@@platypodesrock9221 I think yes. I'm not sure when taxes became more about social engineering than funding shared and necessary services like roads, utilities, fire dept. etc. but it was somewhere before we had thousands of pages of tax code. Now, you get tax breaks for doing what the government wants you to do. Easiest example is real estate: They want housing, so they give huge tax incentives to rental properties. Therefore, if you pay nothing in taxes, it means you're doing what your government is asking of you, so isn't that patriotic? Notice I'm not saying it's fair, just reality.
@@PhoenixCrown that is actually stupid and untrue most of the times people pay no taxes it **requires** tax evasion. Also that’s untrue because income tax , Vat, school taxes etc etc cannot be avoided even if you “do what your government wants . FYI tax evasion is immoral unless you live under an unimaginably corrupt government like literal nazis
Please do a video about how our representatives in Congress vote against their constituents’ best interests about 70% of the time (because…money). Thx!
@@Jack-Shat Correct, when it became a career, civil servant died! What can we expect, they have the power to vote themselves a raise. Examine their salaries, U. S. Senators and House Representatives, $174,000. Majority leader and minority leader of the Senate, $193,400. Majority leader and minority leader of The House Of Representatives, $193,400. The Speaker of the House, $223,500, who do they represent?
@@mattja52 You're missing the forest from the trees here. It's not about the salary they're paid, it's the campaign contributions, insider trading, and kickbacks that total many times what they paid with the added bonus of a career in lobbying and being a ‘consultant’ after they leave.
@@Lobsterwithinternet first of all “we” do not have founding fathers. There is no “our” as we own nothing jointly. Second of all, these people who came up with this system very much believed in the constitutional system… because they were the ones who imposed it on the populace.
As a UK citizen, this is why I get so damn annoyed when wealthy, retired Boomers - with their cast-iron pensions guaranteed for them by promises made decades ago, their free healthcare, free bus passes, annual heating allowance whether they need it or not, and their properties with mortgages all paid off because *they* bought *their* houses when it was easy and affordable to do so - accuse the younger generations of "spending all their money on stupid things and not saving for the future, like *we* did." YOU DID BECAUSE YOU COULD; your working years were the most secure and financially beneficial in modern history. Your wages kept pace with inflation, property prices were reasonable, you had the benefits of a well-funded National Health Service AND statutory pension scheme, AND most of the public services, like the railways, telephone and utility companies, were all nationalised, so there were no shareholders behind the scenes determined to make a huge, fat profit off those public services. If you'd had to live YOUR working years the way the majority of the younger generations do now, you'd most likely have saved even less than us.
I'm not even in the UK and see this problem here in the US too. There is even a few colleges allowing seniors to go to college for 10 dollars per class. This is ridiculous
It is worst in the USA. To be totally honest, you guys millennials are just fucked by the system. I am wealthy, by any standard, very wealthy. But I have two daughters who just started working in NYC. Good, decent jobs, earning between 65K and 125K (approximately). With the current housing prices and living expenses, it would be impossible for them to have decent lives in NYC. And they do not have Student Loan!
@@aquienpuedainteresar4188 Some colleges give free or reduced tuition to seniors. IN those cases, it's not divided by income, just age. It's mostly a PR move. Seniors pursuing education aren't looking to make moves in their careers, they are mostly just looking for something to take up time in retirement.
Exactly. I don't care how much money someone has. If they have employees and all of those employees are paid a wage that allows them to live a comfortable life it's all good.
Fabulous way of putting it. And I agree with your other replier. It made me furious when Bezos thanked his workers when he returned from his first space trip, bearing in mind his workers' pay and conditions.
@@seer775 taxes 🤷🏻. I'd be all for a zero corporate tax rate if you can PROVE every single employee you have on payroll is paid a living wage based on a 30 minute circle around the place of business. Those people will pay taxes as will the investors paying taxes on dividends and capital gains.
the IRS came after me because I forgot to include a $185 payment I received when I file my taxes. the IRS does nothing to go after the millionaires and billionaires evading their taxes. fair system I say in America.
One of the problems as I understand it is that the large corporations and multi-billionaires have accountants that far outnumber and outgun the IRS. The IRS doesn't stand a chance against them. The IRS needs to be fully funded to get what is due the American public. Of course the government is controlled by wealthy people so why would they want to increase the irs's budget?
Same thing happened to us. Only they waited 5 yrs to notify us. We had sent a money order. By the time they told us they didn't get the $97 payment it had 5 yrs of interest and penalties on it. Was over $500
Making economics clear and simple to non-economists is some saintly work. I’m sure it’s been said many times in the comments for your channel but RR, you’re my hero.
@@juliosanchez4036 The person you're replying to doesn't like what he has to say, so instead of engaging the material, just says a bunch of stuff in the hopes that it will stick, completely missing the point that it helps the algorithm to get the message out to more people.
To be clear, the term is "Gilded," meaning, covered in gold. A "Guilded" age, meaning one dominated with guilds, would be like the mid twentieth century, when Unions, which are very like guilds, opposed the bigwigs and helped to keep income and wealth a bit closer together.
I think it starts by banning politicians from taking any money from a person or a business/corporation. This includes their campaigns. Their campaigns should only be funded by those people who wish to donate during their tax filings. When on your tax form it asks if you want to donate to a political party.
Robert Reich has a net worth of $5 million dollars, as of 2021! Yet here he is crying about income inequity The median American retiree has a portfolio of about $225,000. Reich is worth over 20 times that. IRONY! Wake up kids, this guy is so full of ssh*t his eyes are brown and he produces NOTHING!
@@jwil4905 hah, please sir please tell why? Wait, no no, I know is it because some of those families are responsible for catastrophic destruction of the biosphere, so it'll be the post-apocalypse? Just guessing ...
@@jwil4905 "clearly"? Interesting. I want to know why *you* think it won't happen, please help me grow my mind, fine sir. While you do that I'll hide my Adams, Picketty, Friedman, Sen, Malthus actually the whole shelf and that pesky BEc. This is an RR vid who do think watches these, haha, you.
"If a man has an apartment stacked to the ceiling with newspapers, we call him crazy. If a woman has a trailer house full of cats, we call her nuts. But when people pathologically hoard so much cash that they impoverish the entire nation, we put them on the cover of Fortune magazine and pretend that they are role models." ~ Lester B. Pearson
And then we increasingly "subsidize" THEM, while denying any real assistance for the "crazies!!!" This is the mantra for our dysfunctional society... (Thanks for sharing)
@Do no harm Sense?? Well put down your smart phone because a rich guy invented it. Park your Tesla or turn off your computer because a rich guy invented it. As usual you cry about a problem you made. We put Kardasiens and other do nothing, make nothing people of way more covers.
@@markintexas1296 Untrue and untrue. We don’t have billionaires to thank for these inventions, we have either well meaning folks trying to do good in the world or the government. The most technological advance of the modern-era, indeed the very technology that allows the smart phone to be smart, internet, was invented by the government. Also, please stop with the idea that just cause someone invents something of value that gives them permission to exploit the masses. The true value of any company is the people that work for it. Without them there wouldn’t be products to buy.
@@mikehaynes1769 It does. When you pay politician to create policies that allow you to keep more Money and therefore give less back to the community, you are hoarding cash and creating damage to the whole society.
In the 80s a great book called WHEN SOCIETY BECOMES AN ADDICT ...Ann Wilson Schaef....talks about the White Male Dominance of Society, using the Fear of Not Hsving Enough to justify yhings. ETC. CODEPENDCY rates were predicted to be in the high 90s THEN!!
@@phriedokra6158 I remember her name from the movement for self realization back then. Sure is obvious now, the money addiction. So befuddled in their disease they can’t even mount a decent reaction to climate change, which by the way was an issue even then…
This is how I've always put it when talking about the rich actually paying their fair share in taxes. It's nothing to them, but _everything_ to us. Their lives will not change in any fundamental way, but it will enable our society to do what it is supposed to do and actually support real people.
@Alpha Omega the ultra rich donors class of people who buy and sell the politicans are the ones profiting from buying their way to get control over the average American workers and it is time to tax them fairly quickly because the trumpets will sooner than later figure out that they have been played brilliantly but when they do it could be bad for the rich and i would like it to stay peaceful i am to old for this stuff
@Alpha Omega The ultra wealthy OWN the system. They have the financial power to put politicians in place who back the legal loopholes that allow the ultra wealthy to accumulate more wealth and pay less taxes. The only way the system changes is if the ordinary people understand this reality (this video goes a long way to help that!), and then VOTE to elect people that will actually change the system. Too often the poor vote against their own best interests because they believe the political rhetoric promoted by those very politicians the ultra wealthy support.
@@kaminoshi713 yea they listen in, phones have become a lot easier to navigate for the visually impaired. I had a guy in one of my classes who could play yt videos, news reels, tik toks
@@kaminoshi713 they don't just watch it. Check out Molly Burke. She's an amazing blind TH-camr and she'll change the way you think about blindness forever.
"After just a few generations of this almost ALL of America's wealth could be in the hands of a few thousand families." This is one of my biggest fears, and the pattern will repeat across the world. That'll happen here in the UK too, which is why I save, save, save. My parents think I sacrifice too much of the present for the future, and maybe they're right but only to an extent. The future is so scary as everything's only going to get more dangerous - Money, climate change ... do you need a third one??
Here is an example. I bought a house 3 years ago for about 400k. Due to house prices increase by wallstreet buying houses the house value is 700k now. If I wait another 4-5 years, add my savings and my wife savings and our 401k probably I will exceed one million. Do I am a millionaire? I don't think so. Do I feel like a millionaire? Not at all. So why would I pay 2% which is 20,000 every year of my life having all these years I'm paying my assets valued of over 1 million?
@@car9167 Facts dont care about your feelings ps: your assets arnt worth over 1 million unless your claiming everything is yours and your wife has nothing and its not 20,000 its 2% of everything over 1mil and it would be increase in wealth not total wealth
@@halfjack2758 yeah this kind of tax should be targeted to those a little higher up the food chain. A lot of people save and make sacrifices for many decades to just retire with a little nest egg of 2 million. Trust me its not a lot and portions usually go to a struggling relative, medical expenses, funerals, etc.
