hear Filipino doctors, attorneys and engineers say, "I came to this country with nothing and built my own success." I was "damned tired of hearing these stories" too and told them what they started with.
They came here with college degrees from prestigious Filipino universities PAID FOR BY THIER DADDIES. I however, as a native-born citizen, worked and loaned my way through college and paid the loans off over several years of scrimping.
Darn right! You tell 'em!
Tell everyone how hard you worked 🤣
Stuff you won't learn in school.
@@Zach-ju5vi From one of the people who cheered on when their overlords coined the term "alternative facts" that's rich.
@@Zach-ju5vi You’re not fact based. Doze back into your Ayn Rand fantasy land.
@@Zach-ju5vi that's because you're a poor deluded soul...
@@Zach-ju5vi Tr011 much, Zach?!
@@saxyrep1 the only alternative facts here is coming from Reich. 70% of billionaires are self made
The only way I’ve seen lower class people grow up to be millionaires is through sports
Sports or the lottery.
Also, writing a book, sometimes.
And porn… indie video game development…
the easiest way to make a lot of money is to start by having a lot of money.
They still consider it "rags to riches" when you go from millionaire to billionaire.
The poorest people are usually the hardest working and most generous.
Elon musk puts in seven day work weeks what are you talking about
@@fritzforsthoefel8031 Talk to some people. You really don't know? Lol
Consider your self fortunate.
The average executive of corperations puts in sixty hour work weeks according to the labor board
@@fritzforsthoefel8031 I worked 2 full time jobs at the same time. My son works 65 to 70. No one is impressed. Most workers work at least 60 hours. They still can't make it. It's called wage gap.
True and man the bots are out in force
I worked for an electronics company once. The owner was a very wealthy man. And he has this same "started his company in his parents garage" story. It's obvious he never had to truly struggle like us poor people. I knew it was an exaggeration.
Comparing "self made billionaires" to unicorns is highly offensive! You should apologize to the unicorns
yeah unicorns at least exist as the national animal of scotland
@@SharienGaming and self made billionaires also exist
70% of billionaires are self made
@@jsebby2284 no they dont - they all came from pre-existing significant wealth combined with massive worker exploitation
they did not make themselves or earn it - they were rich and then proceeded to steal more
@@jsebby2284 You are the poster boy for the phrase, " Figures lie and liars figure", pal..
Part of this rags riches in America story comes from an author named Horatio Alger, a failed Unitarian minister (lost the gig from getting sexually out of line with a couple of teenage boys) who leader reinvented himself as a novelist.
A key point to a lot of his stories was a troubled teenage boy that was rescued by a wealthy older man.
Disturbing
You stated the truth.
@@artandarchitecture6399 No, it didn't. You're trying to sell the lie that you swallowed because, either couldn't be bothered to look into it for yourself, or deliberately avoided learning the truth to rationalize your own questionable actions.
"If I didn't do it somebody else would have" and "Everybody does it" are the most common rationalizations.
@@rickb3650 “learning the truth”, there are currently 32.5 million small businesses in America. They are created by ordinary people. This hatred of “the wealthy” is fueled by nothing but anger and jealousy. If they are paying their workers too little, the workers don’t have to work there. If they are selling their product for too much, you don’t have to buy their product. It’s that simple.
@@artandarchitecture6399 my grandfather was an immigrant that lived in poverty and started a business. He sold the business to a rich man and managed to live as middle-class. He never became rich. He had to continue working throughout his life and went from middle middle-class to lower middle-class to lower class over a span of living in the USA for 80 years. This nation bled him back into poverty after rising him to a basic standard of living. There is no immigrant that became rich on hard work. Just struggles of maintaining the wealth we acquire. He did everything correct in the end. But the nation decided to screw him over in his final decades with healthcare costs.
True... I worked in the High-line and Exotic car business for 45 years. I know and have met many Billionaires. Not one of them came from nothing. All BS
Possibly one of the best videos ever made on youtube
The professor always tells it like it is. Thank you.
@@Zach-ju5vi Of course, there are always examples. We should applaud their success. But most wealth in this country is inherited, not life cycle.
Except he lies like always.
70% of billionaires are self made
@@jsebby2284 Only lies to the corporate bootlicking trolls who are triggered by the great Professor Reich..
@@jsebby2284 Nobody is "self made." Adam Smith argued as much. T hat was the whole point of his argument. All of us depend on others. This is just as true of billionaires as it is for those of modest means. Let's applaud the contributions of billionaires but realize that there were many who helped them along the way.
@@Zach-ju5vi More of the same sedative nonsense expected from this channels Mr. Sandman the cure for insomnia our boy Ambien Zach. YAWN....ZZZZzzzz.....
