Lobbyist convincing lawmakers to use carrots instead if sticks. We need to go back to using sticks. We also need to go back to breaking up monopolies and prevent mergers that are anticompetitive.
How? In the US you get just two choices: Fascist (Rep) or Neoliberal (Dem). And the herd doesn't know any better. 50 years of brainwashing by corrupt journalists/media isn't undone that easily either. If reasoning with people, hitting them over the head with hard evidence doesn't work, because they don't want to hear the uncomfortable truth they were duped and they fell for it willingly, what alternatives are there? It seems it's going to get a lot worse before there's even a chance it gets better. Trump is not even charged with treason yet, let alone locked up in the cage where he belongs. So corporate control is needed, but may not be the first priority.
Professor Reich SHOULD have a larger platform! His message is so important, and what he preaches is good for everyone, from the average citizen to the largest multinational mega corporation.
BS, Robert is a donor owned drone. He parrots the same faux partisan differences narrative the rest of the donor owned media does. He is an advocate of the donor owned Democratic Party. The corporate donors own the GOP, Democratic, and Libertarian parties. That is the problem, the root problem.
WE need to bring back the strict regulation of corporations and the agencies that kept them in check and that pursued legal recourse when they got out of hand!
This was a problem well before the 'citizens united' SCOTUS ruling, but the flood gates really opened afterward. Just think how different our democracy could be IF we had only taxpayer funded elections AND limited the length of the campaign season to say 1-2 months before each election AND the media using the public airwaves were required as a public service to provide equal amounts of airtime to candidates. We need to LEVEL the playing field so the best candidates could be elected NOT just the best fund raisers.
It happened in 81 with Reagan. That’s when antitrust laws and regulations were ignored or overturned and any regulatory agency had large budget cuts. Then CEO and executive pay skyrocketed and workers wages stagnated while their workload has increased. Because the wealthy pinky promised that it would “trickle down” to us. We all know what happened after that. 😂😂
@@marquisdelafayette1929 exactly, this is when the paradigm shift occurred and neoliberalism became the new operating system for the United States, which we then exported all around the world. Works great for Capital owners… sucks for wage slaves (99 percent of us).
A HUGE Amen to all of that, Dr. Robert Reich! PLUS, we need to OVERTURN CITIZENS UNITED and GET RID OF ALEC dark money activities! Those are at the center of all of our economc, political, and social problems!
It isn't just the dark money, all super PACs are bad and you can track exactly where 99% of those funds come from but you did nail the source Citizens United v FEC. We also need actual campaign finance reform because it was an issue prior to legalizing Super PACs.
@@Bound4Earth I know but 90%+ of the time when he goes after politicians it usually the GOP. Yet the Dem establishment have failed us tremendously. He is hack to make Corporate Dems look better. Corporate subsidies and clean money campaigns were not the main agenda for the Dems since 2010.
No the sad thing about it is those corporations will just move to countries like China where there is worse pollution and relaxed workers rights laws. And we’ll still do trade with them and pat ourselves on the back for shutting down a plant here so that we can pollute over there
Stock buy backs were illegal from 1932 to 1983 when President Reagan legalized them. President Reagan also made Social Security benefits taxable and eliminated the tax deduction for the interest paid on student loans.
Does anybody really think that R politicians would support campaign finance reform? They want that big business money. And big businesses want those politicians in their back pockets.
Agreed and repealing Citizen's United v FEC, because fuck people that think Corporations are people and money somehow equals speech. Don't get me wrong, campaign finance reform has been an issues for at least two decades prior to this, but this was when it went off the rails and legalized Super PACs the largest force for lobbying anywhere in the world. Not even the cartel has that much power in Mexico. To be fair, we helped create them.
@@Zach-ju5vi Same MAGA fascist propaganda you see on fox then regurgitate here like a good little sociopath. Zachoff the irrelevant troll once again spewing his drivel for us all to laugh at. hahahaha
It starts with politicians having to raise money for their campaigns and ending up doing favors for their supporters. To get this by the root, campaign financing should be socialized and everyone gets the same amount to “advertise” themselves. The US political system always baffles me. It’s rotten at its very core. Politicians should be employees of the people not puppets of lobbyists. The government should allocate campaign budgets and that’s all they get. No private money.
@@carycunningham9510 Wrong noun... "We're talking about humans, right?" Our species is a failure of evolution. For as much technology as we make, the majority of our species will be no more than talking beasts. And on that note, we deserve extinction due to the risk we pose. Though I have a desperate, and likely futile, hope that something will change. And so I comment on what should be, knowing it never will be.
Exactly, we need ranked-choice voting. It won't solve everything right away, but it will be the start of the changing process. I don't think our modern political system can change for the better without ranked-choice voting.
Definitely should still subsidize small businesses that fill a new needs that we want to promote (e.g., solar panel companies), but for sure we need to regulate the bads more.
We shouldn’t subsidize anyone. The free market will determine what gets promoted, and what doesn’t. It’s not governments’ job to decide what things get produced.