@@halfjack2758 Thanks for clarifying. I would tax the increase YOY of wealth. So if this year you're worth 100B and next year 120B they you pay a percentage of the difference of 20B. But if your wealth decreased to 110B due to market fluctuations or whatever than you would need to get back from IRS for the 10B you lost.
This was excellent. Here's another twisted fact: even without political power or a mountain of assets, the merely "comfortably rich" (not the top 1%, but say in the 2%-5% range) can still avoid significant taxes, particularly between generations, through loop-holey tax avoidance strategies. The minute a new law is passed, sharp lawyers and tax specialists develop work-arounds to it, for $500/hr to $1,000/hr. I always felt it bizarre that someone would pay, say, $2M over ten years to a tax advisor who sets up all sorts of trusts and inter-family loans for the purpose of avoiding taxes, when that money could otherwise have been paid as taxes and done some good for everyone, rather than that one smart advisor. Some people see taxes as so evil that they are willing to pay nearly the same amount to advisors to just to avoid paying it to uncle Sam. It's bizarre. I speak as a somewhat confused beneficiary of some of these shenanigans.
Ever since the final business quarter of 1980, the sum total of financial assets (from which IRA's and 401k's are derived), has been greater than our GDP. This happened because Congress gutted company funded pensions in 1974. At the end of 1980, the sum total financial assets was half a trillion more than our GDP. By 1990 that gap was enlarged to $6.9 trillion. By the year 2000 the gap had widened further to $21.2 trillion. Today that gap is $93.684 trillion or 4.8 times the size of our GDP. Today the gap has widened so far that extraction from the population is simply not enough to fuel a 12% annual growth rate, so the government is now being looted. The money to grow IRA's and 401k's is stolen, not earned. What gives anyone the right to take money they have not earned?
Because they save them from contributing $4M to the public fund. Plus there's always the aspect of power corrupting and all that. If you can get away with it you feel powerful. Which is why you generally amass ridiculous amounts of money to begin with. Or at least, this is my theory 😒
Not really. Reich needs to learn what wealth is. A lot of the wealth the wealthy own is non liquidated. And many, like me due to loans, have negative wealth but are doing fine. Reich is trying to simply be emotional and not rational.
@@whyamimrpink78 Reich literally says at the beginning of The Basics section that wealth is also the sum of non-liquid assets: cars, homes, etc. Looks like you didn't really watch the video.
@@whyamimrpink78 So according to you, nonliquid assets dont count as wealth. See if that argument holds up when you tell the state you have no cash to pay the property taxes on all your properties because of no tenants and see if they agree. In case you missed it, the crucial argument is for eliminating transactional tax loopholes for the super rich, mainly corporations, which would not include coming to take away your 2nd 3rd and 4th mansion etc, but actually enforcing the collection of taxes at an equivalent rate to the average individual.
The game of Monopoly was invented shortly after Roosevelt’s actions due to Public Awareness of Wealth Inequality. It’s lesson of Free Market Capitalism still stands today. When one player has all the money... the game is over !
@@colorpg152 That's the problem with simplifying and trivializing a serious subject. It doesn't get treated with the seriousness it deserves, plus there's a disconnect in applying it one's own life.
In terms of fairness, the game is over before it begins. In real life, when you start, the game has been going on for a long time, all the properties are owned, and some people started with a stack of money. You on the other hand, have a small bank account and must go all the way around to get more money until you can somehow buy a property. Good luck with that.
German sociologist, Robert Michel's theory on the iron law of oligarchy states that most democratic states and regimes start off as egalitarian, but eventually the power and wealth gets concentrated in the hands of the few elite individuals who control and acquire uninhibited access to social, cultural, and economic capital. You could also say that Max Weber's iron cage reinforces the idea that wealth and power is in the hands of those elite technocrats and plutocrats who have the opportunity to seek out positions that control policies and regulations that aid and enable those with plenary powers. It's sad really. Factions exist because they too have a right in the democratic institutions we live in. We cannot drown out their voice, even if they come from privileged and wealthy backgrounds. Despite the fact they hold unlimited amount of lobbying power and political clout.
None of any states in Europe have ever started as democratic. Has any state ever started? They were originally oligarchic. In a way this tendency is thus not as weird as it sounds
Robert, one thing you could have touched on is how the "big" money families buy medias and push philosophies that continue to benefit themselves. Thanks for your videos. I hope enough Americans can wake up.
Since most media is left leaning liberal, of course Robert won’t mention the inequality of television and print ! He doesn’t care about that injustice because it doesn’t fit his narrative
Science fiction author Frank Herbert had an observation on this, which he included in his Dune series: "Governments, if they endure, always tend toward aristocratic forms. No government in history has been able to avoid this pattern. And as the aristocracy develops government tends more and more to act in favor of the Ruling Class, whether that ruling class be hereditary royalty, oligarchs of financial empires, theocratic clergy, or entrenched bureaucracy."
This is actually a worldwide problem. We see the same phenomenon in Europe. Here, the rich mostly hide behind the middle class claiming that taxing the rich would also lead to a shrinkage of the middle class. It amazes me that people can even develop such a level of unsaturable greed. I mean a multibillionaire wouldn't even notice a billion dollar tax payment. Their money usually sits around and does nothing except growing. Even when they spend they usually don't touch their assets but instead borrow against them.
When during the Trump administration the 1/5th of wage earners had their incomes rise the fastest of all groups. That was the first time that had happened since the George W Bush administration. Because both Trump and W. used Kennedy's theory of using lower taxes, less immigration, deregulation, and smaller government to tighten up the labor market. Which raises wages, allows mobility, allows for advancement, and gives people dignity. Compare that to the Democrat policies of using high taxes, over regulation, open immigration, and big government to put permanent slack into the labor market. Which drives down wages and drives up housing prices at the same time, to the point tens of millions of people don't have any money left over at the end of the month. And it's the low wages at the bottom that allows the excesses at the top, causing the wealth gap. Raising the bottom 1/5th of wage earners wealth relative to everyone else is something liberals will never be able to do because of their policies. If Reich actually cared about working class people, Reich would be a Kennedy Reagan conservative.
Becoming a millionaire through a Roth IRA or a 401(k) involves different strategies for maximizing profits. A Roth IRA offers tax-free withdrawals in retirement, which can be advantageous if you expect to be in a higher tax bracket later in life. On the other hand, a 401(k) provides tax-deferred growth and potential employer contributions, boosting your savings. The optimal choice depends on factors like your current and future tax situation, employer match, and investment options. Consulting a financial advisor can help tailor a strategy that aligns with your financial goals and circumstances.
Prioritizing effective personal finance management holds greater significance than the sheer amount saved, irrespective of income source. Consulting a certified financial advisor can offer tailored strategies to optimize financial results by reducing expenses and enhancing income, regardless of whether it's earned through employment or investments.
I wholeheartedly concur. At 40+ years old and newly retired, my external retirement funds total around One million two hundred fifty thousand dollars.. With no debt and minimal retirement fund allocation relative to my portfolio's value over the last three years, I recognize the importance of a financial advisor. Neglecting them isn't an option; however, thorough research is vital to find a trustworthy fiduciary advisor.
Sharon Marissa Wolfe is the licensed fiduciary I use. Just research the name. You’d find necessary details to work with a correspondence to set up an appointment..
I just googled her and I'm really impressed with her credentials; I reached out to her since I need all the assistance I can get. I just scheduled a caII.
We do, but getting messages like this on television is a very long shot. When ultra wealthy people and corporations control massive media outlets, they are in position to prevent messages like this from getting to the masses.
And it should include a section explaining that the rich avoid taxes by *not selling* and instead *getting loans* by using their property as collateral. They completely sidestep the typical argument of "but they don't have all that wealth in money, they would have to sell!" etc. No, they don't.
My Gram from PA was raised on a farm had a saying: "Money is like manure; it only works when you spread it around to make things grow." Stop hoarding $$$ & start speading!
@@lexingtonbrython1897 the thing that most people miss about the ultra rich spreading their money around is they will be getting something for their money .not just throwing it out the window. But enjoying the products they buy .I think most billionaires must be Hoarders like on the TV show and will never give up 1 dollar and they want to control everything they see and will never be happy unless they are in charge of everything
The whole “skipping taxes” bit burns me up because taxes are there so we can all chip in so, while we all need to do our parts, the people who have the most ability to contribute should be the first to step up and lead. THAT being said, I find it greatly disappointing that the HaveNots want the Haves to give them there property (ill gotten wealth or not) like We live in the first socialist society in the history of the world that worked. They are spreading it around as investments which return dividends so their money works for them. As far as “Stop hoarding $$$ and start spreading” goes … 1) Money isn’t worth anything and has no power if it isn’t spent. “It takes money to make money” is about growing wealth they’re just spending it in a way that benefits themselves… 2) how would you like it if someone else with “less financial success” told you how you should spend your money … 3) If you’ve EVER denied giving money to a homeless person or to a charity then you don’t get a voice in this matter. Just like so many of us look at a homeless person and think that they would miss-use any money given them, to the ultra rich WE are the less financially aware people who “wouldn’t do the right thing with the money given to them”. He hit the nail on the head at the end of this video with the flat 2% tax. Fair is fair and it would make it easier on all of us too to have refined tax laws. We are a dual income household with one house and 3 cars yet SOMEHOW I manage to get it wrong every year and Uncle Sam gets his IRS goons to send me love letters about how I owe them even more and more. 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
This was a fantastic video, but he fails to mention that Reagan’s cut of taxes from 70% top marginal tax to 25% with the idea of trickle down economics, has totally failed miserably.
I guess I'm confused how it failed miserably if inflation-adjusted median household income and inflation-adjusted median personal income have both risen significantly (34% and 56%, respectively) since 1981? To the contrary, that sounds like a pretty clear success.
@@sdefonta The Census Bureau's data. Just search for "real median household income FRED" and "real median personal income FRED" and you will see the charts. "are you using real inflation (not the "official" government definition)" Lol, this is a neat little trick: "Please cite your sources. But you're not allowed to use official ones." This is what we like to call playing tennis without the net.
