Maia, the simple fact is many folks don’t want to be bothered by such financial education… this is what separates the classes… this is why people will spend hrs every week watching cat videos, vs financial videos…
@@bman6502 Exactly. I hold an endorsement in economics on my teaching certificate for grades 4-12. When I searched for any schools that offered even a single course in that subject, I found a big, fat, zero. Parents should be in an uproar about this, but nobody seems to care about how to measure the economy until you get to college. That's an avoidable disaster when you consider the GOP goes after more non-college-educated voters than the Dems.
You have explained why I am so stressed. My rent went up. My food bill went up a lot too. My auto insurance is going up, my laundry bill and my gasoline costs have gone up. My Social Security went up too but only 8.7% and not nearly as much as everything else went up. I had to ask for charity to pay my utility bills last month and I'm looking into which food pantry will help me meet my special dietary needs. My landlord is upgrading a huge apartment complex to avoid rent control. He also took away my utility allowance of $98 for each of the next 6 months and kept it even though I pay my utilities to the utility company. The housing authority allowed it because his permissible rent increase of 10% was less than the utility allowance. So he kept the utility allowance and raised my rent $79. The system is rigged against the poor and then we are told this is the richest country in the history of the world. It is, but not for you and me. We are struggling to survive in a harsh world that only provides for the elite 1% of our population. So, when are we going to demand fundamental change? Nobody will change anything unless we demand it.
Reich can handle the current inflation financially. He won't tell you that. Berkeley pays him a bundle. Plus when he retires he will tap his TIAA-CREF 403B which Berkeley contributes to. He tries to infer that his life is like other Americans when it's not.
You're complaining about an 8.7% raise in Social Security?! You know how much my wages went up? Queue chirping crickets. Don't worry, though. If the SCOTUS rules in favor of Corporations with this upcoming lawsuit against the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau, not only will that be ruled Unconstitutional (the way it's funded), but also the Fed, FDIC protection, AND Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid! I can't wait! You'll see seniors in walkers marching with signs saying, "Keep your government hands off my Social Security!" lol.
i am sorry for your situation. I hope things get better for you. but the odds say that they won't. the odds favor you dying alone, homeless, sick and broke. I am sorry for your situation. If I had my way the injustices of the world would never have been allowed to happen. I want Jesus to be spiteful. And to me, the first people who need to be spited are the ignorant fools who spent the last 50+years voting for exactly this. So, Helen, tell me, how have you voted for the last 50+ years?
@@lanewilliams6099 Nunya business how I voted. But I'll tell you this much anyhow. I have never, ever voted Republican. The Republican Party does not represent folks like me who have worked for low wages all my life and who now struggle to survive as an 81 year old person. I hope you didn't vote for the rich corporate masters who are gouging us and abusing working people. That would be painful to hear.
This is the problem with education today; how many courses in economics did you have in college? Most of the high school teachers I speak with only had one or two classes in economics, one or two in government and a hand full of history classes. Reich has an agenda and he pushes it. Most of what he says in very mischaracterized. If your teaching this I would suggest you balance it with Thomas Sowell.
God help your students! Did you get your degree in the same class a AOC?!?! Nothing pleases me more than listening to a competent economist, but Reich is objectively neither. I mean don't tell me you've fallen for the "raking it in" or "record profits" BS? Someone teaching economics should be able to simply look that up and dispense with it. Don't tell me you fall for the "jobs paying barely enough to live on" idiocy? Anyone, even non-economists with even a modicum of intelligence can simply look up the data and see that total real compensation - what workers are actually paid adjusted for inflation - is 9.5% higher than a decade ago, more than half again more than 40 years ago and more than double what workers made 60 years ago. I'm sure you teach your students that every honest economist looks at compensation (which includes benefits) instead of just wages (as Reich does), right? These figures are consistent across all income quintiles, Even if we didn't have quintile level data, the law of large numbers and a workforce of 164 million workers makes the skewed-by-the-top claim to be either utter incompetence or a bald-faced lie (Reich is well known for both). This is precisely why Reich is a complete laughingstock in the economics profession. The graph he shows was completely debunked 0 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics no less! Don't tell me you fall for the "jobs taking up too much time" stupidity when the average work week has stabilized at an historically low 34.5 hours a week. Longer hours are associated with higher paid jobs with higher job satisfaction. Don't tell me you've fallen for the asinine stock ownership meme? It's 89% and irrelevant as the issue is that Nearly 69% of Americans own stock according to surveys and that figure is understated as people with stocks in retirement accounts and similar instruments don't consider them in their responses. What someone else owns is immaterial. Don't tell me you fell for the 1% ignorance? The fact is that Americans are the highest paid workers in the world, with the greatest level of disposable income (both across all income quintiles) and we have the wealthiest "poor" in the world and by a sizable margin, living better than the middle class in nearly every other country on the planet. Don't tell me you fell for the CEO pay bald-faced lie. No one with any grasp of basic math falls for that one. The actual difference between the average CEO and the average worker is less than six times. Surely, as an ta least marginally competent teacher of economics, you share with your students that prices are determined by the interaction of supply and demand and, in order to obtain monopoly pricing, the *entire* market must be controlled not merely a high percentage, right? Don't get me started on the bon-existent "climate crisis" or the economically illiterate "sock buyback" ineptitude! The standard economic measures don't conform to Reich's complete BS so we must change what we look at. Okay. How about looking at real worker pay (near record highs) or poverty (with the highest threshold on earth) hitting record lows in 2020 or child poverty (hitting record lows in 2021). What can this inveterate liar and economic illiterate possibly have to say that is of value to your students?!?!?
"Go to the kitchen tables of America." I bet if we all took one night a week to share a meal with a new family in our communities and talked about our economic anxieties, we'd learn what the common plight of the American family is pretty quickly. We need to band together on this one. Something is not right in America. It starts at the top, but it can be fixed if everyone at the bottom comes together and demands better from our government and the companies that bought our legislators.
And all of our Performative Politicians are working to great more division among us. We the People need to take back control of both of our major parties of start a third , much more centrist party. The ends running this are deserting the middle to score points in a culture war- you pick a topic. One side may be slightly less corrupt than the other- there is presently much debate over who each of those is, but no "national voice" seeking to rejoin the "active debate" We were designed to be. FR
@allgood And an honest evaluation of the conditions for the average person and factors that influence those conditions would turn a lot of people socialist.
As a visitor to your wonderful country I was struck by the level of homelessness, the poor state of the infrastructure and just the amount everything is run down. Away from cities the roads are in decay and the phone systems old. Houses are in disrepair. Shops are closing down. These are not signs of a healthy economy. Many of the Americans I talk to work long hours, yet receive very few benefits from those hours. Healthcare is extremely expensive, public transport is old, even petrol is twice the cost of my native Australia. How many hours does an average person need to work to pay off an average house? How old is the average car in America? Are people happy or are they working too many hours and keeping themselves busy so they don’t think about their situation too much?
Australia is going the same way. We have to recognize property booms are parasitic to the economy. Too many small business closing down because they can't afford the rent, commercial property has 17% vacancy but landlords refuse to price where the market is at and instead drive the tennants to the wall. Similar story for privatised infrastructure, the private owners are selling up to corporate raiders, who raise prices and cut opEx. Meanwhile the government is being infected by lobbyists and double-dealing consulting firms, who give advice to the benefit of their corporate clients.
@@TrollMeister-s6nYes, all of these problems are from government interference in the economy. He talks about big businesses taking advantage of their consumers, but the biggest one of them is the government.
Some economists have projected that both the U.S. and parts of Europe could slip into a recession for a portion of 2023. A global recession, defined as a contraction in annual global per capita income, is more rare because China and emerging markets often grow faster than more developed economies. Essentially the world economy is considered to be in recession if economic growth falls behind population growth.
@@JeanpaulCeme Your money is stagnant when you save, I will advise you buy stocks with market-beating yields and shares that at least keep pace with the market for a long term. For a successful long-term strategy I recommend you seek the guidance of a broker or financial advisor.
@@JeanpaulCeme Someone at the bottom doesn't need a "financial advisor", they need a raise and whole lot less gaslighting about not budgeting or not "planning". You can budget and plan but you never have money to invest.
I am thankful that my father decided to move us to the Philippines after he retired. We were not well-off when we were in California and I always see tiredness and sadness in mom's eyes, worrying to meet ends. Here, in this developing country, we are thriving and happy actually. And now, I am graduating and becoming a medical technologist.
Many of us in the "developed" world are going yo have to become "economic refugees" to survive. The cost of basics is too high because investors are taking way too big a slice of the cake.
I have recently ‘discovered’ Mr. Reich. Soaking in his wisdom and explanations now. Thank you so much, Mr. Reich, that you truly care! This is a rare trait these days.
Then America has failed. I'm a cashier. I make $10.50 an hour. I'm kept part-time, so I'm ineligible for benefits. I can't build up savings. Their college tuition program is nowhere near enough to pay for college. The job offers no career advancement. I'm also ineligible for welfare since I'm past the age of 25 and have no kids or disabilities.
@@scifirealism5943 "failed" is the wrong word if you're going to compare USA to India or the British Empire Gandhi spoke of or the Russia Dostoyevsky spoke of. America succeeds, but our results are very irregular -- Reich shows there is a huge divide between the 0.01% and the 99.99%. But even within the 99.99% there are some big divides. That's where we need to improve. Even compared to our own past there are problems as his chart showing division ONLY growing big after 1980.
I've been saying exactly this for years! A better measure for the economy: what %age: Work more than one job? Rely on social assistance? Have to drop out of school to support their family? Can afford to complete post-secondary education? Have assets exceeding their debts? Heck, even crime rate would be a better measure of the economy than what we use now.
There are millions of people that don't rely on any of those. We are trashing the nation so we are all poor because not everyone does well. The most asinine thing I've ever witnessed. Thanks for nothing
@@edwinamendelssohn5129 yes, there are millions not relying on those. There are, however, a growing population of people who ARE struggling. This is due to the higher wealth concentration at the top, due to corporate greed, automation without consideration for the displaced workers, and making sure the worker foots the bill for increased education requirements for jobs. The economy now greatly mirrors the conditions that lead to the great recession. The wealthy people out there haven't been studying their history.
A lot of it is deliberately obfuscated and rendered arcane for the express purpose of limiting citizen participation. And I really wish that was paranoia or hyperbole.
Thank you for making this video. This will be what I send people when they want a quick and informative overview of what is going on in the “economy.” One thing that I wish was emphasized more is the compounding effect of not being able to afford things. If you can barely afford the basics then considering or even getting an education is even harder. Not only will you have to work and study, which is already very difficult but will be left with debt once it’s over. Now you’re job searching and find there aren’t many jobs except those minimum wage jobs, especially for younger professionals looking to get their foot in the door. Even if you land a job in your field of interest, many offer subpar benefits as mentioned in the video and don’t offer a decent retirement plan, if at all. Couple this with lower wages adjusted for inflation and things aren’t looking great. Your retirement plan and hopes of being able to live, ride on your 401k or IRA which essentially further props up the stock market owned by people who are already absurdly rich. These people are essentially using your retirement accounts to further dig us deeper economically because the the alternative is leaving it in your bank and letting inflation dwindle it’s value down. These are the companies who are buying out homes to rent, increasing the cost of goods that people ACTUALLY NEED and changing the laws to benefit them. I can’t wait for the 2659291649 financial crisis of my lifetime and have the news spread propaganda about how everyone is to blame except for the people hoarding enough wealth to rival entire nation’s GDPs. . .
Very good comment. Regarding the news media, so much of it is owed by the 1% and is therefore biased against the 99%, despite what some people say, that information we consume perpetrates the falsity that the rich pay their fair share in taxes. As multi-milliinaire (or billionaire?)
(Friggen phone added comment by mistake) To continue: As Warren Buffett has said, his secretary pays a higher effective tax rate than he does. He's the 6th-richest man in the WORLD, and his effective tax rate is lower than that of his secretary. How is that in any way fair???
I live in Canada and lived in Toronto for about 16 years. In Toronto today, for a small 1 bedroom apartment, it is, on average, over $2,400 a month, which is over $28,800 a year. The minimum wage in recent years was boosted to $14 an hour and then climbed to $15, which works out to $31,200 per year. This leaves a minimum wage worker with $2400 to live on for a year, which is $200 a month, and that is before taxes. Ontario used to have rent controls, and the Canadian government built affordable housing (which has been restarted). Now the rent control only matters if you stay in your apartment because once you leave it, the landlord can charge the "market rate" (whatever they can get). The market rate is inflated because there is a shortage of affordable housing, and rental housing in general, currently available or being constructed, as companies would rather build condos and sell them right away. At the same time, nimbyist zoning laws in many areas prevent apartment buildings from being constructed and houses from being converted to duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes. As a result, you have a shortage of rental housing; this, along with weak rent controls, causes highly inflated rents. So, as of 2023, a minimum wage worker can't even live in Toronto, Canada, and that is with a decent minimum wage.
That is where I live too. A 1 br is 2600-3000 a month. That is why we need caps on rent even when people move out. People shouldn't be forced to stay in crumbling, older apts or pay skyrocketing rents.
I am so thankful for Robert Reich's videos...The majority of the media (which is mostly center right) seem to think the American worker is getting away with something by getting the increased wages and greater "work from home" flexibility we've seen over the last couple of years, but the actual reality is far from it.
@@patricialongo5870 not in every country. Some actually have high quality fee (at point of service) pre-natal care and support families even after the children were born (free of charge as well).
Those at the top: "La, la, la, I'm not listening! I've put everything in place so that I'm not in the least threatened by you so I don't have to listen!"