I’ve worked in solar since 2006 and I’ve been dealing with subsidy questions since I first started You can either believe subsidies are OK to promote new technology or that subsidies are never OK, but I find too many people who think that subsidiesshould only be used to support industries like the Petroleum Industry, which has been profitable since 1859. Grid tied solar became viable in the early 2000s and needed tax credits to be profitable for home owners and businesses. Oil subsidies probably should have stopped at least 70 years ago and if you’re mad at renewable tax credits, keep in mind we still have specific tax credits for buying big cars and private jets. I had well meaning customers who would write their congress-people demanding permanent solar subsidies. That’s not a good policy decision either. We’re only about 15 years into modern solar technology, but when solar becomes profitable without tax credits (it already is for large scale solar, but not for most businesses and homes) the subsidies should end. We don’t want the solar industry becoming another oil industry. What if Doc Brown invents safe, cold fusion in 20 years, but the solar industry spends billions lobbying to keep its subsidies and prevent cold fusion from taking off? As Robert said there need to be specific goals for subsidies and ways to end them.
Same in Australia, company profits are through the roof, share holders laughing all the way to the bank ------- working people unable to pay the rent and put food on the table, as for health insurance ---- forget it. Is there no end to the greed and corruption of of some of the richest corporations in the world.
There are three stages of democracy: 1. The growth of democracy 2. The growth of corporate power 3. The growth of corporate propaganda to protect corporate power
There are more steps, already taken. The last step is: The rich and big corporations laugh at the people and tell them to eat cake while they and their children starve.
@@Zach-ju5vi - If it's a Republic that is of the Rich, by the Rich, and for the Rich than it is rotten at its core. Freedoms, Liberties, and Rights are not supposed to exist only for the Ultra-Wealthy. That is why I have changed from being someone in favor of Laissez faire capitalism to becoming a Social Democrat. I am NOT a Socialist that wants to nationalize all industries. I do agree though that the power of Government should be used to protect EVERYONE, not just our Corporate overlords (or Oligarchs, or Plutocrats, or Aristocrats)
@@Zach-ju5vi Same old unoriginal nonsense from Zachoff the irrelevant troll. Spewing the lies from the party of George Santos and trump for us all to laugh at. hahaha
The reason we cannot have corporations running our lives, as they currently do, is that capitalism can have utterly no morality. We see it in all our regime-change wars, including Vietnam.
@@Zach-ju5vi the reason for the Vietnam war was fundamentally tied to the containment strategy against the Soviet Union, economics was almost completely irrelevant. And what do you think Trump printing money during the pandemic was if not Keynesianism? He certainly didn't do the national debt any favors. Aspects of Keynesian and neoliberalist thinking are alive and well in both parties.
@@50jakecs Well you don't make a good psychologist, do you? So let me be clear with you: we can't do anything if we aren't fully honest with ourselves about the situation we're in. Everyone's going around with fantasies and bs in their heads, and that's not gonna save us. Like your, "we should" garbage. Get a grip on reality, come down, and then start thinking of actual things that can be done when the average people have little to no power or money. #notoxicpositivity
There is plenty of money for subsidies to corporations but, no money for school lunches for all of our children??!!! This is just disgusting & wrong!!!
Thanks Professor. The hard part of it, even though I 100% agree with all four of the suggestions is that us puny little voters seem to have no representation that will make these changes. No matter how large our percentage of voters happens to be, the oligarch and mega-corporations are the only ones with any influence. And they will never change what has become to them, a golden goose. The 99% of American workers who have zero say in these policy decisions could not be any more clear in what they actually want the government to do. The government simply will not do it and yes, I am, as are most people, sick of it. The abortion laws are a good example. The gun laws are another. There is a HUGE majority that wants it, but they refuse to do what the majority wants. Is that Democracy? I am sick of it, too. So is a HUGE majority of the American public. But we still only see less and less desperately needed regulation and more and more preposterous, ridiculous subsidies. What are we going to have to do to make the USA into a democracy again? Are we going to have to hit a 1929 type level of suffering before the greedy people (who are the ones making the decisions and completely disregarding the publics needs) will actually begin to help the people rather than just the obscenely wealthy and corporations?
"There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute nor common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back, for their private benefit." -- Robert A. Heinlein
Now big corporations use the government to regulate small businesses out of existence while they are rich enough to not be affected by harmful bottlenecking regulations.
Robert Reich hits a home run, precisely describing how a representative democracy devolves into a Russian-style corporate oligarchy. Wonderful new publication format-- very effective graphics, as well.
Campaign finance needs to be done first, it is the number one issue. Politicians will serve the people who finance their campaigns, limit campaigns to small donations and they will beholden to the American people.
I seem to recall that shortly after we bailed out General Motors in the early part of Obama's tenure, GM shut down a small car manufacturing plant in what we now call "the Rust Belt", and opened a new pickup truck plant in Mexico claiming that not enough people were buying small cars anymore. Beyond the obvious, also consider that consumers drove up the demand for fossil fuels by buying larger and larger vehicles, and thus increased their relative carbon footprint. It should be noted that the reason companies like GM we're originally located in the upper Midwest was because of transportation costs of both production materials and delivery of their products. Being centrally located and in close proximity to the Great Lakes, iron and coal mines, was cost effective. I also recall that part of Obama's original proposal was to allow people to buy into Medicare, but he couldn't get it through Congress. This was a great idea as it would give us a path towards universal health care.