@@registereddemocrat3183, At least he is not getting in other people's way, much on the contrary, Senator Longwall manchin is the problem, we must carve that sucker with the filibuster.
So why is someone who was "Labor" Secretary under the president (Billy Clinton) who initiated "NAFTA", now trying to sell us on the scam he now works for the interest of the people? Why is Robert Reich, who oversaw Clinton's deregulation of Wall Street and the crushing of Social Security, now pretending he is a Progressive? Could it be so the plutocrats can continue to have their agents within the system when most of this crashes around our feet? Reich must be hoping Gore Vidal's "Unites States of Amnesia" still applies.
@@Zach-ju5vi it is not about blaming rich people, we are talking here about the 1% insanely rich that pay zero taxes while the rest of us are paying maybe more. enlighten us smart boy ! how does the economy works and tell us why it is okay they shouldn't pay their fair share, or tell us why the people should pay any taxes at all in the first place
We also need to shield the poor and middle class from these laws. The rich dodge them but I sure didn’t, I had to pay capital gains tax when I sold one of my two acres of land to my in-laws so they could build a house. I just needed the money to pay off debt and I still ended up owing a lot extra on my income tax. Now I’m in debt to the IRS and will have a payment plan this year. Sell an asset to get out of debt and end up in debt for my trouble.
It's largely the built-in wealth tax from inflation. You sold two acres of land that were still the same two acres of land that you bought or inherited, yet with the declining purchasing power of the Dollar were worth more in Dollars so you owed capital gains. Gains and interest below the rate of inflation shouldn't be taxed.
@@franklinloll2229 Or the ultra-rich should actually pay their fair share - why shouldn't people with obscene amounts of money earned on the back of the masses, and partially attribute to national architecture/programs pay their fair share? Think of all the societal problems that could be solved if the relative few earning godly amounts paid their fair share - the middle-class sure aren't allowed to dodge taxers/employ tax shelters etc.
As an investment enthusiast, I often wonder how top level investors are able to become millionaires off investing. I do have a significant amount of capital that is required to start up but I have no idea what strategies and direction I need to approach to help me make over $400k like some people are this season.
I believe the safest approach is to diversify investments especially under professional; guide. You can mitigate the effects of a market meltdown by diversifying their investments across different asset classes such as stocks, etfs etc It is important to seek the advice of an expert.
Yeah, financial advisors could make a lot of difference, particularly in a market such as this. Stocks are pretty unstable at the moment, but if you do the right math, you should be just fine. Bloomberg and other finance media have been recording cases of folks gaining over 250k just in a matter of weeks/couple months, so I think there are a lot of wealth transfer in this downtime if you know where to look. I have been using an FA since 2019, and I return at least $121k ROI, and this does not include capital gain.
I'm pleased I found this conversation. If you're comfortable with it, could you share how I can get in touch with the advisor you rely on for your investments?
'Carol Vivian Constable, a highly respected figure in her field. I suggest delving deeper into her credentials, as she possesses extensive experience and serves as a valuable resource for individuals seeking guidance in navigating the financial market.
I finally had it explained in a way that was simple enough for me to get: The strength of the economy depends on how much of the money is being used. If massive piles of money are disappearing into some cartel warehouse or billionaire's bank account and never coming out, that money is removed from the economy, which gets smaller and weaker.
Not only that but those massive piles of money gain interest just by existing. Which means their ability to grow exponentially will continue to take a larger portion of the pie.
@@Zach-ju5vi If we tax companies, we will use it to build the infrastructure to improve logistics and develop talent to make better hires. In 2017, Mnuchin was at a meeting of executives and asked how many would use the (then-potential) tax cuts to invest back in the company or hiring people. Five said yes in a room of hundreds. Most of the money from the corporate tax cuts went to stock buybacks. How is that circulating money? Send the money where it actually gets spent, and the economy will grow.
@@Zach-ju5vi Fixing the infrastructure that is falling apart would be a big start. And, of course, the reflexive complaint about the one organization that has actually helped working people make a better life. The need for affordable housing and the transition to renewable energy are also things that definitely haven't been completely addressed.
I love this man. I love his passion, his kindness and his clarity. I wish that more people heeded his warnings and accepted his ideas. Obviously, trickle down economics hasn’t worked. I’m making about the same as I was when I started working in the early 80’s. And that’s in real dollars not adjusted for inflation. My standard of living has steadily gone down. I have a house (inherited and needing repairs) and a minimum of savings. I expect to have to work until I die and I’m good with money. I was born into the upper middle class but how can you save if you can barely cover regular expenses? Within my lifetime, America’s economic structure has been decimated. And it’s not because people don’t work hard 😓. The people who have so very clearly benefited are the ones who are responsible. The loopholes and special interests must end and they must pay their taxes. We the people deserved it.
What a pile of garbage. Liberals think “working hard” is anyone that works 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week. Yet- sales professionals that often make the highest wages often work 70-100 hours a week - and shocker-they earn a lot more money. You fools that call anyone a “hard worker” are just ignorant as hell.
Even if the IRS were fully funded, I believe that they would need the backing of all 3 branches of federal government to actually go after the rich to make them pay their fair share. As it is they Target low hanging fruit by going after the poor who may done the earned income credit incorrectly when they filed doing their own taxes because they couldn't afford professional to do it for them
They're going to double down on going after the poor with the new right wing conservative Democrats ( aka moderates) created tax law in back back better. Up until now any income from ebay sales under 20,000 Dollars wasn't reported,the new law has Ebay with PayPal and your bank report all payments deposited in your account anyone with over $600 will now get a 1099 form .
The IRS *does* target those of us at the bottom. Do you know why? Simple economics. They do not have the resources to fight the army of lawyers the wealthy can hire, but they know that you and I are on our own and cannot afford a protracted battle over a few quid. So they would need a MASSIVE budgetary increase and, as you said, full governmental support to take that task on... effectively we all have to decide "this is happening or none of you are going to live through the end of the year" and then force our government to do it. If they were sure we'd revolt if it didn't get done I am pretty sure it would get done... yeah money is nice, but what you gonna do about 50 million people willing to die to make you pay your share? You can't jail them. You can't kill them all (for every 1 you killed 2 more would spring up in righteous fury over it). Basically at the end of the day it's on us to fix this.
@@TheActionBastard Ideally that would be a great solution. Unfortunately, there are too many ppl who are afraid to push for change. Ppl on the streets and minimum wage earners are busy just trying to survive, while others are too scared of losing what little they have. They're told it's immigrants or the homeless or any number of minorities that are "spoiling" it for them. Instead of educating themselves, they believe the propaganda of the ultra wealthy that flows through corporate and right wing media. Not to mention the power of religious institutions who's millions of members are living in an alternate universe. It's maddening. How do we get through to all those ppl who think they already have the answers?
Just watched your other video "what if we actually taxed the rich" and this one is just as clearly put. Thanks for doing amazing work that is easy to understand and shareable. Very articulate.
I don't mind these big wigs amounting such wealth, but when they affect (or rig) the system and screw the working class in multiple ways, something's gotta give. People working in the essential medical field such as EMT shouldn't have to make a second income to pay their bills. They're the frontlines of saving lives. Then again, the medical field here in US shouldn't be a private sector to begin with, again going full circle on these big wigs.
it is not about whether it bothers you or not people getting insanely rich or not, it is about paying back to the society their fair share !! after all, they benefited from the services offered by the society and should pay their fair share taxes. What bothers me people that keep licking their boot and a $ $ hoping one day they become themselves in their place. pathetic
Those giant balls of money always affect the system they're in. Especially in a system where elected officials have to spend so much time looking for donations to fund their next campaign. And the grotesque wealth inequality only happened *because* the working classes were being squeezed for every penny they're worth and more. You have done the equivalent of saying "I don't mind rain unless things get wet".
It’s a matter of balance. Between the political duopoly greedy for donations and the ultra rich greedy for their addiction, our nation and our world have gone way out of balance. It can either destroy the engine or it can be brought back to balance. There are zero tolerances left in this human machine. Especially considering the CO2 problem. The piper is owed!
@@edarcuri182 A real Farmer would know that Farms are exempt - because; something about "growing food" sounded important. You're not criticizing Farmers, are you?
@@youtubesucks1499 Indeed they are. Learn more, THEN Comment. No one will look after a simpleton who is unwilling to learn. You'll just be an angry victim, lashing out. "Different" than now?
'No man can serve 2 masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.' Mathew 6.24 Thanks again Robert Reich!
I wish Professor Reich would also focus on how wealth inequality is a damper on the economy. Imbalances and stratification create fetters in the consumer economy, production, research etc. that are driven by an aspiring middle class. Economic oligarchy starts eroding it’s own source of wealth and power as the middle class becomes poor, less educated and unable to drive a robust culture and its economy. Collapse will ensue.
Hallelujah! A commenter that still remembers the lessons of the Great Depression. Inverting your insight also implies that social wealth can be created by ending poverty, too.
Talk about a damper on the economy . . . . . . . . Here are some facts for you, taken straight from the Federal Reserve. Ever since the final business quarter of 1980, the sum total of financial assets (from which IRA's and 401k's are derived), has been greater than our GDP. This happened because Congress gutted company funded pensions in 1974. At the end of 1980, the sum total financial assets was half a trillion more than our GDP. By 1990 that gap was enlarged to $6.9 trillion. By the year 2000 the gap had widened further to $21.2 trillion. Today that gap is $93.684 trillion or 4.8 times the size of our GDP. Today the gap has widened so far that extraction from the population is simply not enough to fuel a 12% annual growth rate, so the government is now being looted. The money to grow IRA's and 401k's is stolen, not earned. What gives anyone the right to take money they have not earned? Also, what happens when there is no more loot to steal? Now when I say "looting" and "stolen", this is all legal and on the up and up, because the wealthy paid for the politicians who made it all legal. If we are supposed to live in the "land of the free", why are these few people able to literally strip us of our freedom through legalized theft?
If we continue this route, we are going to end up living like many developing countries where a few have money and the majority struggle to support themselves.