You should be grateful not hateful to the rich they are the ones paying almost all the federal taxes that fund Democrat handouts vote out handout Democrats before it's to late our childrens future depend on it
It's not just corporations, it's their stockholders too. IF any individual stockholder cared even a little bit about climate, the environment, healthcare, fairness, etc. they would insist that the corporation be a good citizen of the country in which they live and work and not be out to rake the rest of the country over the coals. How bad would it be if they took a $99 dividend (ex.) instead of $100 IF it would mean the corporations would clean up their pollution, pay their lowest tier workers a decent salary (instead of giving another airplane or yacht to its CEO and green their businesses. But greed is rampant.
@@gerardflynn7382 Its a tax-advantaged retirement fund that individuals pay into via paycheck deductions, with specific rules about how much you can contribute each year and when you can cash out. Basically an investment account with a limited set of available mutual funds and ETFs that are mostly focused on long-term growth. 401ks have essentially replaced pension funds in the US.
@@gerardflynn7382 it's a tax-deferred investment/retirement vehicle. 401k is the section number of US tax code that allows us to take a portion of our salaries today prior to being taxed and invest it in the stock market for growth on the condition that withdrawals from that investment in the future will be taxed at that time. As an example, if my salary is $1000/wk, I could decide to send 20% of that to my 401k and I would only be taxed on $800 worth of income today. I take the other $200/wk and invest in the stock market. In theory, it grows over time, both because of my continuous weekly investments and the gains made in the stock market, and when I retire, I start using the money in the investment as my income. When I withdraw from that fund, which I'm not allowed to do without a penalty until a certain age, the withdrawal is taxed. That's the nutshell. There are many other intricacies, such as a government-imposed limit on how much you can contribute to a 401k, the possibility that your employer doesn't offer a 401k plan, whether or not your employer also contributes if they do have a plan, and the age you're allowed to start withdrawing. In taking part in a 401k, you are also placing a bet on the idea that a) the stock market will continue to make gains, and b) that tax rates when you withdraw in the future will be the same or less than, or at least not significantly more than they are today. In Zach asking the OP if she has a 401k, his point is that if she does, she is also a stockholder who, for her own financial benefit, wants the corporations to do well in the stock market. And that would be in conflict with her comment that calls out the corporations and stockholders for not caring about social causes. The sad fact is that caring about the environment, healthcare, education, homelessness, etc. is expensive, is not glamorous, and thus does not enhance corporate profits or stock performance in the short term. And US companies are very, very short-sighted at a detriment to everyone including themselves.
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@@Zach-ju5vi With respect, a snippet of a larger discussion adds nothing to the conversation, particularly given that said snippet, "don't buy into the inflation scare," has been rendered quite ambiguous in import through the act of decontextualization. Secretary Reich might very well have been cautioning people not to succumb to the fearmongering being waged by Republican pols and pundits who warned of runaway inflation and an imminent, catastrophic recession...But how can one know from a single phrase separated from the whole? Cheers
@@Zach-ju5vi Every time I see this horse manure out of you, I just going to cut and paste my first reply to you. I might even have to add a third reason. Hello class. Can anybody tell me two things that make this poster look like an ignorant fool? Yes! That's right. 2021 was before Donald Trump's BFF Putin invaded Ukraine and cutoff Ukrainian commodities from the world market. And this was also before oil company executives decided a little war profiteering was in order and raised the price of gas far beyond what they needed to cover the rise in oil price and the war related inflation.
Good video! I’m from Germany, it’s not quite as bad here, but we still have problems. But (as far as I know), a full time minimum wage job can get you a one-bedroom-flat/apartment rented in most places (not the most expensive cities, but most places) even when getting mandatory healthcare. You may not be able to afford a car in some places, but there you won’t need one thanks to public transport and „walkability“.
The overall quality of life in Germany is completely different to the U.S. It is so different that both life styles are difficult to compare. I wouldn't go back to the U.S. under any circumstance even if I was filthy rich.
When I lived in Spain I did not need a car. They had more buses than in the US. That meant no need for expensive car insurance and gas. There were more small stores compared to the US so everything was closer. Too many big companies is not good because monopolies mean higher prices and lower pay because of the lack of competition. Living in Europe seems better to me, they have less school shootings and its safer place to live because the public has less guns. I would gladly pay 7.5% of income for universal healthcare. Same for universal college education as my school loan debt is a big problem. Japan is a better place to live than the US for the same reasons.
A starting point that is accessible is to stop buying soft drinks. This industry itself contributes to 2% of global CO2 (accounting for everything: CO2 added to the beverage, CO2 is plastic bottle, fuel for transportation). This is also a major health issue because of the added sugar which causes diabeties and obesity. We need more videos like this to educate so that collectively we could make better decisions.
I do not buy soft drinks but what is my alternative I buy bottled water and drink nothing else that is good for my health but I still am consuming plastic bottles
I feel it is possible that it is hard for some companies to hire people but also feel that in a lot of cases companies would rather have the current employees do the job of 2 maybe 3 people instead so they can maximize profits by saving on labor and benefits.
Oh, they do that all the time because of mandatory benefits. It's more expensive for a corporation to employ one full-time worker with benefits than 2 part-time workers without them. When Walmart was forced to provide health insurance for all of its workers, but its workers had to work at least 36 hours a week to qualify, Walmart cut all of its hourly associates hours from 40 hours a week to 35 and a 1/2.
Yup. Last job i worked, Lowes, i was doing the jobs of 6-8 people + 2 manager's, less than a quarter our normal staff, and management gaslit me and lied when i asked them about it. In addition, i frequently assisted in other departments, did general aid, they fired the janitor so that we - me for my department - could do their job, and i occasionally ran multiple departments, the jobs of dozens of people, solo while being chewed out and blamed the entire time for not working fast enough or for managers mistakes being blamed on me, or even sometimes outright lies so management would look good. We lost customers left and right, but it was amazingly profitable in the wage cuts. I did the research and math, and it turned out they were tripling to quintupling their profit margins, depending on the measure, from before covid to now, and it just keeps going up. It almost perfectly lined up with their unemployment figures, their over 100 empty positions - but never managers, that was always filled and paid several times the workers who did their jobs for them - and over 400 unpaid hours per week, while they had 5 open hiring positions. They also obviously abused workers, such as throwing them into grueling departments that could take months or even years to learn properly, solo with 0 training - their software is *really* *really* bad, and constantly being screwed up by corporates updates, it took me a month to learn their phone devices - and insulting the fuck out of them then acting suprised and insulting our generations work ethic when they leave. Seriously, i could go on, these businesses are corrupted top down, the new generation of young workers are running themselves to death trying to make everyone proud and make everything work, but its too much. The businesses are collapsing with the economy and planet, their every tactic screams they know it and are trying to milk every dollar they can, theyve ruined us and theyre going to keep ruining us until were all dead. We need to fight back.
@@Zach-ju5vi Hello class. Can anybody tell me two things that make this poster look like an ignorant fool? Yes! That's right. 2021 was *_before_* Donald Trump's BFF Putin invaded Ukraine and cutoff Ukrainian commodities from the world market. And this was also before oil company executives decided a little war profiteering was in order and raised the price of gas far beyond what they needed to cover the rise in oil price and the war related inflation.
@@Construimus_Batuimus Hello class. Can anybody tell me two things that make this poster look like an ignorant fool. Yes! That's right. First, inflation is completely unaffected by international markets or private company pricing in any way whatsoever. As any competent economist (Reich is neither) will happily teach you, Inflation is an increase in the money supply relative to the available goods and services manifesting in higher prices. There are two - and *ONLY* two things that can cause this, both of which happened entirely under Biden and by the US government. First is to massively increase the money supply (to cover continued and unnecessary government spending) and, second, is to reduce the availability of goods and services by endlessly increasing regulations, imposing shut downs and paying people not to work. Second, as, again, any competent economist can teach you, prices are not "set" by anyone but are determined in the (abundantly evident) competitive market via the interaction of supply and demand. Supply has been curtailed by numerous actions of the Biden administration and additional regulations have also increased investment risk which has slightly increased the cost of capital (contrary to Reich's BS, profit margins are *NIOT* near record levels and raw profits tell nothing of value at all). The entire concept of "profiteering" in market pricing is so unimaginably stupid that only the most economically incompetent fall for such obvious stupidity. While, the invasion of Ukraine (thanks to Biden's international incompetence, blithering idiots pointing to non-existent support by Trump notwithstanding) certainly interrupted their export capacity, they never represented anything representing even a microscopic impact on the US economy. What's next? Will you repeat Reich's ineptitude about stock buybacks? or his endlessly debunked claims about the minimum wage? A dunce cap awaits you!
@@Construimus_Batuimus I am responsible neither for your economic illiteracy nor your aggressive ignorance,. Nothing I've said is even *controversial!* It's basic Econ 101. Again, there *AREN'T* any competent economists anywhere who disagree with me (or agrees with you) on these points. Reich isn't an economist at all and their may be a few fringe economists (like laughingstocks Richard D, Wolff who pretend otherwise but they are so very far in the minority as to be easily ignored. Your choice to stick your head in a very dark and odiferous place is not a failing on my part. If you choose to be a blithering idiot, that's on you. You don't need to take my word for it. Simply open up *ANY* economics text and read about how market prices are determined. I was no fan of Trump - his protectionism was particularly boneheaded - albeit Biden makes him look like the next Adam Smith. The only point I made about him was in regard to the debunked Russian collusion idiocy that no one with an IQ greater than that of pulverized coprolite (have mommy look up the big words for you) still falls for, As usual, the dumbest of leftists are too incompetent to understand the fallacies. Were I to say that something were true because some individual said it, that would be an appeal to authority. To explain what is actually taking place and reference the *ENTIRE FIELD OF ECONOMICS* for support is not. Do at least try to keep up. If you really want to tattoo :moron" on your forehead, accuse me of ad hominem. And, unlike you, I have absolutely no need to lie, Yes, Trump dumped a load of CIVID cash into the economy and deserves criticism for that (though Reich - and likely you - applauded it at the time as the only responsible thing to do). But that *PALES* in comparison to the additional COVID and stimulus spending by Biden coupled with additional unemployment benefits and extended lockdowns and restrictions. And then there's the massive restrictions on the energy sector and Green New Deal spending. So, even if your "he did it too" narrative were compelling, it doesn't change anything. And while it is true that the Federal Reserve is the source of monetary policy, no one with a functioning brain stem fails to acknowledge that the Fed chair and members are subject to the politics of the administration and act accordingly - which is why the money supply began skyrocketing upon Biden's assumption of office. again, do at leat try to keep up. Yes, Putin invaded Ukraine because Putin wanted to invade Ukraine and has wanted to for some time but he didn't do it while Trump was in office because the consequences would have been too dire. he didn't do it until after Biden left Americans high and dry in Afghanistan and realized that, with Biden in office, there would be no material consequences at all. Again, you don't have to be a Trump supporter to grasp this; you need merely to have more intellect than an addles toddler and be pau=ying attention. I have done nothing but present completely mainstream basic economics. You have provided no counter, no analysis and no refutation for anything I've said. All you've presented is ad hominem attacks entirely devoid of substance. Please, by all means, reference an economist who agrees with - as you say that's where you get your info from. Not even Keynesians like Krugman or Mankiw or Summers or the late Dr, Samuelson will help you out in that regard. Let's hear about all the research and economic sourcing you've done, I could use a good laugh. I don't care if I impress you, In fact, I greatly appreciate your herculean efforts to make me look positively Einsteinian by comparison.