Here in Kentucky, good luck finding "any" fuel-efficient cars, but rows and rows of gas-guzzling, over-bloated, SUVs and Trucks. Never mind the ones of us who want fuel-efficient, practical automobiles. Corporate CEOs decide for us what we really want and need. Profit over practicality.
Thank you Mr. Reich. NOW, get yourself on one of the talk shows, CBS, ABC, or NBC and try to reach all the people who are not watching this UA-cam. Thanks again.
the majority of time, government provides subsidies to companies because they want them to do something for them. for example, move to a particular city, expedite a certain project, partner with them on a certain policy. don't give them subsidies is fine, just don't expect them to do something for you in return. latest public example was Amazon moving to Long Island. no subsidies, no Amazon, and lots of high paying jobs. subsides are deals that are supposed to be mutually beneficial.
That's not recent, it's been that way for almost a decade. The reasoning is that how we choose to spend our money, is a form of free speech. If I want to donate 1,000$ to a politician, because I support him, why shouldn't I be able to do that. Likewise, if I have the money, why not make it a million? That's the logic behind the decision.
I live adjacent to a California Community College that is undergoing a massive expansion of its nursing and bio-tech training facilities. All paid for with taxpayer funded bonds and mostly benefiting the area's bio-tech industry, anchored by industry giant Genentech. Lets not forget Sharp, Scripps, Palomar Health, and Kaiser hospital systems.
It's not like you think the government might want a company to drill in a certain Tract that might be a dry well in order to get anyone to do that the government agrees to tax them at a lower rate if they drill and hit oil no money is actually given democrats lie
@@Zach-ju5vi Hey look everyone our resident delusional corporate bootlicker is again triggered by another spot on video from the great Professor Reich. Zachoff the irrelevant.
We will never reverse this trend as long as Congress can benefit financially from feeding these greedy corporations. We need to restore Congress back to the long-forgotten concept of service to the people.
As Americans we need to take 1/2 of the GDP and give back to all Americans every year... Then that's what they owe US... Big corporations should pay us back for all the profits and poverty they are creating.
@@Navy35 So what? Just become a slave to the corporations? Grow a spine! We don't need losers like you to tell the rest of how to be losers like you. I'm a patriot, and I'm going to do what's best for my country. Why don' t you move to Africa?
We need laws tying the top compensation at a company to the lowest compensation. The lower paid workers would get more money and the highest paid wouldn't have enough left over to purchase politicians. They can still be wealthier than the rest of us, but it would be much more fair.
It's the same in all capitalist countries. When moderate capitalism, Keynesian style, was abandoned in favor of organised corruption, otherwise known as neoliberalism, capitalism showed its real colors. Reagan, Thatcher... they get statues now, but should be listed in the history books along other monsters like Mao and Hitler, considering the damage they caused to humanity and our planet. Keynes said it best, in regard to the subject of this video: "Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.” John Maynard Keynes
I 100% prefer the idea of congress forcing companies to comply rather than bribing them. Yes some industries need to be subsidized to get off the ground, but there's 0 reason why the most profitable industries in the history of the planet (the big oil companies) need continued subsidies from the American tax payer.
It’s great that this information is getting out there and into people’s minds. It would also be useful if you gave us a small list of companies which are actually improving the situation and not requiring these crazy handouts or deregulation.
The average CEO makes in seven hours what it takes the average worker a year to make. This is way out of balance! It looks like we the people are going to have to bring changes ourselves! Congress is failing us
I love your content. It isn't anti capitalism dogma - it just shows common sense conclusions on how capaitism needs to reform into social capatilism. Thank you.
GM asked the government and the public people to build our car dependent suburbia and its costs are enormous and the traffic is as bad as it was in the fifties. Traffic will always be a problem as long as we continue to design our roads purely for private citizens because we cannot replace all foot traffic with car traffic (which is what GM wanted in the fifties). Car dependency is tax intensive and is costing our government and public big time. In the fifties there were 2X as many roads that were being replaced or repaired than roads being built and that stat has ballooned. Our cities are already going broke and politicians are just starting to see the costs that car dependency bring and they were told about long ago . We need to transition into bringing back foot traffic and good public transit. Screw dead cities that died trying to make us all car dependent and screw fake places that mimic foot traffic when they are all surrounded by parking lots.
The top five percent pay over half the federal taxes and the poor get subsidized housing food assistance cash assistance and free healthcare and the middle class draw more ss and medicare than they pay in taxes a staggering unbelievable 32 trillion dollar debt bigger than our entire economy thanks to democrat handouts our children will inherit a bankrupt shell of a nation
I was commenting on the chip act calling it graft and someone else said that since it was clearly outlined what the plan was, it isn’t graft. My argument is that subsidizing profitable businesses is graft regardless of it being documented or not.
Mr. Reich: I totally agree with everythinig you say in this video except for one thing. The very last thing----------------- You said "Lastly, Campaign Finance Reform". That "campaign finance reform" needs to BE THE FIRST THING!!!