Professor, why don’t you ever mention that the Fed’s Quantitative Easing policies (that is, maintaining ultra-low interest rates) have been transferring wealth from the Bottom 90 Percent to the Top 10 Percent for the past 13 years? As interest rates fall toward zero, the present value of future cash flows increases, which increases the value of the underlying asset (e.g., stock; real estate). At the same time, savers earn little interest income on their savings.
Savers are also rich. The claim that low interest rates intrinsically worsens inequality without looking at the fiscal expenditure side is highly dubious.
@@MicahErfan Absolutely, all of those 401Ks and IRA are benefiting from the stock market growth. The only ones who miss out, don't fund these accounts. The individual is the cause of lack of wealth generation is because of their spending habits and lack of thinking about their future.
@@gibblespascack1418 - Wrong. The individuals cause of lack of wealth generation is that the money used to grow those IRS's and 401k's is extracted from from the society in the form of increased costs year over year, with the money from the extraction going to those who have not actually earned that wealth. Blaming the individual is a con job. Over half of the 2020 GDP went to grow the value of financial assets. Compounded interest is wealth extraction, not wealth creation.
@@coolmodelguy Your reason that an IRA or 401k does not grow is because the company makes a profit on the goods sold or are you saying that it is the manpower/raw materials costs? Ok, so the profits go to the company(after paying those expenses), which pays the investors in that company The investors in those companies are the people who own the stock and for public companies, the largest shareholders are the IRAs and 401K funds. So if you have that IRA or 401K and invest in mutual funds, you account grows with the rest of the market. For my S&P fund, that growth rate has been ~12% for the past 30 years. Again, the lack of funding your investment account is the primary reason that people are not generating wealth. People like you spend everything that they earn, no matter how much they earn. That goes for people in the heartland and also people in NYCX who earn over $175K per year. No amount of income is enough when there is no control of spending. If you don't like the companies who are making profits selling you things, don't buy the stuff. And don't even suggest that 401K and IRA management fees(1%) are eating up the ~12% fund growth in the S&P500 mutual funds. That is just stupid.
What Roosevelt accomplished was vital and extremely impressive considering the power of the opposition he had to overcome How can today’s Americans hope for anything remotely similar in this moment, when the power of wealthy opposition has increased so dramatically, and corporate media has indoctrinated millions of low income Americans to fight ferociously for the perpetuation of their own oppression, professor ?
A lot did it by making it racial based. "How dare those "poor" people demand socialist programs. That means my taxes will go up. I do not want to pay for another person's healthcare" By perpetuating racial and class warfare they are able to keep taxes low by manipulating the population into believing that they would suffer from tax increases. The Filibusters also helps reaffirm minority by making it difficult to pass meaningful bills because you have to get 60 senators to agree and that's nearly impossible. But there is a solution and that is the midterms. Americans have to increase the threshold by three to make Manchin and Simena's veto power pointless and then that would allow Biden to pass bills, making Americans especially those who aren't politically suave to see actual results and those actual results will being people over.
Grow the pie, grow the pie! We've grown the pie enormously over the years, and productivity is the highest it has ever been. We have 100 people who help make the pie & 100 very large pieces of pie. The first guy walks in & takes 90 slices. The next guy takes 9 slices. They are not job creators, they're just stock or bond holders. The rest is just crumbs for the remaining 98 people. Within such a system, no matter how big you grow the pie, it won't work. The math doesn't work.
You know how Wealth inequality has spiraled out of control? Bailouts, trade restrictions, IP laws, regulations that get rid of competition, Zoning laws, drug laws, certificate of needs, etc. Why don't you go after these things that would have the MOST impact on people's lives?
uhhh probabl cuz they offer large pots of gold to folks who know how to take advantage i.e. payroll protection which alost 75 percent stayed with the employer and not 'doled' out to employees!!!!
Sec. Reich, I had no idea you had a TH-cam channel. I applaud your efforts to find everyday Americans where they are, using media they consume, to inform and educate people about important issues. This is how change starts, because we need more than news junkies/political scientists/economists to build momentum at a grassroots level.
Also because the media is owned and run by powerful wealthy people or families and are corporations too they push against this stuff because it runs against the rigged tax system that greatly benefits them. FOX is laughable when they push against it, but you get it with media that supposedly is considered "liberal" too.
I understand where Mr. Riech is coming from. But I am a Stoic so I ask myself: Have I made decisions and taken actions that reduced my wealrh, reduced my potential? The answer is: YES.... So how can I hold others responsible for my actions or non-actions?
This is sound information and it infuriates me that my value as a wage earner decreases every year to the point where I am always working two or three jobs and looking for other ways to earn money. Unfortunately, the wealthy apologists who are among us believe that the wealthy pay more than their fair share. It’s going to take real starvation with a side order of cannibalism before they get it.
He just gave us the blueprint to attaining wealth as long as you control your expenditures. The only thing you don’t control is taxes. Which is what he is advocating for more of. Sure he says tax the wealthy but crap never rolls uphill.
The wealthy are already taxed. In 2020, the top 1 percent of earners (with incomes over $548,336) paid nearly 42 percent of all income taxes. The amount of income taxes paid in this percentile is nearly twice as much as their AGI share. Source: National Taxpayers Union: Who pays income tax? Their figures are straight from the IRS publicly released data.
Here's the thing. We used to have much higher taxes as most countries do. Then Reagan started selling people on tax cuts for the rich helping everyone and what happened? Ever since that period of time wages have fallen further and further away from inflation. So cutting taxes has simply helped the rich keep more of their money. It's not hard to find examples of countries with higher taxes, more equality and a higher quality of life.
Reagan wasn’t president in 1978, which is when Robert said this started. Jimmy Carter was president. That’s why Reagan was able to beat Carter so easily in 1980.
@@RobinHerzig neoliberals are more moderate than Carter. Carter had a 70% tax rate. There’s nothing moderate about that. That’s what the progressive caucus is calling for today.
I am a self-published author. I sold $100 worth of books in 2021. Amazon 1099's authors and I neglected to include this in my filing and the IRS flagged me for not including the 1099, for $100 which is not required because it is under the required amount.
we need a separation of industry and state. stop letting corporations make the law or fund politics. and just get rid of lobbyists all together. sure, it'd mean we couldn't tax companies, but it's not like they're paying taxes now. this way, they wouldn't get representation.. and the only thing the govt. would have left to represent is (gasp) the citizens.
The Netherlands, I heard, has a clever way of closing the loopholes even for wealth that's held by their citizens regardless of where it's located. To me, this would make more sense than a wealth tax. The "Money and Macro" channel talks about it.
When during the Trump administration the 1/5th of wage earners had their incomes rise the fastest of all groups. That was the first time that had happened since the George W Bush administration. Because both Trump and W. used Kennedy's theory of using lower taxes, less immigration, deregulation, and smaller government to tighten up the labor market. Which raises wages, allows mobility, allows for advancement, and gives people dignity. Compare that to the Democrat policies of using high taxes, over regulation, open immigration, and big government to put permanent slack into the labor market. Which drives down wages and drives up housing prices at the same time, to the point tens of millions of people don't have any money left over at the end of the month. And it's the low wages at the bottom that allows the excesses at the top, causing the wealth gap. Raising the bottom 1/5th of wage earners wealth relative to everyone else is something liberals will never be able to do because of their policies. If Reich actually cared about working class people, Reich would be a Kennedy Reagan conservative.
So s Susan , You enjoy being s tool? So splain it to me Puddin' What have the Gimmedats done that makes you think they give a rip about 'regular folks?
Work harder. No one is holding you down but yourself. And try working for welfare - you will get sick to your stomach watching the poor who do nothing get big fat checks.
Taxing someone with slightly more than $1mln dollars isn't taxing the wealthy, that could be taxing someone who has worked hard all their life and contributed to their pensions. It would have to start at higher level than that.
Generally taxes are talked about as a portion of yearly income. So someone making a million dollars a year is absolutely wealthy. I've yet to see anyone talk about taxing people on wealth unless we're talking about billionaires.
One key element you left out, international growth has caused much of the u.s. wealth gap increase. In 1965, only 5% of the U.S. stock market was owned by foreigners, now its 40%. That drives up the overall wealth of ANYONE in the stock market, including workers with pensions. Source: Federal Reserve Board report called “financial accounts of the United States”. In addition, way more of our entrepreneurs have been able to export, making them even richer.
'The Past and Future of WORK' by 'Some More News' and the follow-up video about Unions are a Must-Watch for Worker-Class, especially Americans. Stop Getting Used. Start watching 'Second Thought', starting with his videos 'America Compared' and such.
I have wealth. I earned below average wages my entire working life. I knew I couldn't afford to waste a thing if I didn't want to exist as a wage slave ending up with nothing. So I hung on to every bit of money I could. I started by eroding my debts and then channelled as much as I could into assets. Forty years later I've escaped. My time is now 100% my own. Liberation.
I did the same. Did not blow it. Saved it. Invested it. Worked my way up, saving and investing all the way. Take a page from the rich. Most of them were once poor.
@@Dead_Guy_Bob they told me to planet would be uninhabitable by the year 2010 when I was a child in school. Believe what they tell you at your own risk.
Flat tax, 20%, businesses, people (below poverty line and retired exempt)... No loopholes, no exemptions, no depreciation, no credits, no contributions of any kind - take all that stuff out of the income/profit tax system! I'm tired of supplementing someone else's solar panels, or paying for their religion, or their favorite charity...charity means giving, not getting refunds from WE THE PEOPLE! If there isn't enough people caring for a cause without tax write off attachment, it wasn't worth having!!! That's equal, fair, and Governments should be able to balance budgets and pay off the deficit, and stop rIsing spending ceilings (deficit spending, deeper in debt). Money goes to one pot, Fed, State, and local governments figure out how to split and spend...with less IRS agents needed too...one page tax returns, no special and complicated schedules, etc needed! Only refunds, for those who over paid!!! KISS - KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID!
Thank you Mr. Reich for the clear and concise description of this often misunderstood issue. Yourself and Bernie Sanders are two of the best political advocates the working class have. Keep up the good work!