To me one of the most stunning things I learned about modern economies is that money is created when someone takes out a loan and goes into debt. I was well into my forties when I learned this about modern money. At first I did not believe it and it is certainly not what I was taught about money in my younger days. Modern money is mostly about getting governments, corporations, businesses and people into debt and there is also quite a bit of smoke and mirrors involved. The idea is to keep the borrowers continuously in debt so they can continuously keep paying interest to the “lenders”. The cruel joke is that the money given out for the loans that make up this debt does not exist. The money is created by entering numbers into the borrowers account when the borrower takes out the loan. As the loan is paid back, the money that was created for the loan is eliminated and no longer exists, but the institutions that created the money get to keep the interest that was paid. So, the more debt there is, the more money there is and the more interest that is paid to these institutions. The other cruel joke is to get a loan like this, most of us have to put up some collateral, so if you default, they can take ownership of your collateral. So basically, they get your possessions of whatever collateral you put up for free and with no risk since the money they “lent” you did not exist. Supposedly, this has been determined to be a legitimate way to do business. If money really needs to be created by simply entering numbers into accounts or printing it into existence, remember I am saying “if”, then the government should be the only authority allowed to create this kind of money for the nation without “borrowing” any from the private banks since they don’t have it either and just simply create it the same way the government would. This way the government would not have a national debt and would not be paying interest on money that private banks did not have. The banks should only be allowed to lend money that they have. If the banks do not have enough money to lend to corporations and businesses so that they can expand or continue to innovate, then the government can create the money to lend them and the government can collect the interest for these loans. This would also reduce the amount of taxes that businesses, corporations and individuals would have to pay governments. Of course, for this idea to work, the governments would have to be democratic and elected in fair and free elections. Easier said than done. The strategies used to keep the economy growing is by promoting and encouraging borrowing especially government borrowing which of course creates more government debt. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) represents the size of the economy which is the amount of money the economy is worth. When the economy is continuously growing, the GDP is also continually growing. Similar to any addiction, more and more borrowing is needed to have the same effect on economic growth. When the government debt starts to become greater than the value of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), technically it will no longer be possible to pay back the government debt. If it continues, the buying power of money will start to be significantly reduced and if the government debt starts to become several more times higher than the GDP, the money and financial systems will probably collapse. If this happens, the system is reset and the cycle is repeated. During the run up there will be some good times but, after the reset times will probably not be good and war is also a possibility. This cycle has been repeated continuously throughout history from the Chinese Dynasties to the Roman Empire to Germany after World War One and to Argentina, Venezuela and to many African nations in the 21st century. If the American Empire can avoid this cycle, they would be the first. We can fight back by not getting sucked into their way of thinking and rejecting the bull shit they try to get us to believe. We really do not have to go into debt by borrowing money like this. We also do not have to invest in other people’s businesses, and you do not have to listen to other people advice and ideas about investing and about the economy. Earning an honest living and learning to invest in yourself and in your family requires honest work and honest work is challenging and hard to do. There is never a lack of honest work that can be done to earn an honest living for yourself and family. We can fight back by telling governments, banks and the financial institutions and financial advisors and wall street traders to go pound salt! And to go learn how to earn an honest living instead of trying to sucker other people to pay them interest on fake loans or to give them money for fake charities or to give them money so that they can “invest” it for you. Of course, this is all easier said than done but, if we do not have anybody saying this or good moral leaders that can set good examples and teach and guide us in moral ways, our primitive survival instincts will tend to overpower our thinking and decision making. The thinking that the economy always has to grow for there to be innovation, progress and prosperity may also be a problem on a finite planet with limited resources. I think the focus needs to be on sustainability not on growth. There needs to be flexibility in the system for the economy to be able to expand and contract and for a contraction to be considered normal and not a problem or a failure and for the contraction to be just as innovative and prosperous as the expansion. For this type of thinking to work, there needs to be some new economic models developed along with some new types of financial systems. It is easy to blame and accuse people that are different from us and blame other nations and also blame and accuse each other for the disparity, poverty, crime, mistrust, hate, conflicts, abuses and gaps in wealth. The corporations blame the governments, and the governments blame the corporations. Different levels of governments and different political parties blame and accuse each other. Nations blame and spy on each other. Our leaders also make up stories to explain and justify their actions and behaviors. They even have stories about special people with magical power that live in the sky and preach if you do not believe in them you will be condemned. To add to the confusion there are many of these stories and they all contradict each other. History is full of evil, cruel, greedy and psychotic people that have convinced others to follow them, serve them, be their slaves, fight their battles and even worship them. If there is any chance to continue making progress, we have to learn to reject the lies, the deception and the delusions . I am hoping that not just a majority in the US, but a majority on this planet can learn how to live without the fear and mistrust that motivates nations to manufacture and build weapons that can kill most of us along with most other life on the planet. I try to remain optimistic and hope that the explosion of information technologies like the internet can help everyone on this planet understand each other a little better and that there will always be a majority that thinks that the wellbeing of others benefits everyone.
Damn, that is such a thorough comment. I agree mostly. I really appreciate all the time it took to type all that. I saw another video about the first part of your comment about the fake money loans. Scary stuff. I am an electrician and I like to think that I earn an honest day's pay. It isn't easy, it can be dangerous and I have to know and do more than anyone will admit that I am worth. It seems the only way to try to insure that I am going to be well off in retirement is to invest and work ALL the time. I already am half believing that I will never retire, that social security will be gone and that there will be some great crisis that will eat up all of my savings and investments. It is hard to carry on in the face of all that. I can always go out in the woods and end it I guess. Isn't it sad that I am even thinking this way? I am glad that I have no children. I have very little faith in this world. I keep trying and my life is pretty good for now and it makes me appreciate today a lot more.
Not sure if everyone can see this reply that I got for my comment on Robert Reich’s TH-cam on Economic Lies so I will re-post it in this reply: “ ㈩①④⑦⑤④④①③②⑨⑦ᴡʀɪᴛᴇ ᴍᴇ Thanks for watching! Leave me a message on the number above when you can. I've got something informative to share!” This is a scammer. This is one of the reasons why economies along with nations struggle and fail. You have people like this that think the way to make a living is by scamming other people. These type of people are a small minority so just keep your guard up and be careful. I am not sure if these people can ever be cured of their brain defects. The more that we can expose them the less successful they will be.
Debt always increases regardless of personal choices. If something bad happens, you have a choice between starvation and debt. If you look for this theme in the Bible or the Torah, you can see that debt has been inescapably trapping people and concentrating property into fewer and fewer hands for all of history.
@@rsavage-r2v Edit was to correct some spelling. “Debt always increases regardless of personal choice” This is like saying. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere always increases regardless of personal choice. Or like saying: Plastic garbage in the oceans always increase regardless of personal choice. It is not correct saying these things! Whether its debt, carbon dioxide or plastic garbage, they are all caused by how we choose to live! We can choose not to go into debt. We can choose not to burn fossil fuels and we can choose not to dump plastic garbage in the oceans. And, we can choose not to fake giving someone a loan by pretending we have money to lend but instead just enter numbers into the borrowers account! “If something bad happens you have a choice between starvation and debt” Not correct! You have many more choices than the two you listed. “If you look for this theme in the Bible or the Torah, you can see that debt has been inescapably trapping people and concentrating property into fewer and fewer hands for all of history.” Even though they are mostlyfiction the Bible, the Torah and I would include the Koran are fascinating books with fascinating stories and there are definitely things you can learn from good stories and from other good fictional literature like Shakespeare of even like Harry Potter. Trying to conquer and enslave others and concentrate property to fewer and fewer hands is what human history has been mostly about. For humans to make further progress, it is time to move away from this thinking,
This is something our leaders understood in the past. "With your courage and with your compassion and your desire, we will build a Great Society. It is a society where no child will go unfed, and no youngster will go unschooled." - Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964 Notice he did not say it is a society where corporations will go unregulated and billionaires will go untaxed.
@madreese69 you're absolutely right. Culture war means nothing to normal average everyday people if they can't afford to live. That is a luxury for the rich and well off. Something has to give Americans need to focus on what is truly important. Wages and Dignity.
Thank you for the work you do. You are an excellent teacher and you ought to have a top ranking international TV show. It's sad to say, but it's hardly any better in Europe. When will there be a world wide monopoly busting wave? That would be a good news for the kitchen table. : - )
@@williamyoung9401 Inflation at levels we can barely even understand. Germany literally had to scrap their currency because it was meaningless by the end of 1923. 1914: 1 USD = 4.2 Marks, in 1923: 1 USD = 4.2 TRILLION marks.
If Robert really cares about people he would advocate a decentralized monetary system that nobody nor relatively small group of people can control (create money, set interest rates....). He never suggests this because he and his backers want the power to control money which is the power to control society.
Yes. Also, the unemployment numbers understate the problem by 2-3x or more. They don't count people who have been out of work for a long time (which is far more painful than being on unemployment insurance). They also don't count people who are UNDER-employed. I'll bet that true numbers would change the discussion dramatically.
How can the playing field get tilted back toward something resembling "fair" is the question. You laid out the problem. But what is the solution? Expecting the very group enjoying the fruits of OUR labor to change anything . . . well, talk about whizzing down my leg and telling me it's raining. At any rate: Thanks for your expert analysis. Keep them coming Robert Reich! We need all the education we can get on this subject.
The truth is there is none. Too many voters choose against their own interests when they vote because their racism and religiosity inform them. So we have 40% of the population convinced that the reason they are struggling is because non-white people are taking their jobs. And the religious so-called pro-life morons will vote for ANYONE who claims to be pro-life. Until we solve those issues, we are f*cked. I think that’s the point of this video. The people MUST be educated. Until those people common realize that the rich are against them even if they are white themselves, there is only a little we can do.
@@AlloftheGoodNamesAreTaken Your assessment sounds true to me. The latest stunt is advocating against education. Isn't that marvelous . . . Some days it appears that this whole situation will get a lot worse before it improves.
In my childhood mind, America was the best country on the planet. It's such a shame, America has been a country no one can recognize anymore. - this time, human greediness wins again, and we are not so far away from self-destruction.
Among a host of outstanding videos, this is one of the best RR has provided. But I do have a suggestion. The Median Personal Income chart, while indicting (for instance) executive pay, nevertheless reflects a bit of growth. It would be much more powerful, perhaps, if that data were integrated with the adjusted costs of housing, transportation (average car prices, etc.) and food. I may be wrong, but I think that would provide a much more complete picture and, therefore, really highlight how much ground has been lost.
@@udishomer5852 Of course, strictly speaking, that’s correct. But the context of those numbers is lacking. For instance, the median price of a new home in 1968 was $25,100, or an inflation-adjusted $219,750. The median household income was ~ $7,700, which is about $67,450 today. When compared to about $75,000 to $81,000, which is the current median income, it looks like some progress. But the median new home price in June, 2023 was $414,500. Meaning, obviously, there’s been serious blow to living standards and affordability. You’re probably aware of this buying-power backsliding, and there are a hundred other stark examples, but that’s the kind of information that I was referring to. It would make the video feel more immediately relevant.
With the bulk of the money our economy generates being skimmed off by the obscenely rich, I decided early on to live modestly and work only as long as absolutely necessary to stay financially independent. I only worked 20 years of my adult life and spent all the time I save from not being a wage slave on long backpacking and paddling trips, bicycle touring and even seven years sailing around the world. Life is too short to spend most of it working.
@@D.KlWA-aG "seven years sailing around the world" Silver spoon comes to mind. "Live modestly and only work as long as absolutely necessary to stay financial independent. I only worked 20 years..." This cannot be done. Even living "modestly" you'd have have been in some big law firm or head of some multimillion dollar company in order to save enough to retire after 20 years. This, typically happens through nepotism. So, again, silver spoon comes to mind.
He lies by withholding information he never tells you that the top five percent pay over half the federal taxes he never tells you that the top ten percent pay over seventy percent he never tells you that the middle class draw more ss and medicare than they pay in he never tells you that the poor get subsidized housing food assistance cash assistance and free healthcare he never tells you that the rich pay almost all the federal taxes and get next to nothing in return
In an old Disney Afternoons episode of Aladdin, there was a awesome being that visited Agraba, and asked Jasmine to justify why the city should not be destroyed. She showed them the city's palace, the art, the treasures, the trade. It wasn't enough. What won the being over was when she showed them her people. Agraba deserved to be spared because of the people who lived there.
@@1JamesMayToGoPlease Zach is this channels number one corporate bootlicking troll who is triggered after every fact filled video from the great professor Reich. We just laugh at him.
"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism." - Major General Smedley D. Butler (Butler was the most decorated GI in history)
Ik kijk met plezier, bewondering, verbijstering. en respect naar de infotainment filmpjes van Robert Reich. De. VS kan nog veel leren van landen als Noorwegen, Zweden, Nederland en. Denemarken. Robert, I. have gresat respect for you, thanks
Yep. My folks graduated high school in the 70s and I try to remind them that we didn't grow up in different time's, but different worlds. Education, housing, health care, just about every vital metric has skyrocketed in my lifetime. It doesn't look like it will get better anytime soon either
@@toypianos469 I’m afraid it most likely won’t get better in your time either. The best thing for you is to be wise with your money such as no more $6 dollar Starbucks coffee or $200 dollar a month cable fees. Get a $15 dollar per month flip phone. Drive a reliable shitbox. Go on, add it up. Just enjoy the good parts of life. There are many.
@@blipco5 I don't drink Starbucks,, I don't have cable, I sold my car, and I'm going to be an expat. Fuck that shit. I have been fortunate enough to enjoy much of life, but I draw the line at institutional slavery. As for the younger generations, I'm impressed with their efforts to unionize the past few years. I hope they keep that fire burning.
@blipco5 I'm genuinely impressed with some of these kids organizing against behemoths like Starbucks or Amazon. Something about covid made it clear that the CEOs and boards literally don't care if you live or die. Every time that came up at a job in my 20s, we always got talked out of it.
Health would be a goal but it's impossible to keep America down and let it thrive. American people can't be upset about such things or family, jobs and spouses dump them -. Like dropping a hot potato.
I've seen Robert Reich on TV. I'm pretty sure the US public is well unformed and thoughtful. There's no way they can compete in politics against the oligarchs. America's oligarchy is the best.
Successful people don't become that way overnight. What most people see at a glance- wealth, a great career, purpose-is the result of hard work and hustle over time. I pray that anyone who reads this will be successful in life..
50 now, and everything is paid for. Fortunately, I had a college economics teacher who taught me a lesson when I was 18 years old. That lesson was: you can't buy something else for every purchase you make. Having multiple sources of income is prudent, as is living within your means. I have a 13-year-old vehicle because it is all I need, I like it, and I can do whatever I want with it. My net worth is $4 million, and I can pay my bills without stress, but I don't live like I have that. I have no complaints.
Right alongside you. No debt, early retirement. Children are well-cared for. On 11 acres overlooking the river valley, I'm constructing the house of my dreams. There are many methods to get rich right now, but only real-time professionals are capable of making such high-volume, near-perfect trades.
That’s very nice for you. You’re welcome to complain to the powers that be about the situation most everyone else is in though. Point being, not everyone had your gifts or luck or support. (Indeed, you may want to ponder how you received these things in life.) And that’s basically not fair.
Thank you for your straightforward and lucid explanation about how the economy has a significant impact on my daily life, as opposed to using complex and abstract jargon that is difficult to connect with my personal experiences. 😀
I was thinking recently about my first salary, how my then company car cost about the same as my salary, how I bought my first house @ 3 x my salary, how little petrol cost. Now, despite a 'successful; professional skills, wide ranging experience, a senior role, my salary doesn't buy much more than it did when I was starting out. Whether comparing the price of fuel, houses, cars, it doesn't go as far as first appears. Those starting out really are worse off than I was years ago. The other thing is that there are lots of new taxes, fees, charges to pay, quietly draining our resources, even ou savings are quietly being eroded by hidden taxes.
Thanks Robert. Putting it all into words helps sharpen the focus of what thr problem is how to explain it and how to quantify success when all we here is how successful the companies or individual billionaires are as we rack up the credit card bills and wonder how we are going to make it to 2024.