☘️ Dear Robert Reich, America misses & Needs you desperately❣️ While I’m sure you are invaluable to California students, WE The PEOPLE need your 🧠, ♥️ & Soul to succinctly explain & teach the MAJORITY of Americans & Legislators, who truly care about DEMOCRACY…Working for ALL❣️ I never miss one of your videos…You are so darn cute, brilliant & humble & know how to make “Learning” FUN❣️😘
I've said this for decades, Corporations : Welfare for me, but not for Thee". They would change the constitution to "By the People, For the Corporation".
Why the hell is the taxpayer funding a private company? Now you know why their is no cash for health & education. Corporate welfare and they go on about benefits being paid to citizens.
Something like the following. Subsidies should be available to start-up businesses only. And no company can be a perpetual start up. Either a company has the talent to make enough profit to keep itself in business or it does not. Either it can make enough money to finance new products and services or it does not. If it cannot keep itself going then it should close itself down. Once it is off the ground and running, if it needs more financial help, it should have to sell shares of itself or borrow from the commercial banks. After a certain point, no more subsides from the government.
I know where you're coming from, but honestly your point on history is slightly flawed; the era when the US was regulating was an exception, not the rule. Prior to the financial collapse of the great depression, the US legislature, judiciary, both at the highest and lowest, and government itself was geared towards catering to large companies back when they were family dynasties rather than publicly traded businesses. There are whole decades of rulings effectively stating that companies have higher rights than citizens and even states. As we get towards the Regan era, we see a shift in understanding and demographic not in the population but the makeup of the corporations, that effectively made them part of new dynasties to be elevated. And an effective return to the old ways.
Lobbyist convincing lawmakers to use carrots instead if sticks. We need to go back to using sticks. We also need to go back to breaking up monopolies and prevent mergers that are anticompetitive.
Forget the stick, A big baseball bat!!
How? In the US you get just two choices: Fascist (Rep) or Neoliberal (Dem). And the herd doesn't know any better. 50 years of brainwashing by corrupt journalists/media isn't undone that easily either. If reasoning with people, hitting them over the head with hard evidence doesn't work, because they don't want to hear the uncomfortable truth they were duped and they fell for it willingly, what alternatives are there? It seems it's going to get a lot worse before there's even a chance it gets better. Trump is not even charged with treason yet, let alone locked up in the cage where he belongs. So corporate control is needed, but may not be the first priority.
@@TBathory Forget the baseball bat. Reactivate USS New Jersey's 16 main batteries.
Overly narrow definition of " monopolies " and "colusions" allow the corruption .
Eliminate lobbyist gifts ( bribes ) to congress .
Professor Reich SHOULD have a larger platform! His message is so important, and what he preaches is good for everyone, from the average citizen to the largest multinational mega corporation.
BS, Robert is a donor owned drone. He parrots the same faux partisan differences narrative the rest of the donor owned media does. He is an advocate of the donor owned Democratic Party. The corporate donors own the GOP, Democratic, and Libertarian parties. That is the problem, the root problem.
I just found him today. He is saying the same stuff I do basically.
How about an extra roll of toilet paper
It's not good for multinational mega-corporations. It's bad for them. But, then again, I don't really care.
WE need to bring back the strict regulation of corporations and the agencies that kept them in check and that pursued legal recourse when they got out of hand!
Elect politicians who will do it. Stop electing wealth serving politicians.
This was a problem well before the 'citizens united' SCOTUS ruling, but the flood gates really opened afterward. Just think how different our democracy could be IF we had only taxpayer funded elections AND limited the length of the campaign season to say 1-2 months before each election AND the media using the public airwaves were required as a public service to provide equal amounts of airtime to candidates. We need to LEVEL the playing field so the best candidates could be elected NOT just the best fund raisers.
It happened in 81 with Reagan. That’s when antitrust laws and regulations were ignored or overturned and any regulatory agency had large budget cuts.
Then CEO and executive pay skyrocketed and workers wages stagnated while their workload has increased. Because the wealthy pinky promised that it would “trickle down” to us. We all know what happened after that. 😂😂
@@marquisdelafayette1929 exactly, this is when the paradigm shift occurred and neoliberalism became the new operating system for the United States, which we then exported all around the world. Works great for Capital owners… sucks for wage slaves (99 percent of us).
Welcome to the parliamentary system.
Amen.
A HUGE Amen to all of that, Dr. Robert Reich! PLUS, we need to OVERTURN CITIZENS UNITED and GET RID OF ALEC dark money activities! Those are at the center of all of our economc, political, and social problems!
What have the Dems done to fight it? Why isn't Reich confronting them?
Yes, overturn Citizens United!
It isn't just the dark money, all super PACs are bad and you can track exactly where 99% of those funds come from but you did nail the source Citizens United v FEC. We also need actual campaign finance reform because it was an issue prior to legalizing Super PACs.
@@Cyrus992 Because both sides use them of course. Perhaps he isn't talking about it because this is about Corporate Subsidies. Learn how to read.
@@Bound4Earth I know but 90%+ of the time when he goes after politicians it usually the GOP. Yet the Dem establishment have failed us tremendously. He is hack to make Corporate Dems look better.
Corporate subsidies and clean money campaigns were not the main agenda for the Dems since 2010.