Incorrect. reich and the rest of the "progressives" seek power by creating resentment. Think it through and tell me how much of the economy should government take? Do you know how much it already take?!
Regan economics started the .MISSERY AND REAL POVERTY IN THE USA. The homeless can thank REGONOMICS for being hoples today. THE TRUTH SCARES THE S_ _ T out of people like you. ROBERT AND BERNIE Realy scare you. We the reasonable people will keep listening to superior minds, we will not give up the fight against the OLIGARCS OR DICTATORS WANABE LIKE TRUMP. THE FIGHT IS ON.
You have done a great job explaining what has happened but I am surprised you do not explain what is underlies all this. A money system and government bailouts that always favor the most wealthy. I hope you will read "Broken Money" by Lynn Alden.
This is an impressive video! Thanks Uncle Bob for educating the public and raising our collective public financial intelligence needed to hopefully alter the course of the nation’s democratic experiment.
I've just recently discovered this channel. I'm going to subscribe because I find these short educational videos are great for helping me to explain things more succinctly!
When during the Trump administration the 1/5th of wage earners had their incomes rise the fastest of all groups. That was the first time that had happened since the George W Bush administration. Because both Trump and W. used Kennedy's theory of using lower taxes, less immigration, deregulation, and smaller government to tighten up the labor market. Which raises wages, allows mobility, allows for advancement, and gives people dignity. Compare that to the Democrat policies of using high taxes, over regulation, open immigration, and big government to put permanent slack into the labor market. Which drives down wages and drives up housing prices at the same time, to the point tens of millions of people don't have any money left over at the end of the month. And it's the low wages at the bottom that allows the excesses at the top, causing the wealth gap. Raising the bottom 1/5th of wage earners wealth relative to everyone else is something liberals will never be able to do because of their policies. If Reich actually cared about working class people, Reich would be a Kennedy Reagan conservative.
Hi Professor, Have you interviewed and had a discussion about this with professor Richard Wolff from democracy at work? Would love to hear your thoughts on the stuff he talks about. Thanks.
They've debated capitalism - Reich believes in it, Wolff wants it to go away... They agree on quite a lot and have referenced each other on the internet; Reich believes: with strong regulation, Capitalism can work for everyone. Wolff believes that Capitalism's problems are inherent in its structure, so 'saving' it is a fool's errand.
I think a wealth tax system to be introduced in USA, wherein the wealthiest 1% people to pay 20% of their wealth as "Balancing tax". It shall then be used to provide fees to poor students, free food to poor people, free medical care to poor people, etc.
I agree, but we have ot be carefull. If we tax them too much they will leave the country loosing us all that income and putting us behind the rest of the world economicaly.
I've long said that the one difference between people who have money and those who don't (I'm not talking about a lot of $$$, but people that can come up with money in an needed emergency) is........... delayed gratification
Thank you for being a true steward in your realm. I became a fan of yours in B school about 10 years ago. I'm praying for all the suggestions you laid out to come to fruition. I am below the below the poverty line and it is a good motivation for me to be politically informed. I am amazed by those willfully choose not too or place their votes to populists that are blatantly working against the interest of the common good. Is there still one? Thank you from a recovering M.B.A.
Well Bernie & his movement of fellow Progressives like the Squad, Sen, Dick Durbin, Jeff Merkley to name some (even Warren though she isn't part of that group) have long been calling for this stuff but , yeah he is smeared in the media by many - so happy when he ran for the POTUS nomination (though I knew he wouldn't get it) because he put the spotlight and still does on this stuff. I love the effort by Robert too.
I remember how They said we couldn't raise the minimum wage to a more-than-the-basics-livable wage because it would raise the prices on everything... who then went on to raise the prices on everything anyway.
I am a college drop out. I did manual labor for 45 years. I drove beat up pickup trucks until they had no value. I gave up tobacco, alcohol, and partying. I stayed with my first wife and planned my family. With money I saved, I bought real estate and stocks. My wife and I are now worth over 6 million. He left out the fact that in our society, wealth is a choice between working hard and saving or pissing your money away.
We are roughly in the same boat. Wealth is not a zero sum game, it's transitory. The system is in fact rigged, but the rig is to help us build wealth! Live conservatively, max out ROTH's, buy property, and a few decades later, you can to be wealthy.
So suffer for your whole life until you are so old you can’t use your wealth in a beneficial manner. No thanks. I’d like to have a nice quality of life while I can still get out of bed in the morning without throwing my back out.
@@sunfeatherX3 Either way you'll be old.. You can either be old with wealth or old and poor. Take care of your health, and you'll be wealthy with health. The choice is yours.
@@sunfeatherX3 Thank you for your reply. I am an athlete (surf, run very long distance) and a grandpaw. My back is fine. I have always thought hard work makes you stronger, it is not a punishment or makes you suffer.
@@ronaldreagan-ik6hz Freedom is great but it has to come with the obligation to give everyone a fair go, otherwise it's not really freedom but just ruthless exploitation of the vulnerable. So we need fair wages and decent working conditions for everyone - not just the rich.
@@tracesprite6078 you think rich people get rich on accident? No. They outwork most people. Some of the highest paid workers are 100% commission sales people. Do you think they care about minimum wages? No, because the get nothing unless they sell something. Stop playing the victimhood game. Liberals always think government is the answer. It’s not.
@@tracesprite6078 by the way. Explain to me how wage exploitation works in a voluntary labor market that rewards MERIT ABOVE ALL. yeah. Explain that one.
Still not sure why the word “inequality” is so consistently used over the more descriptive “inequity”. In any case, the good description of some of the surface level inequities is totally derailed by the final couple of minutes of wealth fetishist misdirection of potential remedies. Revenue focused tax measures are essentially self defeating, they never earn what was projected and the failure to do so endangers the political viability of the projects they are tied to, like lead balloons. Ambitious projects are not financed by tax returns, they are enabled by the agency of those implementing them and financed by the social recognition of what is worthwhile. If all else fails parliament can finance anything it wants to with a majority vote. As to dealing with the inequity of extreme wealth, start by banning political propaganda campaigns and the political corruption that finances them. Tax the wealthy because they are doing a bad job of stewarding the resources they command, some sort of progressive deeming tax, similar to the regressive deeming taxes on welfare recipients. The more you have, the higher rate you are expected to earn. My favourite would be a ”normalisation“ tax that simply transferred income and wealth until both were “normally” distributed as you would expect from a “fair” system. Exceptional people still earn exceptional incomes, but they lose the windfall profits provided by the unfairness in the system.
Unwittingly or intentionally Reich is looking out for the people at the top. When during the Trump administration the 1/5th of wage earners had their incomes rise the fastest of all groups. That was the first time that had happened since the George W Bush administration. Because both Trump and W. used Kennedy's theory of using lower taxes, less immigration, deregulation, and smaller government to tighten up the labor market. Which raises wages, allows mobility, allows for advancement, and gives people dignity. Compare that to the Democrat policies of using high taxes, over regulation, open immigration, and big government to put permanent slack into the labor market. Which drives down wages and drives up housing prices at the same time, to the point tens of millions of people don't have any money left over at the end of the month. And it's the low wages at the bottom that allows the excesses at the top, causing the wealth gap. Raising the bottom 1/5th of wage earners wealth relative to everyone else is something liberals will never be able to do because of their policies. If Reich actually cared about working class people, Reich would be a Kennedy Reagan conservative.
Great Video. I just sold a property in Portland and I'm thinking to put the cash in stocks, I know everyone is saying its ripe enough, but Is this a good time to buy stocks? How long until a full recovery? How are other people in the same market raking in over $450k gains within months, I'm really just confused at this point.
Even with the right strategy and resources, some investors would still outperform others. As an investor, you should be aware of this by now. For me personally, I had to ask a market analyst for advice in order to grow my account close to a million dollars, withdraw my profit just before the correction, and start buying again.
'Laurelyn Gross Pohlmeier' is the licensed advisor I use. Just research the name. You’d find necessary details to work with a correspondence to set up an appointment.
The stock market can be very risky. I would suggest that you do your research thoroughly before investing. I'm not saying don't invest just do your research first.
If you're new to investing, find a nice balanced ETF or managed fund. Nobody makes those huge gains without taking massive risks. Take care out there, many investment houses are scammers.
Imagine working all your life to save up a couple of million for retirement. You will be on a fixed income of 4% of the principle or 80,000 per year.Above average income, yes. Rich? No. At least not in Chicago, LA or a host of other cities. And Mr Reich proposes taking 1/2 of that , i .e. 2% for tax. When you frame this by talking about Elon Musk it sounds so good. But what about ordinary people? 80k a year is hardly rich. This is why I don't favor the proposed tax on the unrealized gains of billionaires. Such a tax will quickly work its way down to people holding 1 or 2 million in their retirement accounts.
I like how he constantly drops Jeff's and Elon's name, but hardly mentions the politically rich class of people that have have had money and power for generations. While Jeff and Elon have increased the technology and production of the world, all those rich politicians do is try to control our money.
@@zdog3588 Yes but when he dropped names it was never the liberal rich names, always self-made men. The dynastic wealth problem occurs when the rich person dies, Jeff and Elon are not dead.
@@markintexas1296 First of all, there is no such thing as “self-made” men. Second, I can’t believe you just called Musk one. He comes from a wealthy family that got rich from owning a gem mine in an apartheid state. That’s one privilege (generational wealth), tripping over another (being white South African) to set him up were he is. He also didn’t invent shit, what he did was sue a company he funded for the rights to be considered a “founder”.
@@Zach-ju5vi Only according to the corporate media. Which unilaterally gave treasonous Reagan that title because he made corporate propaganda more powerful and the economic elite more wealthy.
@@Zach-ju5vi To the oligarchs perhaps, but he did more lasting damage to America than any president. He's no hero in spite of all the revisionist history that you apparently swallowed.
Robert, all you have to do is drop an ‘e’ and you’ll be Rich! Womp womp… In all seriousness, this was very effectively explained presentation. One other solution that I would propose is to create a tax on those who gain wealth based on something that is negatively affecting climate change. Of course, there are deniers that such things exist, so this would be the biggest hurdle, and it would have to be something very specific like gaining (not necessarily inheriting) wealth from fossil-fuel profits.