@@nickiemcnichols5397 I think that bespeaks of the whole problem. The gig economy worships those who can rob the most and celebrates that robbery as success.
don't congratulate Robert too much. he spent decades defending and propping up the status quo, through the Clinton administration and beyond. after all, being an economist is how he got himself Rich and Famous. He isn't hurting.
@@lanewilliams6099 False equiavlences. The CEO of the company I work for takes home $22 million a year. Sometimes $65 million during mergers. That's a yearly income that is more than 4 times Roberts net worth and 55 times higher than Roberts yearly income. Your view is skewed.
Robert Reich rocks! *_1_* The happiest, *_least_* corrupt countries with the *_highest_* standard of living in the world are the Nordic countries-Denmark (with its autonomous territory Faroe Islands and Greenland, part of Denmark), Finland (with its autonomous region Åland), Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. They are social democracies and most of their citizens speak English and are atheist, agnostic, or skeptic. *_2_* Here are the top 10 happiest countries: 1 Finland, 2 Denmark, 3 Switzerland, 4 Iceland, 5 Netherlands, 6 Norway, 7 Sweden, 8 Luxembourg, 9 New Zealand, 10 Austria. Note that all but #9 are in Europe and that the five Nordic countries are listed. 💕☮🌎🌌
Thank you, Professor Reich. If only we could get Red State folks to listen to this. What do you think about the Biden administration using the Army Corp of Engineers (and the Defense Department budget), to create high-paying green energy jobs (bring back the CCC and the WPA), and build offshore wind and onshore solar farms with all of the supporting infrastructure required? Is it possible for the Defense budget to be used in this way outside of the approval of Congress? Thank you...
Brilliant post, Professor. I got interested in Cherokee Life pre European arrival, and am convinced they and many tribes had superior quality of life. Then Europeans (us) brought our tradition of feudalism. Today finding out about pre arrival native Americans is almost impossible because 200 years ago we so throughly trashed them and didn’t even know what we destroyed. They had a higher standard of living that the Europeans who destroyed them. We are still living feudalism, and it’s written into our constitution.
Robert Reich knows his stuff. He is a great educator on economics and should be much more respected. He is very smart just like Bernie Sanders, who tells the real truth about what is going on.
I partially blame the banks who’ve made it so easy to finance everything. It’s so easy to get bogged down in student debt, extended car loans, mortgages, etc. Also, if corporations don’t maximize profits, then they might get sued by stockholders
@@scifirealism5943While busting unions and sending manufacturing overseas, debt became the main driver of our so called middle class! How else were we able to afford all the new products made overseas by formerly American businesses
My first house in 1993 was $110,000. It wasn't much, and had some issues we had to work through, but we could afford it. That very same house today is listed for $650,000. That's almost a six fold increase in the cost of housing. My salary at that time as I was just starting out was about $35,000. That same exact starting salary today is $63,000. Now you can start to see how out of control housing costs have become. Most of this is due to big investment houses buying up houses as investments, and to make big dollars renting those issues. Add to that the number of houses that are chewed up in Airbnb, and those that are just being flipped to make somebody more money, and you can see why there is a shortage of homes being actually being lived in by the people paying the mortgage.
because there is not enough territoty anymore. All major cities are surrounded by enormous suburbs. Terriroty and real estate as a consequence are limited resources.
I work two jobs and I have a one bedroom apartment and drive q car that is 11 years old. It just seems like I can't make enough to cover monthly expenses. I want to see unions come back.
It's sad when eating out saves me more money than grocery but I still can't afford 3 meals a day.. I'm down to one good meal, one skipped meal, and one meal I'm never sure will be filling (day before : breakfast was nothing, dinner was toast with butter and lunch was beans rice and a tortilla with cheese) I get some fruit when I can but I can't afford vegetables or meat so I skip them. Surprisingly I don't qualify for food stamps as the standards are extremely hard to meet
These corporations, politicians abetting, and their shareholders should face jail time for price gouging ppl in a public health crisis/emergency. None of our basic needs should be left in the hands of the private sector, nationalize all basic human needs.
@@Zach-ju5vi We are being price gouged on our basic needs for private individuals to profit privately. If it's national profit at least that $ gets invested back into the public and not some rich persons offshore bank.
@@brucebasile5083 I sort of assumed that haha 😆 Usually I don't respond but every now & then I get to thinking that what is said is here for everyone to see, a public record for the ppl, not just Zach 🙂
@@Zach-ju5vi you don't need to be rude, but I get it, you're frustrated and like many others your impulse is to resort to sophistry. They don't pay taxes, and if they do it isn't nearly fair or proportionate. Most use loop holes to avoid paying anything and the biggest corps can easily outafford the IRS legally. I'm not a bot, I'm a human
Very good presentation. The problem is nothing will ever get done. Most legislators won't take up the fight. And if they did, corporations would fight back and raise prices, cut back on workers, reduce Supply Etc. It seems to me that corporations are too powerful. They've been given carte blanche for too long. Any suggestions?
But we have Freedom! To choose the doctor we want to see, if that doctor is "In Network", with whichever insurance company our C.E.O. decided to go with, for this year. We have all this freedom.
@@Zach-ju5vi Zach, I've seen it with MY OWN EYES. During a family vacation in France, on a rented house boat, my father fell and broke two ribs. The doctor came from the hospital, to the campgrounds we were docked at, examined my dad, drove him to the nearby small town to the town pharmacy. Took my dad in, wrapped his chest and got him pain medicine. Arranged for a free ride to the hospital for free x-rays to confirm her diagnosis. Arranged for another free ride to the hospital several days later for more x-rays to check his ribs. He tried to pay them, they wouldn't take his money, they didn't even have a payment system. To get a "house call" from a doctor in the United States, and concierge service, your last name has to be Musk or Bezos or Buffet. That's the problem Zach, Americans can't even imagine how good it can be. I've seen it with my own eyes!!!
@@Zach-ju5vi and for the record, my dad is not a French citizen, we were just tourists, and this was a "once in a lifetime" vacation for us. We are not wealthy at all.
@@stevechance150 Well said but waisted on this channels corporate bootlicker troll, Zach. We just laugh at him every time he gets triggered by one of the great professor Reich's fact filled videos.
Build Back Better came from the WEF. You're literally voting for your own enslavement... politics aren't even real to begin with. Your vite doesn't determine a single thing.
Japan's economy is considered "bad" by the experts, but the reality is that "inefficient" corporations keep more people employed and government deficit keeps money flowing. Life goes on and standards of living are high *despite* the ""bad"" economy.
Reich you the man! The system is so far concentrated and controlled, at this point, those at the top have even been reaping the rewards of the debt of the masses for decades. What's that saying about a society with nothing left to lose?
Best time to invest? thats funny though because in the last four months I have lost more than $47,900 in stock market which is the biggest I have loss since I ventured into stock investment.
you could be right or wrong . i once had similar problem but now its a different ball game for me because I was lucky to have met katrina vanrensum , a financial manager and stock expert, I have made more than $165,000 in 6 weeks under her supervisions
Heads up, this comment is meant to give a place for scammers to post their "success stories". Remember, people who have stock profit from other people buying stock, so they'll say anything to convince you to join in.
@@jamesmaduabuchi6100 You've successful thrown in the right word there, luck. Out performing the market is statistically luck. Her luck at picking might turn at any time.
Gives a great perspective to those struggling financially. It's for people in certain financial situations to look at but it's definitely not the study of economics. Personally, I'd advise you seek professional assistance when in a situation of uncertainty.
Um, seek whom exactly? When we had nothing, we had no way to pay for help. There are too many losers in this American game, and it’s not right. Seen so many college students who had no recourse when things just went wrong. There’s such a thing as bad luck, and it can happen to anyone any time, no matter how hard they try. I think this is a brilliant way of looking at economics. It’s what matters to most people most of the time.
Re: "not the study of economics" - Robert is literally one of America's top economists, who worked directly for several presidents and taught at the big name universities 🤷♂️
Excellent production! I wish this and other presentations you've made here, were a part of basic economics that all our children should study before they finish high school.
maybe you should run for school board. then you could get what you want. And if you are bored someday, you should watch Roberts old videos from like 1996...and see if the ideals he's preaching today match with those he had as a younger person.
How amazing would it be if this was broadcast on every TV station and every other platform everywhere? I wish!
@Kenneth Hoffman Why comedy based on fiction? Educate us better then please
@Kenneth Hoffman Do the billionaires’ boots taste that good?
Maia, the simple fact is many folks don’t want to be bothered by such financial education… this is what separates the classes… this is why people will spend hrs every week watching cat videos, vs financial videos…
@@bman6502 Exactly. I hold an endorsement in economics on my teaching certificate for grades 4-12. When I searched for any schools that offered even a single course in that subject, I found a big, fat, zero. Parents should be in an uproar about this, but nobody seems to care about how to measure the economy until you get to college. That's an avoidable disaster when you consider the GOP goes after more non-college-educated voters than the Dems.
@Kenneth Hoffman does it fill you with such a desire to lick their boots as they kick you?
You have explained why I am so stressed. My rent went up. My food bill went up a lot too. My auto insurance is going up, my laundry bill and my gasoline costs have gone up. My Social Security went up too but only 8.7% and not nearly as much as everything else went up. I had to ask for charity to pay my utility bills last month and I'm looking into which food pantry will help me meet my special dietary needs.
My landlord is upgrading a huge apartment complex to avoid rent control. He also took away my utility allowance of $98 for each of the next 6 months and kept it even though I pay my utilities to the utility company. The housing authority allowed it because his permissible rent increase of 10% was less than the utility allowance. So he kept the utility allowance and raised my rent $79.
The system is rigged against the poor and then we are told this is the richest country in the history of the world. It is, but not for you and me. We are struggling to survive in a harsh world that only provides for the elite 1% of our population. So, when are we going to demand fundamental change? Nobody will change anything unless we demand it.
Reich can handle the current inflation financially. He won't tell you that. Berkeley pays him a bundle. Plus when he retires he will tap his TIAA-CREF 403B which Berkeley contributes to.
He tries to infer that his life is like other Americans when it's not.
You're complaining about an 8.7% raise in Social Security?! You know how much my wages went up? Queue chirping crickets. Don't worry, though. If the SCOTUS rules in favor of Corporations with this upcoming lawsuit against the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau, not only will that be ruled Unconstitutional (the way it's funded), but also the Fed, FDIC protection, AND Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid! I can't wait! You'll see seniors in walkers marching with signs saying, "Keep your government hands off my Social Security!" lol.
i am sorry for your situation. I hope things get better for you.
but the odds say that they won't. the odds favor you dying alone, homeless, sick and broke.
I am sorry for your situation.
If I had my way the injustices of the world would never have been allowed to happen.
I want Jesus to be spiteful.
And to me, the first people who need to be spited are the ignorant fools who spent the last 50+years voting for exactly this. So, Helen, tell me, how have you voted for the last 50+ years?
@@lanewilliams6099 Nunya business how I voted. But I'll tell you this much anyhow. I have never, ever voted Republican. The Republican Party does not represent folks like me who have worked for low wages all my life and who now struggle to survive as an 81 year old person. I hope you didn't vote for the rich corporate masters who are gouging us and abusing working people. That would be painful to hear.
The population has been dumbed down too much. This was part of the plan. Stupid people don't know to resist.
I love the way you inform us. You are a highly significant being to our world!!
Thank you so very much for all you teach and do!!
As an high school economics teacher, much of what I try to show my students over the course was brilliantly summarized here. Great video Mr. Reich.
I love these videos by Robert Reich and Inequality Media productions. clear concise, easy for the layman to understand!
You must not live in a red state because you would get fired for telling the truth there.
@@kevchard5214 red state, blue area of a purple city.
This is the problem with education today; how many courses in economics did you have in college? Most of the high school teachers I speak with only had one or two classes in economics, one or two in government and a hand full of history classes. Reich has an agenda and he pushes it. Most of what he says in very mischaracterized. If your teaching this I would suggest you balance it with Thomas Sowell.
God help your students! Did you get your degree in the same class a AOC?!?! Nothing pleases me more than listening to a competent economist, but Reich is objectively neither.
I mean don't tell me you've fallen for the "raking it in" or "record profits" BS? Someone teaching economics should be able to simply look that up and dispense with it.
Don't tell me you fall for the "jobs paying barely enough to live on" idiocy? Anyone, even non-economists with even a modicum of intelligence can simply look up the data and see that total real compensation - what workers are actually paid adjusted for inflation - is 9.5% higher than a decade ago, more than half again more than 40 years ago and more than double what workers made 60 years ago. I'm sure you teach your students that every honest economist looks at compensation (which includes benefits) instead of just wages (as Reich does), right? These figures are consistent across all income quintiles, Even if we didn't have quintile level data, the law of large numbers and a workforce of 164 million workers makes the skewed-by-the-top claim to be either utter incompetence or a bald-faced lie (Reich is well known for both). This is precisely why Reich is a complete laughingstock in the economics profession. The graph he shows was completely debunked 0 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics no less!
Don't tell me you fall for the "jobs taking up too much time" stupidity when the average work week has stabilized at an historically low 34.5 hours a week. Longer hours are associated with higher paid jobs with higher job satisfaction.
Don't tell me you've fallen for the asinine stock ownership meme? It's 89% and irrelevant as the issue is that Nearly 69% of Americans own stock according to surveys and that figure is understated as people with stocks in retirement accounts and similar instruments don't consider them in their responses. What someone else owns is immaterial.
Don't tell me you fell for the 1% ignorance? The fact is that Americans are the highest paid workers in the world, with the greatest level of disposable income (both across all income quintiles) and we have the wealthiest "poor" in the world and by a sizable margin, living better than the middle class in nearly every other country on the planet.
Don't tell me you fell for the CEO pay bald-faced lie. No one with any grasp of basic math falls for that one. The actual difference between the average CEO and the average worker is less than six times.