Once laws were relaxed for them to pollute, corporations looked at it as an entitlement. It’s like ransom
No the sad thing about it is those corporations will just move to countries like China where there is worse pollution and relaxed workers rights laws. And we’ll still do trade with them and pat ourselves on the back for shutting down a plant here so that we can pollute over there
Laws have never been relaxed. They get worse every year. Hell, they’re starting to ban gas vehicles now.
Remove Louis DeJoy! He should not be in charge of USPS! Total conflict of interests.
Stock buy backs were illegal from 1932 to 1983 when President Reagan legalized them. President Reagan also made Social Security benefits taxable and eliminated the tax deduction for the interest paid on student loans.
Hated Reagan or whoever was pulling his strings
Reagan really screwed the working class over.
Does anybody really think that R politicians would support campaign finance reform? They want that big business money. And big businesses want those politicians in their back pockets.
@@Zach-ju5vi true. Neither would like it very much!
Yes the righteous liberals would never sell out to corporations or send people to foreign wars
@@Zach-ju5vi YAWN....ZZZZzzzz.
This is why learning history is important. The fewer people who know what is even possible for us to achieve, the harder our fight will be.
Campaign finance reform NOW.
@@Zach-ju5vi Easy, all the republican facists would be in jail for breaking the reform laws.
@@Zach-ju5vi Back here like a bad penny huh Zachoff? You're this channels punch line that we all laugh at. hahaha
Agreed and repealing Citizen's United v FEC, because fuck people that think Corporations are people and money somehow equals speech. Don't get me wrong, campaign finance reform has been an issues for at least two decades prior to this, but this was when it went off the rails and legalized Super PACs the largest force for lobbying anywhere in the world. Not even the cartel has that much power in Mexico. To be fair, we helped create them.
@@Zach-ju5vi How much of your paycheck did you spend on Trump coin? You better sell soon because that NFT is already tanking man.
@@Zach-ju5vi Same MAGA fascist propaganda you see on fox then regurgitate here like a good little sociopath. Zachoff the irrelevant troll once again spewing his drivel for us all to laugh at. hahahaha
Preach on sir....maybe one day this can end...all the best
It starts with politicians having to raise money for their campaigns and ending up doing favors for their supporters. To get this by the root, campaign financing should be socialized and everyone gets the same amount to “advertise” themselves. The US political system always baffles me. It’s rotten at its very core. Politicians should be employees of the people not puppets of lobbyists. The government should allocate campaign budgets and that’s all they get. No private money.
What happens to me if I don’t want to fund these politicians’ campaigns?
Rampant corruption - we need ranked-choice voting and more parties.
Or, no parties? And people run on merit...?
@@dylanwatts9344 We're talking about this planet, right?
@@carycunningham9510
Wrong noun...
"We're talking about humans, right?"
Our species is a failure of evolution. For as much technology as we make, the majority of our species will be no more than talking beasts.
And on that note, we deserve extinction due to the risk we pose.
Though I have a desperate, and likely futile, hope that something will change. And so I comment on what should be, knowing it never will be.
Exactly, we need ranked-choice voting. It won't solve everything right away, but it will be the start of the changing process.
I don't think our modern political system can change for the better without ranked-choice voting.
Gotta love these bite size videos packed with the good good.
We can only hope. It seems like the corporations are so powerful that they are now the actual government
These are such high quality productions. I'm so impressed.
Definitely should still subsidize small businesses that fill a new needs that we want to promote (e.g., solar panel companies), but for sure we need to regulate the bads more.
We shouldn’t subsidize anyone. The free market will determine what gets promoted, and what doesn’t. It’s not governments’ job to decide what things get produced.
Thank you Robert. Be well
Now do how congressmen get appointed to important positions on important committees by holding hostage the vote for speaker of the house.
Thank you!
I’ve worked in solar since 2006 and I’ve been dealing with subsidy questions since I first started You can either believe subsidies are OK to promote new technology or that subsidies are never OK, but I find too many people who think that subsidiesshould only be used to support industries like the Petroleum Industry, which has been profitable since 1859. Grid tied solar became viable in the early 2000s and needed tax credits to be profitable for home owners and businesses. Oil subsidies probably should have stopped at least 70 years ago and if you’re mad at renewable tax credits, keep in mind we still have specific tax credits for buying big cars and private jets.
I had well meaning customers who would write their congress-people demanding permanent solar subsidies. That’s not a good policy decision either. We’re only about 15 years into modern solar technology, but when solar becomes profitable without tax credits (it already is for large scale solar, but not for most businesses and homes) the subsidies should end. We don’t want the solar industry becoming another oil industry. What if Doc Brown invents safe, cold fusion in 20 years, but the solar industry spends billions lobbying to keep its subsidies and prevent cold fusion from taking off?
As Robert said there need to be specific goals for subsidies and ways to end them.
Same in Australia, company profits are through the roof, share holders laughing all the way to the bank ------- working people unable to pay the rent and put food on the table, as for health insurance ---- forget it. Is there no end to the greed and corruption of of some of the richest corporations in the world.
You don't need to be rich to be a shareholder. You just need a surplus of income to be a shareholder.