Born rich - Die rich
Born poor - die poor
Yes, the likes of the uber rich people we're well aware of like to portray they had humble beginnings and every1 can make it to their level, if they work tirelessly for years on end! -
Reality Check : It sugar coats their reputation and skewers the dark truth - as seen in this video 😐😑
(Sayer, 2015) Why We Can’t Afford the Rich
(McQuaig, 2010) The Trouble with Billionaires: Why Too Much Money at the Top Is Bad
(McQuaig, 2013) Billionaires’ Ball: Gluttony and Hubris
(Pizzigati, 2018) The Case for a Maximum Wage
(Nolan, 2017) Time to Make Life Hard for the Rich
Thank you!
Thank you, we really need to do something. It's getting worse every year.
@@nedegt1877 if you make life harder for Billionaires they'll close down their companies and went to other countries the only losers will be you fools
@@BondJFK No you're the loser who keeps them rich in the first place. You don't understand what they're doing, that's why they keep doing it and make you believe you need them. LMAO
@@BondJFK They keep deleting my replies because they don't want me to wake you up. But if you think I'm the loser, think again, they're not deleting my replies for nothing. You are being fooled, that's all I will say.
When I was young I was poor! But today, thanks to my effort, work and a lot of sacrifice, I am no longer young!
Robert, can you explain the history of how overtime rules got changed in the US? As an hourly worker in the 80s early 90s, I used to get OT for anything after 8 hours worked. Sometime that changed by the 2000s to where the only state that still pays this way is California. Take for example this last labor day week- a perfect sad example that includes "Labor Day". I had worked 50 hours from Tuesday to Saturday. Yet until I got over 48 hours worked for the week I only got 2 hours overtime due that labor day was a holiday and that doesn't count towards the 40 hour work week. In fact I worked Saturday but still didn't get any overtime until I crested ABOVE the 48 hrs worked level. I am scheduled Monday - Friday, every week as a robotics service engineer in healthcare. This changed for me under the same rules in 2009, so I'm guessing some house representatives introduced legislation to change the rules that used to apply in the early 90s when I used to get OT after 8 hours worked and double time on holidays. Those days are gone. I assume the house changed it in the days of Newt Gingrich, and the Senate confirmed it into law. Can you explain the history of this to us? It would make a FABULOUS video. Thanks, Jim in Ohio.
I don’t know nothing about over time.
If labor day was holiday then work week should be 32 hours and anything more than 32 hours should be overtime?
It doesn’t work that way ?
I know a tiny bit about this. In the 2000s, laws were enacted that created a new category of employee ‘salaried’, which gave an overtime exemption to anyone who is supervising other employees or performing a technical or administrative type job. That allowed employers to demand that workers put in more than 40 hours for no more pay. The only ones who are protected now by overtime laws are ‘hourly’ front-line workers. Most of the jobs I held since then, expected 45-50 hours/week as the norm
It started when Reagan broke PATCO, the
I can't believe it took the algorithm 2 years to recommend this channel. Subscribed ❤
I believe that Robert Reich is doing a wonderful public service because he is able to explain it and put it in a short video that anybody could watch and learn
Thank You Robert
The saddest part is how people defend the system because they started with nothing and by around 40-50 they have a house a car or cars and they still believe that they still have a chance to be billionaires
2:13 Any corporation whose employees qualify for public assistance ought to be taxed a minimum of double the amount of the total amount of public assistance for which their employees qualify, whether it's all claimed or not, until every employee is paid 50% more than the cutoff for public assistance eligibility, and maintain that level of wages for every employee indefinitely. Then their tax rate can be reduced to their fair share of corporate taxation.
LOVE IT! Been working nights, overtime, and going to school for my bachelor's and master's degree. Can't even afford no buy a home without using my VA loan benefit. Still going to wait for the housing collapse but as someone who comes from a poor family with limited resources. No one is going to help you but yourself! College should be free and there should be price caps on tuition...just another way to keep you as an indentured servant and keep your liquidity at a minimum. God forbid you want to start your own business and be your own boss.
Stop thinking like a poor person. Kudos to you for your work ethic, and yes, education should be free. It actually is, all of it, if you don’t need a piece of paper. And you don’t if you just start your own business. Which requires less than you already have. I know, because I did it.
"College should be free...." Ha ha. The typical socialist/capitalist-hater's dream. So, either the people working there must work for the love of it so you can have it for free, and the facilities and other resources must be donated (by 'other people') so you can use it for free, or.... the government should pay for it. Except... the government uses tax payers money to do that. In which case it isn't free after all, is it?
Great video, as always. These freeloading nepotism tax avoiders need to be called out and more importantly, taxed their fair share, with zero loopholes.
Great video where he lies?
Who's avoiding taxes? What's a fair share?
@@jsebby2284 Truth to all clear thinking people..
@@brucebasile5083 70% of billionaires are self made.
So no - it's a lie to all clear thinking people living in reality. Which apparently you arent
@@jsebby2284 Thanks bubba for proving my point. You are the typical corporate stooge who has never had a clear thought in their life, that the great Professor Reich triggers with his fact filled videos..