Surely, as an ta least marginally competent teacher of economics, you share with your students that prices are determined by the interaction of supply and demand and, in order to obtain monopoly pricing, the *entire* market must be controlled not merely a high percentage, right?
Don't get me started on the bon-existent "climate crisis" or the economically illiterate "sock buyback" ineptitude!
The standard economic measures don't conform to Reich's complete BS so we must change what we look at. Okay. How about looking at real worker pay (near record highs) or poverty (with the highest threshold on earth) hitting record lows in 2020 or child poverty (hitting record lows in 2021). What can this inveterate liar and economic illiterate possibly have to say that is of value to your students?!?!?
"Go to the kitchen tables of America."
I bet if we all took one night a week to share a meal with a new family in our communities and talked about our economic anxieties, we'd learn what the common plight of the American family is pretty quickly.
We need to band together on this one. Something is not right in America. It starts at the top, but it can be fixed if everyone at the bottom comes together and demands better from our government and the companies that bought our legislators.
And all of our Performative Politicians are working to great more division among us. We the People need to take back control of both of our major parties of start a third , much more centrist party. The ends running this are deserting the middle to score points in a culture war- you pick a topic. One side may be slightly less corrupt than the other- there is presently much debate over who each of those is, but no "national voice" seeking to rejoin the "active debate" We were designed to be. FR
@@allgood5780 - Tuff Noogies. It's still a LIE.
@@fredericrike5974 The reason we only have two parties is to use the strategy of divide and conquer. Sun Tzu "The Art Of War" 5th century B.C.
@@Rizky06 Yup, the illusion of choice.
@allgood And an honest evaluation of the conditions for the average person and factors that influence those conditions would turn a lot of people socialist.
As a visitor to your wonderful country I was struck by the level of homelessness, the poor state of the infrastructure and just the amount everything is run down. Away from cities the roads are in decay and the phone systems old. Houses are in disrepair. Shops are closing down. These are not signs of a healthy economy. Many of the Americans I talk to work long hours, yet receive very few benefits from those hours. Healthcare is extremely expensive, public transport is old, even petrol is twice the cost of my native Australia. How many hours does an average person need to work to pay off an average house? How old is the average car in America? Are people happy or are they working too many hours and keeping themselves busy so they don’t think about their situation too much?
All the malaise you have observed in this country is intentially being caused by people like 'lil bobby 3rdreich...
Come man Australia has way higher gas prices than US can't even tell the truth on TH-cam liberals can't stop lying get bit by a dingo
Australia is going the same way. We have to recognize property booms are parasitic to the economy. Too many small business closing down because they can't afford the rent, commercial property has 17% vacancy but landlords refuse to price where the market is at and instead drive the tennants to the wall. Similar story for privatised infrastructure, the private owners are selling up to corporate raiders, who raise prices and cut opEx. Meanwhile the government is being infected by lobbyists and double-dealing consulting firms, who give advice to the benefit of their corporate clients.
And/or going nuts 🙃🤪🙃 when the next "politico-head" comes along making false "promises" that they are going to "fix" it all "for you" 🤗🤗
@@TrollMeister-s6nYes, all of these problems are from government interference in the economy. He talks about big businesses taking advantage of their consumers, but the biggest one of them is the government.
Some economists have projected that both the U.S. and parts of Europe could slip into a recession for a portion of 2023. A global recession, defined as a contraction in annual global per capita income, is more rare because China and emerging markets often grow faster than more developed economies. Essentially the world economy is considered to be in recession if economic growth falls behind population growth.
@@JeanpaulCeme Your money is stagnant when you save, I will advise you buy stocks with market-beating yields and shares that at least keep pace with the market for a long term. For a successful long-term strategy I recommend you seek the guidance of a broker or financial advisor.
@@belobelonce35 Do you mind sharing info on the adviser who assisted you?
@@belobelonce35 After locating her, I composed an email and arranged a phone conversation. I'm optimistic that she will reply, and my go
@@JeanpaulCeme Someone at the bottom doesn't need a "financial advisor", they need a raise and whole lot less gaslighting about not budgeting or not "planning". You can budget and plan but you never have money to invest.
Corporation greed
I am thankful that my father decided to move us to the Philippines after he retired. We were not well-off when we were in California and I always see tiredness and sadness in mom's eyes, worrying to meet ends. Here, in this developing country, we are thriving and happy actually. And now, I am graduating and becoming a medical technologist.
Ghana is a great destination too 🌺🦢🕳️🇬🇭
All billionaire love Indians. To be rich
good for you. I am heading to Panama!
Many of us in the "developed" world are going yo have to become "economic refugees" to survive. The cost of basics is too high because investors are taking way too big a slice of the cake.
@@liam3284 very true.
I have recently ‘discovered’ Mr. Reich. Soaking in his wisdom and explanations now. Thank you so much, Mr. Reich, that you truly care! This is a rare trait these days.
Soaking in 'lil bobby 3rdreich's vomit and feces, eh? Thought I smelt something...
Try reading Thomas Sowell.
Thomas sowell deals with facts unlike some Democrats who only know two words subsadized and free
Reich lies by withholding information from you vote out handout Democrats before it's to late our childrens future depend on it
"The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members" (attributed to Mahatma Gandhi)
Lol Mahatma Gandhi will known racist hated blacks. Also he is will known pedophile.
"A society should be judged not by how it treats its outstanding citizens but by how it treats its criminals." -Fyodor Dostoevsky
@@williamyoung9401 TH-camrs Some More News and Second Thought have a lot
Content on this topic, if you care to know
Then America has failed.
I'm a cashier. I make $10.50 an hour. I'm kept part-time, so I'm ineligible for benefits. I can't build up savings. Their college tuition program is nowhere near enough to pay for college. The job offers no career advancement.
I'm also ineligible for welfare since I'm past the age of 25 and have no kids or disabilities.
@@scifirealism5943 "failed" is the wrong word if you're going to compare USA to India or the British Empire Gandhi spoke of or the Russia Dostoyevsky spoke of. America succeeds, but our results are very irregular -- Reich shows there is a huge divide between the 0.01% and the 99.99%. But even within the 99.99% there are some big divides. That's where we need to improve. Even compared to our own past there are problems as his chart showing division ONLY growing big after 1980.
I've been saying exactly this for years! A better measure for the economy: what %age:
Work more than one job?
Rely on social assistance?
Have to drop out of school to support their family?
Can afford to complete post-secondary education?
Have assets exceeding their debts?
Heck, even crime rate would be a better measure of the economy than what we use now.
+
There are millions of people that don't rely on any of those. We are trashing the nation so we are all poor because not everyone does well. The most asinine thing I've ever witnessed. Thanks for nothing
@@edwinamendelssohn5129 yes, there are millions not relying on those. There are, however, a growing population of people who ARE struggling. This is due to the higher wealth concentration at the top, due to corporate greed, automation without consideration for the displaced workers, and making sure the worker foots the bill for increased education requirements for jobs.
The economy now greatly mirrors the conditions that lead to the great recession. The wealthy people out there haven't been studying their history.
@@andrewtorrens7790 government forced inflation
I would add, having to move back in with parents because you lost your job due to COVID and haven't been able to find anything permanent since then.
So many of us feel we don't have the education to decipher all this. Thank you Robert for explaining. 😊
A lot of it is deliberately obfuscated and rendered arcane for the express purpose of limiting citizen participation. And I really wish that was paranoia or hyperbole.
@@dustind4694 Well said!
Knowledge is power!
@@jasons8479perception is power
misinformation. fails to touch on the why. fall cabal.
Thank you for making this video. This will be what I send people when they want a quick and informative overview of what is going on in the “economy.” One thing that I wish was emphasized more is the compounding effect of not being able to afford things. If you can barely afford the basics then considering or even getting an education is even harder. Not only will you have to work and study, which is already very difficult but will be left with debt once it’s over. Now you’re job searching and find there aren’t many jobs except those minimum wage jobs, especially for younger professionals looking to get their foot in the door. Even if you land a job in your field of interest, many offer subpar benefits as mentioned in the video and don’t offer a decent retirement plan, if at all. Couple this with lower wages adjusted for inflation and things aren’t looking great. Your retirement plan and hopes of being able to live, ride on your 401k or IRA which essentially further props up the stock market owned by people who are already absurdly rich. These people are essentially using your retirement accounts to further dig us deeper economically because the the alternative is leaving it in your bank and letting inflation dwindle it’s value down. These are the companies who are buying out homes to rent, increasing the cost of goods that people ACTUALLY NEED and changing the laws to benefit them. I can’t wait for the 2659291649 financial crisis of my lifetime and have the news spread propaganda about how everyone is to blame except for the people hoarding enough wealth to rival entire nation’s GDPs. . .
Very good comment. Regarding the news media, so much of it is owed by the 1% and is therefore biased against the 99%, despite what some people say, that information we consume perpetrates the falsity that the rich pay their fair share in taxes. As multi-milliinaire (or billionaire?)
(Friggen phone added comment by mistake)
To continue: As Warren Buffett has said, his secretary pays a higher effective tax rate than he does. He's the 6th-richest man in the WORLD, and his effective tax rate is lower than that of his secretary. How is that in any way fair???
Greedy rich people are the problem.
Spot on, great comment!
I live in Canada and lived in Toronto for about 16 years. In Toronto today, for a small 1 bedroom apartment, it is, on average, over $2,400 a month, which is over $28,800 a year. The minimum wage in recent years was boosted to $14 an hour and then climbed to $15, which works out to $31,200 per year. This leaves a minimum wage worker with $2400 to live on for a year, which is $200 a month, and that is before taxes. Ontario used to have rent controls, and the Canadian government built affordable housing (which has been restarted). Now the rent control only matters if you stay in your apartment because once you leave it, the landlord can charge the "market rate" (whatever they can get). The market rate is inflated because there is a shortage of affordable housing, and rental housing in general, currently available or being constructed, as companies would rather build condos and sell them right away. At the same time, nimbyist zoning laws in many areas prevent apartment buildings from being constructed and houses from being converted to duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes. As a result, you have a shortage of rental housing; this, along with weak rent controls, causes highly inflated rents. So, as of 2023, a minimum wage worker can't even live in Toronto, Canada, and that is with a decent minimum wage.
They certainly can't live in the Bay Area where Reich does.
Not even that because taxes would still have to come out of that paycheck (I assume), leaving you with much less than that $31,200.
You got a roommate?
That is where I live too. A 1 br is 2600-3000 a month. That is why we need caps on rent even when people move out. People shouldn't be forced to stay in crumbling, older apts or pay skyrocketing rents.
That's messed up.
Too bad they don't show your commentary on Fox News! Honestly we need everyone to listen to this- Thanks Robert for posting this!
Fox news 📰 wouldn't say this they would lose their funding.
I am so thankful for Robert Reich's videos...The majority of the media (which is mostly center right) seem to think the American worker is getting away with something by getting the increased wages and greater "work from home" flexibility we've seen over the last couple of years, but the actual reality is far from it.
A MAJORITY OF THE MEDIA IS CENTER RIGHT.........!!!!!!!???????
OH MY GOD!!!!!
Center right? What world do you live in?
@@philr5658
One where we don’t limit our knowledge of political economy to the stunted American “political spectrum.” You should join us sometime.
@philr5658 the real one
Quality of life is what matters, not the bank account.
Money predicts quality of life beginning in pre infancy -. In the womb.
@@patricialongo5870 not in every country. Some actually have high quality fee (at point of service) pre-natal care and support families even after the children were born (free of charge as well).
Real people, real struggles and not just numbers or letters to hide reality! Nicely done!
I stress daily about this. I have 4 generations in one house due to this!
Say it louder to those in the back! ✌
@Michelle Emm TH-camrs "Some More News" and "Second Thought" have a lot
Content on this topic, if you care to know
Those at the top: "La, la, la, I'm not listening! I've put everything in place so that I'm not in the least threatened by you so I don't have to listen!"
@@outtheredude then maybe it's time to threaten them with something that will make them listen.
You should be grateful not hateful to the rich they are the ones paying almost all the federal taxes that fund Democrat handouts vote out handout Democrats before it's to late our childrens future depend on it
It's not just corporations, it's their stockholders too. IF any individual stockholder cared even a little bit about climate, the environment, healthcare, fairness, etc. they would insist that the corporation be a good citizen of the country in which they live and work and not be out to rake the rest of the country over the coals. How bad would it be if they took a $99 dividend (ex.) instead of $100 IF it would mean the corporations would clean up their pollution, pay their lowest tier workers a decent salary (instead of giving another airplane or yacht to its CEO and green their businesses. But greed is rampant.
Well said Lady V 👏🏻
@@Zach-ju5viI am not from the US.
What is a 401k?
@@Zach-ju5vi The sleep inducing disingenuous questions we expect from this channels troll, Zachoff the irrelevant troll. YAWN ....ZZZZzzzz....
@@gerardflynn7382 Its a tax-advantaged retirement fund that individuals pay into via paycheck deductions, with specific rules about how much you can contribute each year and when you can cash out. Basically an investment account with a limited set of available mutual funds and ETFs that are mostly focused on long-term growth. 401ks have essentially replaced pension funds in the US.
@@gerardflynn7382 it's a tax-deferred investment/retirement vehicle. 401k is the section number of US tax code that allows us to take a portion of our salaries today prior to being taxed and invest it in the stock market for growth on the condition that withdrawals from that investment in the future will be taxed at that time.
As an example, if my salary is $1000/wk, I could decide to send 20% of that to my 401k and I would only be taxed on $800 worth of income today. I take the other $200/wk and invest in the stock market. In theory, it grows over time, both because of my continuous weekly investments and the gains made in the stock market, and when I retire, I start using the money in the investment as my income. When I withdraw from that fund, which I'm not allowed to do without a penalty until a certain age, the withdrawal is taxed.