There are three stages of democracy:
1. The growth of democracy
2. The growth of corporate power
3. The growth of corporate propaganda to protect corporate power
There are more steps, already taken. The last step is: The rich and big corporations laugh at the people and tell them to eat cake while they and their children starve.
@@Zach-ju5vi - If it's a Republic that is of the Rich, by the Rich, and for the Rich than it is rotten at its core. Freedoms, Liberties, and Rights are not supposed to exist only for the Ultra-Wealthy.
That is why I have changed from being someone in favor of Laissez faire capitalism to becoming a Social Democrat. I am NOT a Socialist that wants to nationalize all industries. I do agree though that the power of Government should be used to protect EVERYONE, not just our Corporate overlords (or Oligarchs, or Plutocrats, or Aristocrats)
@@Zach-ju5vi Look everyone it's Zachoff the irrelevant troll for everyone to laugh at. hahahaha
Democracy is a horrible idea.
@@Zach-ju5vi Same old unoriginal nonsense from Zachoff the irrelevant troll. Spewing the lies from the party of George Santos and trump for us all to laugh at. hahaha
Overturn Citizens United. We've all got to get on the same page and bitch and complain and protest about it until something happens.
The reason we cannot have corporations running our lives, as they currently do, is that capitalism can have utterly no morality. We see it in all our regime-change wars, including Vietnam.
Wasn’t Vietnam a Democrat war?
@@Navy35 Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon all subsequently contributed to its escalation; hard to tie it to either party.
@@Zach-ju5vi the reason for the Vietnam war was fundamentally tied to the containment strategy against the Soviet Union, economics was almost completely irrelevant. And what do you think Trump printing money during the pandemic was if not Keynesianism? He certainly didn't do the national debt any favors. Aspects of Keynesian and neoliberalist thinking are alive and well in both parties.
@@Zach-ju5vi lmfao
@@Zach-ju5vi More of the same deluded pro corporate babble everyone here laughs at from this channels troll, Zachoff the irrelevant.hahahaha
thank you,. I would have never know about this without you sharing.
Eliminate all laws that allow businesses to receive tax benefits from their losses. People don’t get that benefit so businesses shouldn’t either.
Exactly 💯
And which rich and powerful person is going to support that, politician or otherwise. This is a plutocracy darling, learn the rules.
@@cev12 So basically, you have no ideas and don't want change. Why don't you go away, you're not helping.
@@cev12 Wrong. And, cynicism isn't efficacious.
@@50jakecs Well you don't make a good psychologist, do you? So let me be clear with you: we can't do anything if we aren't fully honest with ourselves about the situation we're in. Everyone's going around with fantasies and bs in their heads, and that's not gonna save us. Like your, "we should" garbage. Get a grip on reality, come down, and then start thinking of actual things that can be done when the average people have little to no power or money. #notoxicpositivity
There is plenty of money for subsidies to corporations but, no money for school lunches for all of our children??!!!
This is just disgusting & wrong!!!
Thanks Professor. The hard part of it, even though I 100% agree with all four of the suggestions is that us puny little voters seem to have no representation that will make these changes. No matter how large our percentage of voters happens to be, the oligarch and mega-corporations are the only ones with any influence. And they will never change what has become to them, a golden goose. The 99% of American workers who have zero say in these policy decisions could not be any more clear in what they actually want the government to do. The government simply will not do it and yes, I am, as are most people, sick of it. The abortion laws are a good example. The gun laws are another. There is a HUGE majority that wants it, but they refuse to do what the majority wants. Is that Democracy?
I am sick of it, too. So is a HUGE majority of the American public. But we still only see less and less desperately needed regulation and more and more preposterous, ridiculous subsidies. What are we going to have to do to make the USA into a democracy again? Are we going to have to hit a 1929 type level of suffering before the greedy people (who are the ones making the decisions and completely disregarding the publics needs) will actually begin to help the people rather than just the obscenely wealthy and corporations?
"There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute nor common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back, for their private benefit."
-- Robert A. Heinlein
Now big corporations use the government to regulate small businesses out of existence while they are rich enough to not be affected by harmful bottlenecking regulations.
Amen! Separate Politics from Corporations.
Robert Reich hits a home run, precisely describing how a representative democracy devolves into a Russian-style corporate oligarchy. Wonderful new publication format-- very effective graphics, as well.
Campaign finance needs to be done first, it is the number one issue. Politicians will serve the people who finance their campaigns, limit campaigns to small donations and they will beholden to the American people.
I seem to recall that shortly after we bailed out General Motors in the early part of Obama's tenure, GM shut down a small car manufacturing plant in what we now call "the Rust Belt", and opened a new pickup truck plant in Mexico claiming that not enough people were buying small cars anymore.
Beyond the obvious, also consider that consumers drove up the demand for fossil fuels by buying larger and larger vehicles, and thus increased their relative carbon footprint.
It should be noted that the reason companies like GM we're originally located in the upper Midwest was because of transportation costs of both production materials and delivery of their products. Being centrally located and in close proximity to the Great Lakes, iron and coal mines, was cost effective.