Humanity is seriously failing as a sentient species. We really need help from some more advanced sentient species in the Galaxy to come & take over Earth and/or provide guidance on how to survive & advance by restoring balance economically, environmentally, & politically. Otherwise, humanity MAY struggle through with major death & suffering, or suffer global destruction, either complete or partial, leaving humanity in a far worse more primitive state.
Well, yes and no. While it would be great to have a savior come in to save the day, we should not let that dream push aside the fact that we also need to put in effort to change. It's like trying to lose weight - if you have a trainer but don't yourself put in effort to make long term changes, the trainer really can only do so much and as soon as the trainer isn't there, you return to what you were before.
@@PhotonBeast I agree, but looking at how the world is still barely doing anything about climate change, and military budgets are increasing dramatically in several major nations, it is the systems themselves that we have established globally that have become runaway threats in themselves that I don't believe we may necessarily regain true control over again without greater outside assistance. Like I said, we MAY regain control & reestablish a sustainable equilibrium, but it will likely involve much more time, death, and suffering globally, whereas a more advanced sentient species will almost certainly have experience with the problems we have now, & would be able to provide or implement more efficient means to solve them, avoiding much of the suffering. In fact there is likely a very common set of problems any evolved sentient species will face on their planet, & there may be a form of best practices galactically, & likely universally, that lead to the best outcomes.
Prof. Yuval Noah Harari says that AI or human genome manipulation may soon do exactly that--hopefully for better, but possibly for much worse (at least for us Human 1.0 models).
It’s nice that Robert Reich has been spending the last decade or so teaching us about the wealth inequality he help to create while he was advising presidents who sent American jobs to Mexico with NAFTA.
Under trump low income workers pay rose as a percentage faster than anyone elses low interest rates low inflation low unemployment lower illegal immegration what did you not like about these things
Robert your seminar style posts are excellent. The one thing that needs to be touched on is personal responsibility. I made roughly the same as my co workers over 30 years. We own 2 homes and have a total worth of 2.5 million dollars while having less than 150000 in mortgage debt. My friend and co worker with the same income owns 1 homes they’ve refinanced at least twice and with a total wealth of 1 million dollars with 400000 in mortgage debt. They go on 4 expensive vacations a year as well as buying cars every few years and every toy imaginable. And he can’t understand how we have what we have. Choices and priorities I tell him, that’s all
All the personal responsibility in the world won’t help someone who earns less than $100,000 a year buy a starter home selling for a million dollars. Housing is the best way to build wealth and now that is out of reach for the younger generations. Now with skyrocketing inflation, no job security and outrageous healthcare costs, even if someone could come up with a down payment for a starter home, there is the chance they could lose their job and still lose their home. Or an unforeseen illness or accident could wipe someone out. Yes, personal responsibility is a must for any adult, but bad things do happen to the responsible.
@@ronaldreagan-ik6hz agreed. He preaches socialism while living a comfortable lifestyle brought to him by capitalism. He is brilliant though if dishonest
@@akiram6609 read the book “everyday millionaire” or “the millionaire next door”. You will realize that the average millionaire is everyday people that live very responsible lives. And they don’t have a victim mentality- like Robert Reich dishonesty sells in his pathetic speeches
I hate the lesson here on Capital Gains for estate because the money used to purchase those assets were bought with after tax dollars. Imagine being taxed and barely having enough left to buy a house and you can't leave it to your kids because the government is going to tax the asset when you sign it over to your children. Taxing a man's inheritance is just morally wrong, especially when considering everything was purchased with money that has already been taxed.
wealth inequality is actually well under control, its just that its under the control of the people who have all the wealth
Good one! They wouldn’t have any other way.
a normal guy could avoid paying taxes
@@klachingmacgaming8400 but *should* they
@@platypodesrock9221 I think yes. I'm not sure when taxes became more about social engineering than funding shared and necessary services like roads, utilities, fire dept. etc. but it was somewhere before we had thousands of pages of tax code.
Now, you get tax breaks for doing what the government wants you to do. Easiest example is real estate: They want housing, so they give huge tax incentives to rental properties.
Therefore, if you pay nothing in taxes, it means you're doing what your government is asking of you, so isn't that patriotic? Notice I'm not saying it's fair, just reality.
@@PhoenixCrown that is actually stupid and untrue most of the times people pay no taxes it **requires** tax evasion. Also that’s untrue because income tax , Vat, school taxes etc etc cannot be avoided even if you “do what your government wants . FYI tax evasion is immoral unless you live under an unimaginably corrupt government like literal nazis
Please do a video about how our representatives in Congress vote against their constituents’ best interests about 70% of the time (because…money). Thx!
@@Jack-Shat Correct, when it became a career, civil servant died! What can we expect, they have the power to vote themselves a raise. Examine their salaries, U. S. Senators and House Representatives, $174,000. Majority leader and minority leader of the Senate, $193,400. Majority leader and minority leader of The House Of Representatives, $193,400. The Speaker of the House, $223,500, who do they represent?
@@mattja52 You're missing the forest from the trees here.
It's not about the salary they're paid, it's the campaign contributions, insider trading, and kickbacks that total many times what they paid with the added bonus of a career in lobbying and being a ‘consultant’ after they leave.
How on earth could you expect someone who wins a popularity contest to represent you or make choices you like? Democracy is absurd
@@individualisttv9247 It's why our founding fathers were against it, at least universal suffrage.
@@Lobsterwithinternet first of all “we” do not have founding fathers. There is no “our” as we own nothing jointly. Second of all, these people who came up with this system very much believed in the constitutional system… because they were the ones who imposed it on the populace.
As a UK citizen, this is why I get so damn annoyed when wealthy, retired Boomers - with their cast-iron pensions guaranteed for them by promises made decades ago, their free healthcare, free bus passes, annual heating allowance whether they need it or not, and their properties with mortgages all paid off because *they* bought *their* houses when it was easy and affordable to do so - accuse the younger generations of "spending all their money on stupid things and not saving for the future, like *we* did." YOU DID BECAUSE YOU COULD; your working years were the most secure and financially beneficial in modern history. Your wages kept pace with inflation, property prices were reasonable, you had the benefits of a well-funded National Health Service AND statutory pension scheme, AND most of the public services, like the railways, telephone and utility companies, were all nationalised, so there were no shareholders behind the scenes determined to make a huge, fat profit off those public services. If you'd had to live YOUR working years the way the majority of the younger generations do now, you'd most likely have saved even less than us.
I'm not even in the UK and see this problem here in the US too. There is even a few colleges allowing seniors to go to college for 10 dollars per class. This is ridiculous
@@cheesybits834 Can any Senior Citizen do this or only the wealthy? Do you know which colleges?
It is worst in the USA. To be totally honest, you guys millennials are just fucked by the system. I am wealthy, by any standard, very wealthy. But I have two daughters who just started working in NYC. Good, decent jobs, earning between 65K and 125K (approximately). With the current housing prices and living expenses, it would be impossible for them to have decent lives in NYC. And they do not have Student Loan!
"Wealth inequality exists because people don't work hard enough" - average Boomer
@@aquienpuedainteresar4188 Some colleges give free or reduced tuition to seniors. IN those cases, it's not divided by income, just age. It's mostly a PR move. Seniors pursuing education aren't looking to make moves in their careers, they are mostly just looking for something to take up time in retirement.
It's not about stopping people from obtaining wealth, it's about putting a limit on greed.
Exactly. I don't care how much money someone has. If they have employees and all of those employees are paid a wage that allows them to live a comfortable life it's all good.
Fabulous way of putting it. And I agree with your other replier. It made me furious when Bezos thanked his workers when he returned from his first space trip, bearing in mind his workers' pay and conditions.
Perfect response. Short and precise.
@jopinscott1777 ⭐️
a limit enforced by who?
@@seer775 taxes 🤷🏻.
I'd be all for a zero corporate tax rate if you can PROVE every single employee you have on payroll is paid a living wage based on a 30 minute circle around the place of business.
Those people will pay taxes as will the investors paying taxes on dividends and capital gains.
the IRS came after me because I forgot to include a $185 payment I received when I file my taxes. the IRS does nothing to go after the millionaires and billionaires evading their taxes. fair system I say in America.
One of the problems as I understand it is that the large corporations and multi-billionaires have accountants that far outnumber and outgun the IRS. The IRS doesn't stand a chance against them. The IRS needs to be fully funded to get what is due the American public. Of course the government is controlled by wealthy people so why would they want to increase the irs's budget?
Same thing happened to us. Only they waited 5 yrs to notify us. We had sent a money order. By the time they told us they didn't get the $97 payment it had 5 yrs of interest and penalties on it. Was over $500
The IRS work for them, not you,
its cause they know you cant fight back.
IRS doesn’t have the manpower to go after the wealthy because our government hasn’t made taxing the rich a priority since the 1960s
Making economics clear and simple to non-economists is some saintly work.
I’m sure it’s been said many times in the comments for your channel but RR, you’re my hero.
True !! Hispanic power
Reich is a lawyer, not an economist
@@Zach-ju5vi help me understand
@@juliosanchez4036 The person you're replying to doesn't like what he has to say, so instead of engaging the material, just says a bunch of stuff in the hopes that it will stick, completely missing the point that it helps the algorithm to get the message out to more people.
except he doesn't tell the truth
"Second Gilded Age." Finally, someone said it out loud!
To be clear, the term is "Gilded," meaning, covered in gold. A "Guilded" age, meaning one dominated with guilds, would be like the mid twentieth century, when Unions, which are very like guilds, opposed the bigwigs and helped to keep income and wealth a bit closer together.
@@briansmith8898 Oops, typo. Yes, the term is "Gilded Age".
Hey Rob, will you run for president? We need a second Teddy Roosevelt to break up these corps up again!
@@briansmith8898 Stop Getting Used. Start watching 'Second Thought', starting with his videos 'America Compared' and such.
I think it starts by banning politicians from taking any money from a person or a business/corporation. This includes their campaigns. Their campaigns should only be funded by those people who wish to donate during their tax filings. When on your tax form it asks if you want to donate to a political party.
usa has made corporations have the same rights as humans, thanks supreme court!