That's the nutshell. There are many other intricacies, such as a government-imposed limit on how much you can contribute to a 401k, the possibility that your employer doesn't offer a 401k plan, whether or not your employer also contributes if they do have a plan, and the age you're allowed to start withdrawing. In taking part in a 401k, you are also placing a bet on the idea that a) the stock market will continue to make gains, and b) that tax rates when you withdraw in the future will be the same or less than, or at least not significantly more than they are today.
In Zach asking the OP if she has a 401k, his point is that if she does, she is also a stockholder who, for her own financial benefit, wants the corporations to do well in the stock market. And that would be in conflict with her comment that calls out the corporations and stockholders for not caring about social causes. The sad fact is that caring about the environment, healthcare, education, homelessness, etc. is expensive, is not glamorous, and thus does not enhance corporate profits or stock performance in the short term. And US companies are very, very short-sighted at a detriment to everyone including themselves.
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@yung1448well said
Been telling everyone that for years. It's about damned time you bring this up. Now advertise the crap out of it so everyone else can learn from it.
Or you can share the hell out of it too!
Harmonica Man. Secretary Reich has brought it up many times over the years and, I am sure, will continue to do so.
@@Zach-ju5vi YAWN....ZZZZzzzz.....
@@Zach-ju5vi With respect, a snippet of a larger discussion adds nothing to the conversation, particularly given that said snippet, "don't buy into the inflation scare," has been rendered quite ambiguous in import through the act of decontextualization.
Secretary Reich might very well have been cautioning people not to succumb to the fearmongering being waged by Republican pols and pundits who warned of runaway inflation and an imminent, catastrophic recession...But how can one know from a single phrase separated from the whole?
Cheers
@@Zach-ju5vi Every time I see this horse manure out of you, I just going to cut and paste my first reply to you. I might even have to add a third reason.
Hello class. Can anybody tell me two things that make this poster look like an ignorant fool?
Yes! That's right. 2021 was before Donald Trump's BFF Putin invaded Ukraine and cutoff Ukrainian commodities from the world market. And this was also before oil company executives decided a little war profiteering was in order and raised the price of gas far beyond what they needed to cover the rise in oil price and the war related inflation.
Good video!
I’m from Germany, it’s not quite as bad here, but we still have problems. But (as far as I know), a full time minimum wage job can get you a one-bedroom-flat/apartment rented in most places (not the most expensive cities, but most places) even when getting mandatory healthcare. You may not be able to afford a car in some places, but there you won’t need one thanks to public transport and „walkability“.
The overall quality of life in Germany is completely different to the U.S. It is so different that both life styles are difficult to compare. I wouldn't go back to the U.S. under any circumstance even if I was filthy rich.
Yes, our public transport is early to mid-20th century.
When I lived in Spain I did not need a car. They had more buses than in the US. That meant no need for expensive car insurance and gas. There were more small stores compared to the US so everything was closer. Too many big companies is not good because monopolies mean higher prices and lower pay because of the lack of competition. Living in Europe seems better to me, they have less school shootings and its safer place to live because the public has less guns. I would gladly pay 7.5% of income for universal healthcare. Same for universal college education as my school loan debt is a big problem. Japan is a better place to live than the US for the same reasons.
how much does your mandatory healthcare cost?
@@saturday1066 I read that Germans pay 7.5% income tax for universal health care. It’s worth it when you get old.
A starting point that is accessible is to stop buying soft drinks. This industry itself contributes to 2% of global CO2 (accounting for everything: CO2 added to the beverage, CO2 is plastic bottle, fuel for transportation). This is also a major health issue because of the added sugar which causes diabeties and obesity. We need more videos like this to educate so that collectively we could make better decisions.
Stop buying soft drinks what are you talking about
It's not sugar it's corn syrup in soft drinks. Sugar tastes better.
I do not buy soft drinks but what is my alternative I buy bottled water and drink nothing else that is good for my health but I still am consuming plastic bottles
Great production and painfully correct.
Thanks Robert for your video, very creative and entertaining in a good way to garner attention. Love it, keeping the data real.
Bad news never made me smile so hard. Robert Reich, you have a gift. 😊
I feel it is possible that it is hard for some companies to hire people but also feel that in a lot of cases companies would rather have the current employees do the job of 2 maybe 3 people instead so they can maximize profits by saving on labor and benefits.
That's totally up to the ownership because we're not a democracy.
Oh, they do that all the time because of mandatory benefits.
It's more expensive for a corporation to employ one full-time worker with benefits than 2 part-time workers without them.
When Walmart was forced to provide health insurance for all of its workers, but its workers had to work at least 36 hours a week to qualify, Walmart cut all of its hourly associates hours from 40 hours a week to 35 and a 1/2.
Yup. Last job i worked, Lowes, i was doing the jobs of 6-8 people + 2 manager's, less than a quarter our normal staff, and management gaslit me and lied when i asked them about it. In addition, i frequently assisted in other departments, did general aid, they fired the janitor so that we - me for my department - could do their job, and i occasionally ran multiple departments, the jobs of dozens of people, solo while being chewed out and blamed the entire time for not working fast enough or for managers mistakes being blamed on me, or even sometimes outright lies so management would look good. We lost customers left and right, but it was amazingly profitable in the wage cuts. I did the research and math, and it turned out they were tripling to quintupling their profit margins, depending on the measure, from before covid to now, and it just keeps going up. It almost perfectly lined up with their unemployment figures, their over 100 empty positions - but never managers, that was always filled and paid several times the workers who did their jobs for them - and over 400 unpaid hours per week, while they had 5 open hiring positions. They also obviously abused workers, such as throwing them into grueling departments that could take months or even years to learn properly, solo with 0 training - their software is *really* *really* bad, and constantly being screwed up by corporates updates, it took me a month to learn their phone devices - and insulting the fuck out of them then acting suprised and insulting our generations work ethic when they leave.
Seriously, i could go on, these businesses are corrupted top down, the new generation of young workers are running themselves to death trying to make everyone proud and make everything work, but its too much. The businesses are collapsing with the economy and planet, their every tactic screams they know it and are trying to milk every dollar they can, theyve ruined us and theyre going to keep ruining us until were all dead.
We need to fight back.
Very good analysis of what's really going on in this country. Thank you Mr. Reich.
@@Zach-ju5vi Hello class. Can anybody tell me two things that make this poster look like an ignorant fool?
Yes! That's right. 2021 was *_before_* Donald Trump's BFF Putin invaded Ukraine and cutoff Ukrainian commodities from the world market. And this was also before oil company executives decided a little war profiteering was in order and raised the price of gas far beyond what they needed to cover the rise in oil price and the war related inflation.
@@Construimus_Batuimus Hello class. Can anybody tell me two things that make this poster look like an ignorant fool.
Yes! That's right. First, inflation is completely unaffected by international markets or private company pricing in any way whatsoever. As any competent economist (Reich is neither) will happily teach you, Inflation is an increase in the money supply relative to the available goods and services manifesting in higher prices. There are two - and *ONLY* two things that can cause this, both of which happened entirely under Biden and by the US government. First is to massively increase the money supply (to cover continued and unnecessary government spending) and, second, is to reduce the availability of goods and services by endlessly increasing regulations, imposing shut downs and paying people not to work.
Second, as, again, any competent economist can teach you, prices are not "set" by anyone but are determined in the (abundantly evident) competitive market via the interaction of supply and demand. Supply has been curtailed by numerous actions of the Biden administration and additional regulations have also increased investment risk which has slightly increased the cost of capital (contrary to Reich's BS, profit margins are *NIOT* near record levels and raw profits tell nothing of value at all). The entire concept of "profiteering" in market pricing is so unimaginably stupid that only the most economically incompetent fall for such obvious stupidity.
While, the invasion of Ukraine (thanks to Biden's international incompetence, blithering idiots pointing to non-existent support by Trump notwithstanding) certainly interrupted their export capacity, they never represented anything representing even a microscopic impact on the US economy.
What's next? Will you repeat Reich's ineptitude about stock buybacks? or his endlessly debunked claims about the minimum wage? A dunce cap awaits you!
@@FletchforFreedom I'll just borrow your cap
@@Construimus_Batuimus I am responsible neither for your economic illiteracy nor your aggressive ignorance,. Nothing I've said is even *controversial!* It's basic Econ 101. Again, there *AREN'T* any competent economists anywhere who disagree with me (or agrees with you) on these points. Reich isn't an economist at all and their may be a few fringe economists (like laughingstocks Richard D, Wolff who pretend otherwise but they are so very far in the minority as to be easily ignored. Your choice to stick your head in a very dark and odiferous place is not a failing on my part.
If you choose to be a blithering idiot, that's on you. You don't need to take my word for it. Simply open up *ANY* economics text and read about how market prices are determined. I was no fan of Trump - his protectionism was particularly boneheaded - albeit Biden makes him look like the next Adam Smith. The only point I made about him was in regard to the debunked Russian collusion idiocy that no one with an IQ greater than that of pulverized coprolite (have mommy look up the big words for you) still falls for,
As usual, the dumbest of leftists are too incompetent to understand the fallacies. Were I to say that something were true because some individual said it, that would be an appeal to authority. To explain what is actually taking place and reference the *ENTIRE FIELD OF ECONOMICS* for support is not. Do at least try to keep up. If you really want to tattoo :moron" on your forehead, accuse me of ad hominem. And, unlike you, I have absolutely no need to lie,
Yes, Trump dumped a load of CIVID cash into the economy and deserves criticism for that (though Reich - and likely you - applauded it at the time as the only responsible thing to do). But that *PALES* in comparison to the additional COVID and stimulus spending by Biden coupled with additional unemployment benefits and extended lockdowns and restrictions. And then there's the massive restrictions on the energy sector and Green New Deal spending. So, even if your "he did it too" narrative were compelling, it doesn't change anything. And while it is true that the Federal Reserve is the source of monetary policy, no one with a functioning brain stem fails to acknowledge that the Fed chair and members are subject to the politics of the administration and act accordingly - which is why the money supply began skyrocketing upon Biden's assumption of office. again, do at leat try to keep up.
Yes, Putin invaded Ukraine because Putin wanted to invade Ukraine and has wanted to for some time but he didn't do it while Trump was in office because the consequences would have been too dire. he didn't do it until after Biden left Americans high and dry in Afghanistan and realized that, with Biden in office, there would be no material consequences at all. Again, you don't have to be a Trump supporter to grasp this; you need merely to have more intellect than an addles toddler and be pau=ying attention.
I have done nothing but present completely mainstream basic economics. You have provided no counter, no analysis and no refutation for anything I've said. All you've presented is ad hominem attacks entirely devoid of substance. Please, by all means, reference an economist who agrees with - as you say that's where you get your info from. Not even Keynesians like Krugman or Mankiw or Summers or the late Dr, Samuelson will help you out in that regard. Let's hear about all the research and economic sourcing you've done, I could use a good laugh.
I don't care if I impress you, In fact, I greatly appreciate your herculean efforts to make me look positively Einsteinian by comparison.
@@Zach-ju5vi Same deluded drivel from Zachoff the irrelevant troll.
Pro. Reich needs to be supported on every level. He needs to be given a network broadcasted across the nation, syndicated.👏
Thank you for finally covering this reality accurately!
To me one of the most stunning things I learned about modern economies is that money is created when someone takes out a loan and goes into debt. I was well into my forties when I learned this about modern money. At first I did not believe it and it is certainly not what I was taught about money in my younger days. Modern money is mostly about getting governments, corporations, businesses and people into debt and there is also quite a bit of smoke and mirrors involved. The idea is to keep the borrowers continuously in debt so they can continuously keep paying interest to the “lenders”. The cruel joke is that the money given out for the loans that make up this debt does not exist. The money is created by entering numbers into the borrowers account when the borrower takes out the loan. As the loan is paid back, the money that was created for the loan is eliminated and no longer exists, but the institutions that created the money get to keep the interest that was paid. So, the more debt there is, the more money there is and the more interest that is paid to these institutions. The other cruel joke is to get a loan like this, most of us have to put up some collateral, so if you default, they can take ownership of your collateral. So basically, they get your possessions of whatever collateral you put up for free and with no risk since the money they “lent” you did not exist. Supposedly, this has been determined to be a legitimate way to do business.
If money really needs to be created by simply entering numbers into accounts or printing it into existence, remember I am saying “if”, then the government should be the only authority allowed to create this kind of money for the nation without “borrowing” any from the private banks since they don’t have it either and just simply create it the same way the government would. This way the government would not have a national debt and would not be paying interest on money that private banks did not have. The banks should only be allowed to lend money that they have. If the banks do not have enough money to lend to corporations and businesses so that they can expand or continue to innovate, then the government can create the money to lend them and the government can collect the interest for these loans. This would also reduce the amount of taxes that businesses, corporations and individuals would have to pay governments. Of course, for this idea to work, the governments would have to be democratic and elected in fair and free elections. Easier said than done.
The strategies used to keep the economy growing is by promoting and encouraging borrowing especially government borrowing which of course creates more government debt. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) represents the size of the economy which is the amount of money the economy is worth. When the economy is continuously growing, the GDP is also continually growing. Similar to any addiction, more and more borrowing is needed to have the same effect on economic growth. When the government debt starts to become greater than the value of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), technically it will no longer be possible to pay back the government debt. If it continues, the buying power of money will start to be significantly reduced and if the government debt starts to become several more times higher than the GDP, the money and financial systems will probably collapse. If this happens, the system is reset and the cycle is repeated. During the run up there will be some good times but, after the reset times will probably not be good and war is also a possibility. This cycle has been repeated continuously throughout history from the Chinese Dynasties to the Roman Empire to Germany after World War One and to Argentina, Venezuela and to many African nations in the 21st century. If the American Empire can avoid this cycle, they would be the first.