You are the poster boy for the phrase "Figures lie and liars figure".
@@jsebby2284 0% of billionaires are "self made" they exploit those around them and their workers to "earn" all that money while also doing everything they can to avoid paying their fair share. Literal parasites.
I have a master's degree and spent eight years and three months living in homeless shelters due to lack of responses to my job applications. You met me at Columbia University with Cathy O'Neil, who wrote about me in her book on Shame. I am constantly trolled by people want to shame me into thinking that I'm not working hard enough because I'm not spending every waking hour applying to job postings that never reply to me or because I am unwilling to work anything but a desk job when I have physical challenges and need to use a cane to stand for any length of time (and it's painful no matter what).
This reminds me of the joke (?) back during the Obama years...
A billionaire, a Tea Partier and a minimum wage employee are sitting at a table with a dozen doughnuts in the center. The billionaire takes eleven, turns to the Tea Partier and says "watch out, that guy is going to want some of your doughnut.".
Sure some of the people who have vast fortunes did have to put the work in and take opportunity's when the presented themselves, what these people don't understand is most never get the opportunity they have been afforded.
I've argued this time and again, no one is self made. Everyone gets a helping hand every now and again if they recognise it or no, but the system is rigged to give those who need the help the least the most.
Plus something that isn't talked about. It was a position of privilege to have early access to the internet. When most people were either using internet cafes or sharing a computer and phone line with other house members, these tech billionaires had personal computers, dedicated phone lines for internet, etc.
There's a phrase with internet success stories "it doesn't matter if you're the best, as long as you're the first." It is so true.
I personally feel this disparity between early internet behemoths and the rest of the population's access to the internet will be viewed in the future as a form of redlining. If, of course, the elites allow history to be taught objectively
🎯 So glad this channel has a pretty good following. Lotsa channels try, but very few get the info out far + wide enough as here, or maybe the Gravel Inst or Richard Wolff but we all gotta try + spread this knowledge - handy to have it in the video description too 👏
Yet there is a positive difference: families who stick together do achieve. Families who are full of hate and competition towards each other lose. Good video - thanks.
this is something that should be a part of all degrees: understanding economics and how they work for the average person, or more accurately, *don't* work for the average person.
It’s the old “a small million dollar loan from my father” story
which in and of itself a huge lie. lol Trump's casinos got in trouble with the gaming commission because his dad would come in and "lose" tons of money to bolster his casino's bottom line
50 years ago my grandfather used to tell me: son, nobody gets rich by working.
Later someone said: If hard work were the way to get rich, women in Africa were all millionaires.
“You can claw your way, through generations of family”
-Tywin Lannister
In a more equal society we wouldn't need as many people doing private investments like real estate and or passive income streams. A living wage should be the law of the land
Democrats want a livable wage healthcare paid family leave vacation time and pension and childcare so according to Democrats drop out of school get a low skilled job and live good
A surgeon in NYC who goes to college maney years and works long hours and earns four hundred thousand dollars will pay between state local and federal half his money to the government and the Democrats want more
The massive profits are earned by ordinary workers. That money doesn't simply get magicked into existence by the efforts of the board. The board and owners/stockholders then take the huge bulk of those profits for themselves and dole out a tiny fraction to the people who really created the wealth.
The billionaires club is populated by real life Scrooges.
We are being Scrooged.
@@Zach-ju5vi I am, unlike you, troll.
@@Zach-ju5vi Triggered again huh Ambien Zach? Your Reich derangement is out of control.. hahaha
@@artandarchitecture6399 says who?
At least the topic is being discussed and brought into the light. You guys remember Citizen United
there is a saying.
when someone tells you that they became rich from hard work ask them whose?
GREED IS NOT 🚫 A VICTIMLESS CRIME ?
@@Zach-ju5vi so is your existence...
@@Zach-ju5vi YAWN....ZZZZzzzz.....
I'm so HAPPY someone has FINALLY made a video about this!!
Yes I totally agree, but how do we remedy this situation?
Damn, he did it again. I love this man.
I'm with you!
Did what? Lie?
It's a shame Zach and Sebby have their heads too far up Ayn Rand's posterior to figure it out.
@@Zach-ju5vi The truth always triggers the Mr. Sandman of this channel, Ambien Zach the corporate bootlicker troll of this channel.....ZZZZzzzz......
@@timmmahhhh it's a shame you can't actually make a point so you just throw out ad hominems. And not even good ones
Calling them unicorns is actually a right fit for Musk. His sort of insecurity, he'd definitely have them surgically attach a phallic metaphor to his forehead.
You need some help
Hahaha! Right?
@@jsebby2284 Typical projection from another corporate bootlicking troll..
TV shows like "Shark Tank" contribute greatly to the fantasy.
Very true. Tax them properly. And Everybody is better off.