I also recall that part of Obama's original proposal was to allow people to buy into Medicare, but he couldn't get it through Congress. This was a great idea as it would give us a path towards universal health care.
Here in Kentucky, good luck finding "any" fuel-efficient cars, but rows and rows of gas-guzzling, over-bloated, SUVs and Trucks. Never mind the ones of us who want fuel-efficient, practical automobiles. Corporate CEOs decide for us what we really want and need. Profit over practicality.
@@Zach-ju5vi YAWN....ZZZZzzzz.... Same sedative babble from Zachoff the irrelevant.
Thank you Mr. Reich. NOW, get yourself on one of the talk shows, CBS, ABC, or NBC and try to reach all the people who are not watching this UA-cam. Thanks again.
Corporate socialism. Yes, professor, get big money out of politics.👍🇺🇸
the majority of time, government provides subsidies to companies because they want them to do something for them. for example, move to a particular city, expedite a certain project, partner with them on a certain policy. don't give them subsidies is fine, just don't expect them to do something for you in return. latest public example was Amazon moving to Long Island. no subsidies, no Amazon, and lots of high paying jobs. subsides are deals that are supposed to be mutually beneficial.
Didn't a recent supreme court ruling take away any limits from how much a single entity can give to a politician? Seems like we need to fix the SC.
That's not recent, it's been that way for almost a decade. The reasoning is that how we choose to spend our money, is a form of free speech. If I want to donate 1,000$ to a politician, because I support him, why shouldn't I be able to do that. Likewise, if I have the money, why not make it a million? That's the logic behind the decision.
End corporate welfare!!!!
The hard one is that last one - getting money out of politics.
Good luck, America
I live adjacent to a California Community College that is undergoing a massive expansion of its nursing and bio-tech training facilities. All paid for with taxpayer funded bonds and mostly benefiting the area's bio-tech industry, anchored by industry giant Genentech. Lets not forget Sharp, Scripps, Palomar Health, and Kaiser hospital systems.
The oil industry gets subsidies?! Why? They have record, record, record profits?!
Why? We have the best government corporate $$$$$ can buy.
It's not like you think the government might want a company to drill in a certain Tract that might be a dry well in order to get anyone to do that the government agrees to tax them at a lower rate if they drill and hit oil no money is actually given democrats lie
If that was true then why do they let themselves be taxed so much
As it is now, corporations just use their subsidies to basically go straight into a vault.
@@Zach-ju5vi Hey look everyone our resident delusional corporate bootlicker is again triggered by another spot on video from the great Professor Reich. Zachoff the irrelevant.
You need to re-release this one several times a week....at least during campaign season.
But I'm all for you re-releasing it as often as you want.
I wish I could upvote this a hundred times!
Great video.
RIGHT ON RR….
Thank you for educating us!
We will never reverse this trend as long as Congress can benefit financially from feeding these greedy corporations. We need to restore Congress back to the long-forgotten concept of service to the people.
Considering that most Americans probably couldn't name all 3 branches of government, we who do pay attention are almost powerless. It's depressing.
As Americans we need to take 1/2 of the GDP and give back to all Americans every year... Then that's what they owe US... Big corporations should pay us back for all the profits and poverty they are creating.
Back in the day there were no lobbyists to bribe politicians. Overturn Citizens United..
@@Zach-ju5vi true
What have the Dems done to fight it? Why isn't Reich confronting them?
Yes! Or just let citizens, people, lobby politicians for their needs and desires.
@@growthandunderstanding yeah I’d like to see you try it. You’ll be labeled a terrorist or insurgent
@@Navy35 So what? Just become a slave to the corporations? Grow a spine! We don't need losers like you to tell the rest of how to be losers like you. I'm a patriot, and I'm going to do what's best for my country. Why don' t you move to Africa?
We need laws tying the top compensation at a company to the lowest compensation. The lower paid workers would get more money and the highest paid wouldn't have enough left over to purchase politicians. They can still be wealthier than the rest of us, but it would be much more fair.
Amen Robert
Drug industry does NOT need subsidies.
It's the same in all capitalist countries. When moderate capitalism, Keynesian style, was abandoned in favor of organised corruption, otherwise known as neoliberalism, capitalism showed its real colors. Reagan, Thatcher... they get statues now, but should be listed in the history books along other monsters like Mao and Hitler, considering the damage they caused to humanity and our planet.
Keynes said it best, in regard to the subject of this video:
"Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone.”
John Maynard Keynes
This whole situation makes me sick
I 100% prefer the idea of congress forcing companies to comply rather than bribing them.
Yes some industries need to be subsidized to get off the ground, but there's 0 reason why the most profitable industries in the history of the planet (the big oil companies) need continued subsidies from the American tax payer.
It’s great that this information is getting out there and into people’s minds. It would also be useful if you gave us a small list of companies which are actually improving the situation and not requiring these crazy handouts or deregulation.
The average CEO makes in seven hours what it takes the average worker a year to make. This is way out of balance! It looks like we the people are going to have to bring changes ourselves! Congress is failing us
Don’t forget agriculture subsidies.
truth, thank you!
So right.
Regulations do more good than subsidies. 🙂🇺🇸
I love your content. It isn't anti capitalism dogma - it just shows common sense conclusions on how capaitism needs to reform into social capatilism. Thank you.