We can fight back by not getting sucked into their way of thinking and rejecting the bull shit they try to get us to believe. We really do not have to go into debt by borrowing money like this. We also do not have to invest in other people’s businesses, and you do not have to listen to other people advice and ideas about investing and about the economy. Earning an honest living and learning to invest in yourself and in your family requires honest work and honest work is challenging and hard to do. There is never a lack of honest work that can be done to earn an honest living for yourself and family. We can fight back by telling governments, banks and the financial institutions and financial advisors and wall street traders to go pound salt! And to go learn how to earn an honest living instead of trying to sucker other people to pay them interest on fake loans or to give them money for fake charities or to give them money so that they can “invest” it for you. Of course, this is all easier said than done but, if we do not have anybody saying this or good moral leaders that can set good examples and teach and guide us in moral ways, our primitive survival instincts will tend to overpower our thinking and decision making.
The thinking that the economy always has to grow for there to be innovation, progress and prosperity may also be a problem on a finite planet with limited resources. I think the focus needs to be on sustainability not on growth. There needs to be flexibility in the system for the economy to be able to expand and contract and for a contraction to be considered normal and not a problem or a failure and for the contraction to be just as innovative and prosperous as the expansion. For this type of thinking to work, there needs to be some new economic models developed along with some new types of financial systems.
It is easy to blame and accuse people that are different from us and blame other nations and also blame and accuse each other for the disparity, poverty, crime, mistrust, hate, conflicts, abuses and gaps in wealth. The corporations blame the governments, and the governments blame the corporations. Different levels of governments and different political parties blame and accuse each other. Nations blame and spy on each other.
Our leaders also make up stories to explain and justify their actions and behaviors. They even have stories about special people with magical power that live in the sky and preach if you do not believe in them you will be condemned. To add to the confusion there are many of these stories and they all contradict each other. History is full of evil, cruel, greedy and psychotic people that have convinced others to follow them, serve them, be their slaves, fight their battles and even worship them.
If there is any chance to continue making progress, we have to learn to reject the lies, the deception and the delusions . I am hoping that not just a majority in the US, but a majority on this planet can learn how to live without the fear and mistrust that motivates nations to manufacture and build weapons that can kill most of us along with most other life on the planet.
I try to remain optimistic and hope that the explosion of information technologies like the internet can help everyone on this planet understand each other a little better and that there will always be a majority that thinks that the wellbeing of others benefits everyone.
Damn, that is such a thorough comment. I agree mostly. I really appreciate all the time it took to type all that. I saw another video about the first part of your comment about the fake money loans. Scary stuff. I am an electrician and I like to think that I earn an honest day's pay. It isn't easy, it can be dangerous and I have to know and do more than anyone will admit that I am worth. It seems the only way to try to insure that I am going to be well off in retirement is to invest and work ALL the time. I already am half believing that I will never retire, that social security will be gone and that there will be some great crisis that will eat up all of my savings and investments. It is hard to carry on in the face of all that. I can always go out in the woods and end it I guess. Isn't it sad that I am even thinking this way? I am glad that I have no children. I have very little faith in this world. I keep trying and my life is pretty good for now and it makes me appreciate today a lot more.
Not sure if everyone can see this reply that I got for my comment on Robert Reich’s TH-cam on Economic Lies so I will re-post it in this reply:
“ ㈩①④⑦⑤④④①③②⑨⑦ᴡʀɪᴛᴇ ᴍᴇ
Thanks for watching! Leave me a message on the number above when you can. I've got something informative to share!”
This is a scammer. This is one of the reasons why economies along with nations struggle and fail. You have people like this that think the way to make a living is by scamming other people. These type of people are a small minority so just keep your guard up and be careful. I am not sure if these people can ever be cured of their brain defects. The more that we can expose them the less successful they will be.
Debt always increases regardless of personal choices. If something bad happens, you have a choice between starvation and debt. If you look for this theme in the Bible or the Torah, you can see that debt has been inescapably trapping people and concentrating property into fewer and fewer hands for all of history.
I wish there was a way to save your favorite youtube comments.
@@rsavage-r2v Edit was to correct some spelling.
“Debt always increases regardless of personal choice”
This is like saying. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere always increases regardless of personal choice. Or like saying: Plastic garbage in the oceans always increase regardless of personal choice. It is not correct saying these things! Whether its debt, carbon dioxide or plastic garbage, they are all caused by how we choose to live! We can choose not to go into debt. We can choose not to burn fossil fuels and we can choose not to dump plastic garbage in the oceans. And, we can choose not to fake giving someone a loan by pretending we have money to lend but instead just enter numbers into the borrowers account!
“If something bad happens you have a choice between starvation and debt”
Not correct! You have many more choices than the two you listed.
“If you look for this theme in the Bible or the Torah, you can see that debt has been inescapably trapping people and concentrating property into fewer and fewer hands for all of history.”
Even though they are mostlyfiction the Bible, the Torah and I would include the Koran are fascinating books with fascinating stories and there are definitely things you can learn from good stories and from other good fictional literature like Shakespeare of even like Harry Potter.
Trying to conquer and enslave others and concentrate property to fewer and fewer hands is what human history has been mostly about. For humans to make further progress, it is time to move away from this thinking,
Thank You Dr. Reich... Brilliant...! Stay Well -70SomethingGuy
This is something our leaders understood in the past.
"With your courage and with your compassion and your desire, we will build a Great Society. It is a society where no child will go unfed, and no youngster will go unschooled." - Lyndon B. Johnson, 1964
Notice he did not say it is a society where corporations will go unregulated and billionaires will go untaxed.
Just after Lyndon B., the wealthy doubled down on labor unions and moved towards breaking up communities.
@madreese69 you're absolutely right.
Culture war means nothing to normal average everyday people if they can't afford to live. That is a luxury for the rich and well off. Something has to give Americans need to focus on what is truly important. Wages and Dignity.
Thank you for the work you do. You are an excellent teacher and you ought to have a top ranking international TV show. It's sad to say, but it's hardly any better in Europe. When will there be a world wide monopoly busting wave? That would be a good news for the kitchen table. : - )
Isn't this (partly) why we had a World War in the 40s? Inflation? o_O
@@williamyoung9401 Inflation at levels we can barely even understand. Germany literally had to scrap their currency because it was meaningless by the end of 1923. 1914: 1 USD = 4.2 Marks, in 1923: 1 USD = 4.2 TRILLION marks.
I love Mr Reich's messages and videos. Keep them coming. Thank you
If Robert really cares about people he would advocate a decentralized monetary system that nobody nor relatively small group of people can control (create money, set interest rates....). He never suggests this because he and his backers want the power to control money which is the power to control society.
I wish you were still in government. Thank you for your insightful videos.
Great presentation Mr. Reich. Easy to follow, understand and engaging. Thank you.
Thank you, Sirrr! ..
These Summaries💗
should be Classics!
Yes.
Also, the unemployment numbers understate the problem by 2-3x or more. They don't count people who have been out of work for a long time (which is far more painful than being on unemployment insurance). They also don't count people who are UNDER-employed. I'll bet that true numbers would change the discussion dramatically.
How can the playing field get tilted back toward something resembling "fair" is the question. You laid out the problem. But what is the solution? Expecting the very group enjoying the fruits of OUR labor to change anything . . . well, talk about whizzing down my leg and telling me it's raining.
At any rate: Thanks for your expert analysis. Keep them coming Robert Reich! We need all the education we can get on this subject.
The answer's obvious, Communist revolution
I'd say unionizing, but if you're successful against all the odds, then the govt steps in and makes you lose.
The truth is there is none. Too many voters choose against their own interests when they vote because their racism and religiosity inform them. So we have 40% of the population convinced that the reason they are struggling is because non-white people are taking their jobs. And the religious so-called pro-life morons will vote for ANYONE who claims to be pro-life. Until we solve those issues, we are f*cked. I think that’s the point of this video. The people MUST be educated. Until those people common realize that the rich are against them even if they are white themselves, there is only a little we can do.
@@AlloftheGoodNamesAreTaken Your assessment sounds true to me. The latest stunt is advocating against education. Isn't that marvelous . . . Some days it appears that this whole situation will get a lot worse before it improves.
@@donnavorce8856 it wont improve without action, it only gets worse then better because it got so bad everyone had enough.
In my childhood mind, America was the best country on the planet. It's such a shame, America has been a country no one can recognize anymore. - this time, human greediness wins again, and we are not so far away from self-destruction.
Except our great grandparents from the "gilded age"
Among a host of outstanding videos, this is one of the best RR has provided. But I do have a suggestion. The Median Personal Income chart, while indicting (for instance) executive pay, nevertheless reflects a bit of growth. It would be much more powerful, perhaps, if that data were integrated with the adjusted costs of housing, transportation (average car prices, etc.) and food. I may be wrong, but I think that would provide a much more complete picture and, therefore, really highlight how much ground has been lost.
The median salary he displayed is adjusted to inflation.
@@udishomer5852
Of course, strictly speaking, that’s correct. But the context of those numbers is lacking. For instance, the median price of a new home in 1968 was $25,100, or an inflation-adjusted $219,750. The median household income was ~ $7,700, which is about $67,450 today. When compared to about $75,000 to $81,000, which is the current median income, it looks like some progress. But the median new home price in June, 2023 was $414,500. Meaning, obviously, there’s been serious blow to living standards and affordability.
You’re probably aware of this buying-power backsliding, and there are a hundred other stark examples, but that’s the kind of information that I was referring to. It would make the video feel more immediately relevant.
Great video RR! Basic economics, with relevant societal issues affecting us all.
Thank you Mr. Reich, you are one of the few voices of sanity in the US.
With the bulk of the money our economy generates being skimmed off by the obscenely rich, I decided early on to live modestly and work only as long as absolutely necessary to stay financially independent. I only worked 20 years of my adult life and spent all the time I save from not being a wage slave on long backpacking and paddling trips, bicycle touring and even seven years sailing around the world. Life is too short to spend most of it working.
Thats sounds like walking a fine line. Is there some way you avoid the risks of not having any emergency money?
@@D.KlWA-aG "seven years sailing around the world"
Silver spoon comes to mind.
"Live modestly and only work as long as absolutely necessary to stay financial independent. I only worked 20 years..."
This cannot be done. Even living "modestly" you'd have have been in some big law firm or head of some multimillion dollar company in order to save enough to retire after 20 years. This, typically happens through nepotism. So, again, silver spoon comes to mind.
Heh, if I chose to only work 20 years and spend the rest of it traveling I wouldn't be able to eat. Someone was born into wealth here... 😒
This is so well put together and really explains the situation!
He lies by withholding information he never tells you that the top five percent pay over half the federal taxes he never tells you that the top ten percent pay over seventy percent he never tells you that the middle class draw more ss and medicare than they pay in he never tells you that the poor get subsidized housing food assistance cash assistance and free healthcare he never tells you that the rich pay almost all the federal taxes and get next to nothing in return
This is the best piece of activist advertising I’ve ever seen. Even reverberates in social-democratic Europe. Great job, Robert
Keep telling us the truth. Thanks!
@@Zach-ju5vi YAWN....ZZZZzzzz.....
I love this style of video. This should be a Netflix special.
Very practical revealatiions. Lots of learning from the professor. Immensely benefitted, by watching your podcasts, in life and in career.
🙏🏻👍🏻
In an old Disney Afternoons episode of Aladdin, there was a awesome being that visited Agraba, and asked Jasmine to justify why the city should not be destroyed. She showed them the city's palace, the art, the treasures, the trade. It wasn't enough. What won the being over was when she showed them her people. Agraba deserved to be spared because of the people who lived there.
And again, Mr. Reich hits it out of the park!
@@Zach-ju5vi Problem with the facts, laffy?
@@Zach-ju5vi Zachoff the irrelevant corporate bootlicking triggered troll ,back for us all to laugh at. hahaha
@@1JamesMayToGoPlease Zach is this channels number one corporate bootlicking troll who is triggered after every fact filled video from the great professor Reich. We just laugh at him.
@@brucebasile5083 Duly noted, and thanks!
@@1JamesMayToGoPlease My pleasure. Best wishes.
Excellent! Well said Robert Reich - wish the politicians would listen
Academy award winning Honesty and Sincerity. Thanks for giving it your all to speak truth to educate and empower the masses.
"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism."
- Major General Smedley D. Butler
(Butler was the most decorated GI in history)
Said the man who was asked by wealthy businessmen to overthrow the office-holding POTUS, FDR.
Ik kijk met plezier, bewondering, verbijstering. en respect naar de infotainment filmpjes van Robert Reich. De. VS kan nog veel leren van landen als Noorwegen, Zweden, Nederland en. Denemarken.
Robert, I. have gresat respect for you, thanks
In the mid to late seventies, my friends paid their own way through state collages working part time jobs. And that included plenty of partying.
Yep. My folks graduated high school in the 70s and I try to remind them that we didn't grow up in different time's, but different worlds. Education, housing, health care, just about every vital metric has skyrocketed in my lifetime. It doesn't look like it will get better anytime soon either
@@toypianos469 I’m afraid it most likely won’t get better in your time either. The best thing for you is to be wise with your money such as no more $6 dollar Starbucks coffee or $200 dollar a month cable fees. Get a $15 dollar per month flip phone. Drive a reliable shitbox. Go on, add it up. Just enjoy the good parts of life. There are many.
@@blipco5 I don't drink Starbucks,, I don't have cable, I sold my car, and I'm going to be an expat. Fuck that shit. I have been fortunate enough to enjoy much of life, but I draw the line at institutional slavery. As for the younger generations, I'm impressed with their efforts to unionize the past few years. I hope they keep that fire burning.