Here's a thought from college (long ago), how about our tax dollars pay for elections? Everyone would get the same amount and no dark money.
Any politician that gets into office and is worth tens of millions when they leave is a gd criminal
Imagine, it's that easy, and it serves the people. But it's not being done. Why? No democracy.
@@kandiekane. Terminate lobbying unless it is funded by many grass-roots small donations.
"Wealth inequality is eating this country alive." - Couldn't agree more.
Robert Reich has a net worth of $5 million dollars, as of 2021! Yet here he is crying about income inequity The median American retiree has a portfolio of about $225,000. Reich is worth over 20 times that. IRONY! Wake up kids, this guy is so full of ssh*t his eyes are brown and he produces NOTHING!
@@1Skeptik1 He produced your hissy fit. Cause you a simp for your economic masters.
@@Zach-ju5vi You only think it's brainwashing because you are an idiot. Go back to the Prager U cesspit you came from.
carlin was right - " its the american dream because you have to be asleep to believe in it "
amc gme too the moon
"In a few generations almost all America's wealth could be in the hands of a few thousand families."
That one hit me hard 😶
Never happen.
@@jwil4905 hah, please sir please tell why?
Wait, no no, I know is it because some of those families are responsible for catastrophic destruction of the biosphere, so it'll be the post-apocalypse? Just guessing ...
@@robertsmith-williams5255 You're clearly not educated enough to understand how capitalism works, so explaining to you will be pointless.
@@jwil4905 So are you saying capitalism is working or what?
@@jwil4905 "clearly"? Interesting. I want to know why *you* think it won't happen, please help me grow my mind, fine sir.
While you do that I'll hide my Adams, Picketty, Friedman, Sen, Malthus actually the whole shelf and that pesky BEc. This is an RR vid who do think watches these, haha, you.
"If a man has an apartment stacked to the ceiling with newspapers, we call him crazy. If a woman has a trailer house full of cats, we call her nuts. But when people pathologically hoard so much cash that they impoverish the entire nation, we put them on the cover of Fortune magazine and pretend that they are role models."
~ Lester B. Pearson
And then we increasingly "subsidize" THEM, while denying any real assistance for the "crazies!!!"
This is the mantra for our dysfunctional society...
(Thanks for sharing)
@Do no harm Sense?? Well put down your smart phone because a rich guy invented it. Park your Tesla or turn off your computer because a rich guy invented it. As usual you cry about a problem you made. We put Kardasiens and other do nothing, make nothing people of way more covers.
@@markintexas1296 Untrue and untrue. We don’t have billionaires to thank for these inventions, we have either well meaning folks trying to do good in the world or the government. The most technological advance of the modern-era, indeed the very technology that allows the smart phone to be smart, internet, was invented by the government. Also, please stop with the idea that just cause someone invents something of value that gives them permission to exploit the masses. The true value of any company is the people that work for it. Without them there wouldn’t be products to buy.
‘Hoarding cash’ has never impoverished an entire nation, or even another person.
@@mikehaynes1769 It does. When you pay politician to create policies that allow you to keep more Money and therefore give less back to the community, you are hoarding cash and creating damage to the whole society.
it did not spiral "out of control." The OWNERS are in FULL CONTROL.
We put up with way too much. Almost like the whole of the populace is in an abusive relationship and cant stand up for themselves.
It is that exactly that, except we can stand up for our greater Self, one way or another…
@Alpha Omega They worship them because they all believe they can be like them, when history has shown that will never happen
In the 80s a great book called WHEN SOCIETY BECOMES AN ADDICT ...Ann Wilson Schaef....talks about the White Male Dominance of Society, using the Fear of Not Hsving Enough to justify yhings. ETC. CODEPENDCY rates were predicted to be in the high 90s THEN!!
@@phriedokra6158 I remember her name from the movement for self realization back then. Sure is obvious now, the money addiction. So befuddled in their disease they can’t even mount a decent reaction to climate change, which by the way was an issue even then…
@Alpha Omega keep them hungry and they’ll be grateful for bread crumbs
This is how I've always put it when talking about the rich actually paying their fair share in taxes. It's nothing to them, but _everything_ to us. Their lives will not change in any fundamental way, but it will enable our society to do what it is supposed to do and actually support real people.
@Alpha Omega the ultra rich donors class of people who buy and sell the politicans are the ones profiting from buying their way to get control over the average American workers and it is time to tax them fairly quickly because the trumpets will sooner than later figure out that they have been played brilliantly but when they do it could be bad for the rich and i would like it to stay peaceful i am to old for this stuff
Thing is, they're the reason for the system.
@Alpha Omega The ultra wealthy OWN the system. They have the financial power to put politicians in place who back the legal loopholes that allow the ultra wealthy to accumulate more wealth and pay less taxes.
The only way the system changes is if the ordinary people understand this reality (this video goes a long way to help that!), and then VOTE to elect people that will actually change the system. Too often the poor vote against their own best interests because they believe the political rhetoric promoted by those very politicians the ultra wealthy support.
@Alpha Omega well the system wouldn’t allow it if the wealthy didn’t bribe them 😶
@Alpha Omega "Hidden Secrets of Money. " now you know.
Your content is priceless. Please add voice over to the "chapter" transitions, so that blind and low vision people can benefit from it.
Wait, I’ve never thought of this. Do blind people “watch” yt?
@@kaminoshi713 yea they listen in, phones have become a lot easier to navigate for the visually impaired. I had a guy in one of my classes who could play yt videos, news reels, tik toks
@@kaminoshi713 they can still listen to it
@Alpha Omega conservatives are getting better at comedy and it's making lefties nervous
@@kaminoshi713 they don't just watch it. Check out Molly Burke. She's an amazing blind TH-camr and she'll change the way you think about blindness forever.
"After just a few generations of this almost ALL of America's wealth could be in the hands of a few thousand families." This is one of my biggest fears, and the pattern will repeat across the world. That'll happen here in the UK too, which is why I save, save, save. My parents think I sacrifice too much of the present for the future, and maybe they're right but only to an extent. The future is so scary as everything's only going to get more dangerous - Money, climate change ... do you need a third one??
Then stop worrying about everyone else and focus on your own success. Duhhhh
@@ronaldreagan-ik6hz Maybe stop worrying about others' comments to focus on your own navel..(?)
perhaps you could identify anything i said that was factually incorrect? @@helenaquin1797
Population decline. Very real and happening all around the world.
Explain how the creation of a wealthy person through merit comes at the expense of another person?
It amazes me how craven they are to fight paying just 2%. The word malicious also comes to mind. Deplorable, too.
Here is an example. I bought a house 3 years ago for about 400k. Due to house prices increase by wallstreet buying houses the house value is 700k now. If I wait another 4-5 years, add my savings and my wife savings and our 401k probably I will exceed one million. Do I am a millionaire? I don't think so. Do I feel like a millionaire? Not at all. So why would I pay 2% which is 20,000 every year of my life having all these years I'm paying my assets valued of over 1 million?
@@car9167 Facts dont care about your feelings
ps: your assets arnt worth over 1 million unless your claiming everything is yours and your wife has nothing
and its not 20,000 its 2% of everything over 1mil and it would be increase in wealth not total wealth
@@car9167 2% of your wealth over 1 mil, not 2% of your wealth if you're over 1 mil.
@@halfjack2758 yeah this kind of tax should be targeted to those a little higher up the food chain. A lot of people save and make sacrifices for many decades to just retire with a little nest egg of 2 million. Trust me its not a lot and portions usually go to a struggling relative, medical expenses, funerals, etc.
@@halfjack2758 Thanks for clarifying. I would tax the increase YOY of wealth. So if this year you're worth 100B and next year 120B they you pay a percentage of the difference of 20B. But if your wealth decreased to 110B due to market fluctuations or whatever than you would need to get back from IRS for the 10B you lost.
This was excellent.
Here's another twisted fact: even without political power or a mountain of assets, the merely "comfortably rich" (not the top 1%, but say in the 2%-5% range) can still avoid significant taxes, particularly between generations, through loop-holey tax avoidance strategies. The minute a new law is passed, sharp lawyers and tax specialists develop work-arounds to it, for $500/hr to $1,000/hr. I always felt it bizarre that someone would pay, say, $2M over ten years to a tax advisor who sets up all sorts of trusts and inter-family loans for the purpose of avoiding taxes, when that money could otherwise have been paid as taxes and done some good for everyone, rather than that one smart advisor. Some people see taxes as so evil that they are willing to pay nearly the same amount to advisors to just to avoid paying it to uncle Sam. It's bizarre. I speak as a somewhat confused beneficiary of some of these shenanigans.
Ever since the final business quarter of 1980, the sum total of financial assets (from which IRA's and 401k's are derived), has been greater than our GDP. This happened because Congress gutted company funded pensions in 1974. At the end of 1980, the sum total financial assets was half a trillion more than our GDP. By 1990 that gap was enlarged to $6.9 trillion. By the year 2000 the gap had widened further to $21.2 trillion. Today that gap is $93.684 trillion or 4.8 times the size of our GDP. Today the gap has widened so far that extraction from the population is simply not enough to fuel a 12% annual growth rate, so the government is now being looted. The money to grow IRA's and 401k's is stolen, not earned. What gives anyone the right to take money they have not earned?
Because they save them from contributing $4M to the public fund. Plus there's always the aspect of power corrupting and all that. If you can get away with it you feel powerful. Which is why you generally amass ridiculous amounts of money to begin with. Or at least, this is my theory 😒
Not really. Reich needs to learn what wealth is. A lot of the wealth the wealthy own is non liquidated. And many, like me due to loans, have negative wealth but are doing fine. Reich is trying to simply be emotional and not rational.
@@whyamimrpink78 Reich literally says at the beginning of The Basics section that wealth is also the sum of non-liquid assets: cars, homes, etc. Looks like you didn't really watch the video.