We know what good they are. They help the cronies line their pockets.
GM asked the government and the public people to build our car dependent suburbia and its costs are enormous and the traffic is as bad as it was in the fifties. Traffic will always be a problem as long as we continue to design our roads purely for private citizens because we cannot replace all foot traffic with car traffic (which is what GM wanted in the fifties). Car dependency is tax intensive and is costing our government and public big time. In the fifties there were 2X as many roads that were being replaced or repaired than roads being built and that stat has ballooned. Our cities are already going broke and politicians are just starting to see the costs that car dependency bring and they were told about long ago . We need to transition into bringing back foot traffic and good public transit. Screw dead cities that died trying to make us all car dependent and screw fake places that mimic foot traffic when they are all surrounded by parking lots.
Simply put: Agreed!
What a waste of public money
It's all a cozy little klatch of the wealthy and powerful. We don't get a say; we just suffer the consequences.
The top five percent pay over half the federal taxes and the poor get subsidized housing food assistance cash assistance and free healthcare and the middle class draw more ss and medicare than they pay in taxes a staggering unbelievable 32 trillion dollar debt bigger than our entire economy thanks to democrat handouts our children will inherit a bankrupt shell of a nation
Reich is always right! Love that guy👍🏽
He lies about the rich not paying taxes the top five percent pay over half the federal taxes
I am still awaiting your book “Restoring economic equality for Legislative Dummies “
Step 1. I agree. And ARREST Those who do NOT Comply. You take the Money. You Follow the Rules.
Robert you're right on target, that is why you're out. I'm Republican , always thought you to be realistic about government. Thanks
I was commenting on the chip act calling it graft and someone else said that since it was clearly outlined what the plan was, it isn’t graft. My argument is that subsidizing profitable businesses is graft regardless of it being documented or not.
Would invite you to look at what is happening with McKinzey in Canada. That's also disturbing.
Yes. Yes. Yes
Imagine the insult of paying taxes to subsidize the healthcare industry, and then filing for bankruptcy due to medical bills.
I’m thinking beyond subsidy state that we’re in more of a kleptocratic state. Politicians taking campaign subsidies and returning favors/ bribes.
Mr. Reich: I totally agree with everythinig you say in this video except for one thing. The very last thing----------------- You said "Lastly, Campaign Finance Reform". That "campaign finance reform" needs to BE THE FIRST THING!!!
☘️ Dear Robert Reich, America misses & Needs you desperately❣️ While I’m sure you are invaluable to California students, WE The PEOPLE need your 🧠, ♥️ & Soul to succinctly explain & teach the MAJORITY of Americans & Legislators, who truly care about DEMOCRACY…Working for ALL❣️
I never miss one of your videos…You are so darn cute, brilliant & humble & know how to make “Learning” FUN❣️😘
Make All Subsidies to Private Corporations as Temporary Loans....
The EPA was actually established by Richard Nixon in 1970... not FDR.
As a conservative, i totally agree no subsidies for businesses.
Until these measures are taken, we should all call this country "The Incorporated States of America"
The faux democracy of the United State's Oligarchical Oligopoly.
Liberty and no justice for all corporations. Murica
Sharing this!
They have the money so they have the power. It's been going on for thousands of years.
I've said this for decades, Corporations : Welfare for me, but not for Thee". They would change the constitution to "By the People, For the Corporation".
Thank you! I've also noticed that less and less is actually being asked of business in exchange for larger and larger bribes--I mean, subsidies...
Reich is THE BEST ❤️
Why the hell is the taxpayer funding a private company? Now you know why their is no cash for health & education. Corporate welfare and they go on about benefits being paid to citizens.
Something like the following.
Subsidies should be available to start-up businesses only. And no company can be a perpetual start up. Either a company has the talent to make enough profit to keep itself in business or it does not. Either it can make enough money to finance new products and services or it does not. If it cannot keep itself going then it should close itself down. Once it is off the ground and running, if it needs more financial help, it should have to sell shares of itself or borrow from the commercial banks. After a certain point, no more subsides from the government.
Unions almost put gm out of business its pension cost was over ten billion a year more than there entire profit
Term limits would be my solution. Our Founders never envisioned that "elected representative" would become a profession.
I know where you're coming from, but honestly your point on history is slightly flawed; the era when the US was regulating was an exception, not the rule. Prior to the financial collapse of the great depression, the US legislature, judiciary, both at the highest and lowest, and government itself was geared towards catering to large companies back when they were family dynasties rather than publicly traded businesses. There are whole decades of rulings effectively stating that companies have higher rights than citizens and even states. As we get towards the Regan era, we see a shift in understanding and demographic not in the population but the makeup of the corporations, that effectively made them part of new dynasties to be elevated. And an effective return to the old ways.
Don't hold your breath, Bob.
Thanks
This is where so much of our tax dollars are wastefully spent. Not on welfare programs that benefit the people.
I’m surprised….I actually agree with Robert Reich!!!!!
Well said
Hey Robert Reich run for president so I can vote for you. Leaders in Washington likely do not care about anything laid out in this video.
Bernie Sanders cares.