@@toypianos469 I agree about the unions. Anything the CEO's don’t want and openly badmouth is generally good for the working stiff.
@blipco5 I'm genuinely impressed with some of these kids organizing against behemoths like Starbucks or Amazon. Something about covid made it clear that the CEOs and boards literally don't care if you live or die. Every time that came up at a job in my 20s, we always got talked out of it.
One of the best yet. We have to talk more about the inadequacy of our current economic health indicators, which is a huge, huge, huge problem.
Health would be a goal but it's impossible to keep America down and let it thrive. American people can't be upset about such things or family, jobs and spouses dump them -. Like dropping a hot potato.
Reich for president. Seriously, he would be much better than typical candidates.
Thank you for inviting us into your home and telling it like it is.
I love your videos. We should broadcast this on TV, so the masses know what's going on.
I've seen Robert Reich on TV. I'm pretty sure the US public is well unformed and thoughtful. There's no way they can compete in politics against the oligarchs. America's oligarchy is the best.
Successful people don't become that way overnight. What most people see at a glance- wealth, a great career, purpose-is the result of hard work and hustle over time. I pray that anyone who reads this will be successful in life..
+1,
63980
98917 .
Kudos to Leo Abigail for the great work she's doing
I've never heard or seen any of her clients complain of lost....I think she is just too perfect.
Financialization has ruined the world.
50 now, and everything is paid for. Fortunately, I had a college economics teacher who taught me a lesson when I was 18 years old. That lesson was: you can't buy something else for every purchase you make. Having multiple sources of income is prudent, as is living within your means. I have a 13-year-old vehicle because it is all I need, I like it, and I can do whatever I want with it. My net worth is $4 million, and I can pay my bills without stress, but I don't live like I have that. I have no complaints.
Right alongside you. No debt, early retirement. Children are well-cared for. On 11 acres overlooking the river valley, I'm constructing the house of my dreams. There are many methods to get rich right now, but only real-time professionals are capable of making such high-volume, near-perfect trades.
But your success doesn't mean our precious generations didn't earn a larger share of hard work.
@Teresa Brickle how much did you start with?
When Earth was a planet yea you could get multi income streams and investments back in the old days. At age 50 you BARELY made the cutoff point.
That’s very nice for you. You’re welcome to complain to the powers that be about the situation most everyone else is in though. Point being, not everyone had your gifts or luck or support. (Indeed, you may want to ponder how you received these things in life.) And that’s basically not fair.
Thank you for your straightforward and lucid explanation about how the economy has a significant impact on my daily life, as opposed to using complex and abstract jargon that is difficult to connect with my personal experiences. 😀
I was thinking recently about my first salary, how my then company car cost about the same as my salary, how I bought my first house @ 3 x my salary, how little petrol cost. Now, despite a 'successful; professional skills, wide ranging experience, a senior role, my salary doesn't buy much more than it did when I was starting out. Whether comparing the price of fuel, houses, cars, it doesn't go as far as first appears. Those starting out really are worse off than I was years ago. The other thing is that there are lots of new taxes, fees, charges to pay, quietly draining our resources, even ou savings are quietly being eroded by hidden taxes.
Thanks Robert. Putting it all into words helps sharpen the focus of what thr problem is how to explain it and how to quantify success when all we here is how successful the companies or individual billionaires are as we rack up the credit card bills and wonder how we are going to make it to 2024.
They aren’t successful if they’re robbing from others!
@@nickiemcnichols5397 I think that bespeaks of the whole problem. The gig economy worships those who can rob the most and celebrates that robbery as success.
don't congratulate Robert too much.
he spent decades defending and propping up the status quo, through the Clinton administration and beyond.
after all, being an economist is how he got himself Rich and Famous.
He isn't hurting.
@@lanewilliams6099 False equiavlences. The CEO of the company I work for takes home $22 million a year. Sometimes $65 million during mergers. That's a yearly income that is more than 4 times Roberts net worth and 55 times higher than Roberts yearly income. Your view is skewed.
Robert Reich rocks!
*_1_* The happiest, *_least_* corrupt countries with the *_highest_* standard of living in the world are the Nordic countries-Denmark (with its autonomous territory Faroe Islands and Greenland, part of Denmark), Finland (with its autonomous region Åland), Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. They are social democracies and most of their citizens speak English and are atheist, agnostic, or skeptic.
*_2_* Here are the top 10 happiest countries: 1 Finland, 2 Denmark, 3 Switzerland, 4 Iceland, 5 Netherlands, 6 Norway, 7 Sweden, 8 Luxembourg, 9 New Zealand, 10 Austria. Note that all but #9 are in Europe and that the five Nordic countries are listed. 💕☮🌎🌌
Thank you, Professor Reich. If only we could get Red State folks to listen to this. What do you think about the Biden administration using the Army Corp of Engineers (and the Defense Department budget), to create high-paying green energy jobs (bring back the CCC and the WPA), and build offshore wind and onshore solar farms with all of the supporting infrastructure required? Is it possible for the Defense budget to be used in this way outside of the approval of Congress? Thank you...
Brilliant post, Professor.
I got interested in Cherokee Life pre European arrival, and am convinced they and many tribes had superior quality of life. Then Europeans (us) brought our tradition of feudalism.
Today finding out about pre arrival native Americans is almost impossible because 200 years ago we so throughly trashed them and didn’t even know what we destroyed. They had a higher standard of living that the Europeans who destroyed them.
We are still living feudalism, and it’s written into our constitution.
Not feudalism, capitalism.
@@ericpreston8877 it’s the same thing.
Robert Reich knows his stuff. He is a great educator on economics and should be much more respected. He is very smart just like Bernie Sanders, who tells the real truth about what is going on.
I partially blame the banks who’ve made it so easy to finance everything. It’s so easy to get bogged down in student debt, extended car loans, mortgages, etc. Also, if corporations don’t maximize profits, then they might get sued by stockholders
Yep.
@@scifirealism5943While busting unions and sending manufacturing overseas, debt became the main driver of our so called middle class! How else were we able to afford all the new products made overseas by formerly American businesses
"Forget trickle-down economics... it's trickle-on!" EXACTLY
My first house in 1993 was $110,000. It wasn't much, and had some issues we had to work through, but we could afford it. That very same house today is listed for $650,000. That's almost a six fold increase in the cost of housing. My salary at that time as I was just starting out was about $35,000. That same exact starting salary today is $63,000. Now you can start to see how out of control housing costs have become. Most of this is due to big investment houses buying up houses as investments, and to make big dollars renting those issues. Add to that the number of houses that are chewed up in Airbnb, and those that are just being flipped to make somebody more money, and you can see why there is a shortage of homes being actually being lived in by the people paying the mortgage.
It taxes going up idiot
because there is not enough territoty anymore. All major cities are surrounded by enormous suburbs. Terriroty and real estate as a consequence are limited resources.
Thank you Professor for your insightful analysis.
I am learning so much from watching your videos. Thank you so much for sharing this amazing source of information. This one is quite helpful.
How beautiful to put such a disturbing development with humor and wit on our table ( err screens). Thank you for talking straight from the facts.
I work two jobs and I have a one bedroom apartment and drive q car that is 11 years old. It just seems like I can't make enough to cover monthly expenses. I want to see unions come back.
Thank you.
Wow that was amazingly produced and played. Thanks! 😮
Excellent summary. Thank you for all that you do, Robert.
It's sad when eating out saves me more money than grocery but I still can't afford 3 meals a day.. I'm down to one good meal, one skipped meal, and one meal I'm never sure will be filling (day before : breakfast was nothing, dinner was toast with butter and lunch was beans rice and a tortilla with cheese) I get some fruit when I can but I can't afford vegetables or meat so I skip them.
Surprisingly I don't qualify for food stamps as the standards are extremely hard to meet
Exceptionally designed and delivered message. Thank you for sharing this. Now let's get it in front ofmore viewers 😃
These corporations, politicians abetting, and their shareholders should face jail time for price gouging ppl in a public health crisis/emergency.
None of our basic needs should be left in the hands of the private sector, nationalize all basic human needs.
@@Zach-ju5vi We are being price gouged on our basic needs for private individuals to profit privately. If it's national profit at least that $ gets invested back into the public and not some rich persons offshore bank.
@@mathias8627 Well said, my friend but waisted on this channels corporate bootlicking troll, Zach. We just laugh at him.
@@brucebasile5083 I sort of assumed that haha 😆
Usually I don't respond but every now & then I get to thinking that what is said is here for everyone to see, a public record for the ppl, not just Zach 🙂
@@mathias8627 I get it. Best wishes.
@@Zach-ju5vi you don't need to be rude, but I get it, you're frustrated and like many others your impulse is to resort to sophistry.
They don't pay taxes, and if they do it isn't nearly fair or proportionate. Most use loop holes to avoid paying anything and the biggest corps can easily outafford the IRS legally.
I'm not a bot, I'm a human
Very good presentation. The problem is nothing will ever get done. Most legislators won't take up the fight. And if they did, corporations would fight back and raise prices, cut back on workers, reduce Supply Etc. It seems to me that corporations are too powerful. They've been given carte blanche for too long. Any suggestions?
We live in an oligarchy. And it’s becoming fascist.
Very helpful a tough economic lesson with some humor added. Thank you Robert Reich
But we have Freedom! To choose the doctor we want to see, if that doctor is "In Network", with whichever insurance company our C.E.O. decided to go with, for this year. We have all this freedom.
its FREEDUMB
@@Zach-ju5vi Hey guess who's back it's this channels psychotic corporate bootlicker, Zachoff the irrelevant troll, for us all to laugh at. hahaha
@@Zach-ju5vi Zach, I've seen it with MY OWN EYES. During a family vacation in France, on a rented house boat, my father fell and broke two ribs. The doctor came from the hospital, to the campgrounds we were docked at, examined my dad, drove him to the nearby small town to the town pharmacy. Took my dad in, wrapped his chest and got him pain medicine. Arranged for a free ride to the hospital for free x-rays to confirm her diagnosis. Arranged for another free ride to the hospital several days later for more x-rays to check his ribs. He tried to pay them, they wouldn't take his money, they didn't even have a payment system. To get a "house call" from a doctor in the United States, and concierge service, your last name has to be Musk or Bezos or Buffet. That's the problem Zach, Americans can't even imagine how good it can be. I've seen it with my own eyes!!!
@@Zach-ju5vi and for the record, my dad is not a French citizen, we were just tourists, and this was a "once in a lifetime" vacation for us. We are not wealthy at all.
@@stevechance150 Well said but waisted on this channels corporate bootlicker troll, Zach. We just laugh at him every time he gets triggered by one of the great professor Reich's fact filled videos.
Vote Blue. Your well being depends on it.
Are you stupid, what meaningful thing have they ever done to address this?
Build Back Better came from the WEF. You're literally voting for your own enslavement... politics aren't even real to begin with. Your vite doesn't determine a single thing.
Japan's economy is considered "bad" by the experts, but the reality is that "inefficient" corporations keep more people employed and government deficit keeps money flowing.
Life goes on and standards of living are high *despite* the ""bad"" economy.
Reich you the man! The system is so far concentrated and controlled, at this point, those at the top have even been reaping the rewards of the debt of the masses for decades. What's that saying about a society with nothing left to lose?
Thank you Sir for such a good content and well directed video. Good sense of humor with facts. I think its with most of the countries.
Brilliant. Wish the media would report like this.
Preach Sir, preach. Our blissful ignorance needs to be eradicated ASAP!
@@Zach-ju5vi Well well well it's the number one corporate bootlicker Zachoff the irrelevant troll, back to spew the same old verbal diarrhea.
We’re totally ignorant that we live in an oligarchy, an aristocracy, soon to become fascist. Hopefully President Biden is listening.
People aren't ignorant, their fascists.
Make Stock Buybacks Illegal.
Mr Reich ... Run for President please !!!! You've got my vote !!!!
There might be an economical turmoil but there is no doubt that this is still the best time to invest.
Best time to invest? thats funny though because in the last four months I have lost more than $47,900 in stock market which is the biggest I have loss since I ventured into stock investment.
you could be right or wrong . i once had similar problem but now its a different ball game for me because I was lucky to have met katrina vanrensum , a financial manager and stock expert, I have made more than $165,000 in 6 weeks under her supervisions
Search her name on the web you will see all you need to know about her.
Heads up, this comment is meant to give a place for scammers to post their "success stories". Remember, people who have stock profit from other people buying stock, so they'll say anything to convince you to join in.
@@jamesmaduabuchi6100 You've successful thrown in the right word there, luck. Out performing the market is statistically luck. Her luck at picking might turn at any time.
Gives a great perspective to those struggling financially. It's for people in certain financial situations to look at but it's definitely not the study of economics. Personally, I'd advise you seek professional assistance when in a situation of uncertainty.
What we know about the global financial crisis is that we don't know very much. Paul Samuelson
Heard about Yvonne Annette Lively?
@@Gregfreemann PM with Morgan Stanley?
Um, seek whom exactly? When we had nothing, we had no way to pay for help. There are too many losers in this American game, and it’s not right. Seen so many college students who had no recourse when things just went wrong. There’s such a thing as bad luck, and it can happen to anyone any time, no matter how hard they try. I think this is a brilliant way of looking at economics. It’s what matters to most people most of the time.
Re: "not the study of economics" - Robert is literally one of America's top economists, who worked directly for several presidents and taught at the big name universities 🤷♂️
Less than 1:30 in and I've already subscribed. I'm glad I found your channel!
Testify Robert.
Excellent production! I wish this and other presentations you've made here, were a part of basic economics that all our children should study before they finish high school.
maybe you should run for school board.
then you could get what you want.
And if you are bored someday, you should watch Roberts old videos from like 1996...and see if the ideals he's preaching today match with those he had as a younger person.
@@lanewilliams6099 Reich? or someone else?