@@whyamimrpink78 So according to you, nonliquid assets dont count as wealth. See if that argument holds up when you tell the state you have no cash to pay the property taxes on all your properties because of no tenants and see if they agree. In case you missed it, the crucial argument is for eliminating transactional tax loopholes for the super rich, mainly corporations, which would not include coming to take away your 2nd 3rd and 4th mansion etc, but actually enforcing the collection of taxes at an equivalent rate to the average individual.
The game of Monopoly was invented shortly after Roosevelt’s actions due to Public Awareness of Wealth Inequality. It’s lesson of Free Market Capitalism still stands today. When one player has all the money... the game is over !
and people still doesn't realize it
@ColoRpg You are really stupid I hope you know that
@@colorpg152 That's the problem with simplifying and trivializing a serious subject.
It doesn't get treated with the seriousness it deserves, plus there's a disconnect in applying it one's own life.
The game is definitely over.
In terms of fairness, the game is over before it begins. In real life, when you start, the game has been going on for a long time, all the properties are owned, and some people started with a stack of money.
You on the other hand, have a small bank account and must go all the way around to get more money until you can somehow buy a property.
Good luck with that.
German sociologist, Robert Michel's theory on the iron law of oligarchy states that most democratic states and regimes start off as egalitarian, but eventually the power and wealth gets concentrated in the hands of the few elite individuals who control and acquire uninhibited access to social, cultural, and economic capital. You could also say that Max Weber's iron cage reinforces the idea that wealth and power is in the hands of those elite technocrats and plutocrats who have the opportunity to seek out positions that control policies and regulations that aid and enable those with plenary powers. It's sad really. Factions exist because they too have a right in the democratic institutions we live in. We cannot drown out their voice, even if they come from privileged and wealthy backgrounds. Despite the fact they hold unlimited amount of lobbying power and political clout.
None of any states in Europe have ever started as democratic. Has any state ever started? They were originally oligarchic. In a way this tendency is thus not as weird as it sounds
Robert, one thing you could have touched on is how the "big" money families buy medias and push philosophies that continue to benefit themselves. Thanks for your videos. I hope enough Americans can wake up.
Since most media is left leaning liberal, of course Robert won’t mention the inequality of television and print ! He doesn’t care about that injustice because it doesn’t fit his narrative
@@Navy35 your not close enough attention Matthew, don't drink the trumpy koolaid!
Nothing “Trumpy” about the truth.
He did
Who donates to this guy? I'm sure he is incorruptible as well.
Science fiction author Frank Herbert had an observation on this, which he included in his Dune series: "Governments, if they endure, always tend toward aristocratic forms. No government in history has been able to avoid this pattern. And as the aristocracy develops government tends more and more to act in favor of the Ruling Class, whether that ruling class be hereditary royalty, oligarchs of financial empires, theocratic clergy, or entrenched bureaucracy."
Exactly. Human society always gravitates towards aristocracy.
Power begets power, and money is power.
@@themurph930 Sort of. Wealth and power are inseparable conjoined twins. Where there is one there will always be the other.
I think its called the Iron law of oligarchy
This is what frightened me about S Bannon as he's in favor of aristocracy in the US.
This is actually a worldwide problem. We see the same phenomenon in Europe. Here, the rich mostly hide behind the middle class claiming that taxing the rich would also lead to a shrinkage of the middle class. It amazes me that people can even develop such a level of unsaturable greed. I mean a multibillionaire wouldn't even notice a billion dollar tax payment. Their money usually sits around and does nothing except growing. Even when they spend they usually don't touch their assets but instead borrow against them.
When during the Trump administration the 1/5th of wage earners had their incomes rise the fastest of all groups. That was the first time that had happened since the George W Bush administration.
Because both Trump and W. used Kennedy's theory of using lower taxes, less immigration, deregulation, and smaller government to tighten up the labor market. Which raises wages, allows mobility, allows for advancement, and gives people dignity.
Compare that to the Democrat policies of using high taxes, over regulation, open immigration, and big government to put permanent slack into the labor market. Which drives down wages and drives up housing prices at the same time, to the point tens of millions of people don't have any money left over at the end of the month. And it's the low wages at the bottom that allows the excesses at the top, causing the wealth gap.
Raising the bottom 1/5th of wage earners wealth relative to everyone else is something liberals will never be able to do because of their policies.
If Reich actually cared about working class people, Reich would be a Kennedy Reagan conservative.
You’re so misinformed
So maney after a person gets to s certain level of wealth they should shut down there businesses so they cannot get any richer don't you ahree
Huh "A millionare wouldn't notice a billion dollar tax bill". Think on that awhile....
Democrats know only two words free or subsadized
Becoming a millionaire through a Roth IRA or a 401(k) involves different strategies for maximizing profits. A Roth IRA offers tax-free withdrawals in retirement, which can be advantageous if you expect to be in a higher tax bracket later in life. On the other hand, a 401(k) provides tax-deferred growth and potential employer contributions, boosting your savings. The optimal choice depends on factors like your current and future tax situation, employer match, and investment options. Consulting a financial advisor can help tailor a strategy that aligns with your financial goals and circumstances.
Prioritizing effective personal finance management holds greater significance than the sheer amount saved, irrespective of income source. Consulting a certified financial advisor can offer tailored strategies to optimize financial results by reducing expenses and enhancing income, regardless of whether it's earned through employment or investments.
I wholeheartedly concur. At 40+ years old and newly retired, my external retirement funds total around One million two hundred fifty thousand dollars.. With no debt and minimal retirement fund allocation relative to my portfolio's value over the last three years, I recognize the importance of a financial advisor. Neglecting them isn't an option; however, thorough research is vital to find a trustworthy fiduciary advisor.
This aligns perfectly with my desire to organize my finances prior to retirement. Could you provide me with access to your advisor?
Sharon Marissa Wolfe is the licensed fiduciary I use. Just research the name. You’d find necessary details to work with a correspondence to set up an appointment..
I just googled her and I'm really impressed with her credentials; I reached out to her since I need all the assistance I can get. I just scheduled a caII.
We need this man doing an adult version of “The More You Know” on evening television
We do, but getting messages like this on television is a very long shot. When ultra wealthy people and corporations control massive media outlets, they are in position to prevent messages like this from getting to the masses.
When the government over spends supposedly for our own benefit, the only people who end up advantaged by the resultant inflation is the rich .
Who do think owns "evening television"?
That would be so good!!
And it should include a section explaining that the rich avoid taxes by *not selling* and instead *getting loans* by using their property as collateral. They completely sidestep the typical argument of "but they don't have all that wealth in money, they would have to sell!" etc. No, they don't.
My Gram from PA was raised on a farm had a saying: "Money is like manure; it only works when you spread it around to make things grow." Stop hoarding $$$ & start speading!
If the rich actually did spread around their hoarded wealth, things would be a lot better
There are so many opportunities and reasons for the rich to get a clue… Dont make US get out the pitchforks to drive the point home.
@@lexingtonbrython1897 the thing that most people miss about the ultra rich spreading their money around is they will be getting something for their money .not just throwing it out the window. But enjoying the products they buy .I think most billionaires must be Hoarders like on the TV show and will never give up 1 dollar and they want to control everything they see and will never be happy unless they are in charge of everything
Do you think they have 250 billion dollars in cash and are hoarding it?
The whole “skipping taxes” bit burns me up because taxes are there so we can all chip in so, while we all need to do our parts, the people who have the most ability to contribute should be the first to step up and lead. THAT being said, I find it greatly disappointing that the HaveNots want the Haves to give them there property (ill gotten wealth or not) like We live in the first socialist society in the history of the world that worked. They are spreading it around as investments which return dividends so their money works for them. As far as “Stop hoarding $$$ and start spreading” goes … 1) Money isn’t worth anything and has no power if it isn’t spent. “It takes money to make money” is about growing wealth they’re just spending it in a way that benefits themselves… 2) how would you like it if someone else with “less financial success” told you how you should spend your money … 3) If you’ve EVER denied giving money to a homeless person or to a charity then you don’t get a voice in this matter. Just like so many of us look at a homeless person and think that they would miss-use any money given them, to the ultra rich WE are the less financially aware people who “wouldn’t do the right thing with the money given to them”. He hit the nail on the head at the end of this video with the flat 2% tax. Fair is fair and it would make it easier on all of us too to have refined tax laws. We are a dual income household with one house and 3 cars yet SOMEHOW I manage to get it wrong every year and Uncle Sam gets his IRS goons to send me love letters about how I owe them even more and more. 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
This was a fantastic video, but he fails to mention that Reagan’s cut of taxes from 70% top marginal tax to 25% with the idea of trickle down economics, has totally failed miserably.
Yep, pretty much our entire economic problems can be traced back to Reagan
I guess I'm confused how it failed miserably if inflation-adjusted median household income and inflation-adjusted median personal income have both risen significantly (34% and 56%, respectively) since 1981? To the contrary, that sounds like a pretty clear success.
@@mlh5434 where are your sources and are you using real inflation (not the "official" government definition)?
@@sdefonta The Census Bureau's data. Just search for "real median household income FRED" and "real median personal income FRED" and you will see the charts.
"are you using real inflation (not the "official" government definition)"
Lol, this is a neat little trick: "Please cite your sources. But you're not allowed to use official ones." This is what we like to call playing tennis without the net.
@@mlh5434 if you use the same census data starting from 1965 the bottom 75% of income has barely changed (
My Respects to you, Mr Reich.
Thanks for the information.
Thank you Robert Reich, this really concerns public administration and public policy, some dogs do not let other dogs eat...
Robert Reich is very rich, quite hypocritical, and I’m a progressive.
@@registereddemocrat3183
It's not hypocrisy because he pays his taxes. Just simply having money is not hypocrisy.
@@ados1280 Agree. Such a simplistic view. It actually makes him more credible to a certain degree.
@@registereddemocrat3183, At least he is not getting in other people's way, much on the contrary, Senator Longwall manchin is the problem, we must carve that sucker with the filibuster.
So why is someone who was "Labor" Secretary under the president (Billy Clinton) who initiated "NAFTA", now trying to sell us on the scam he now works for the interest of the people? Why is Robert Reich, who oversaw Clinton's deregulation of Wall Street and the crushing of Social Security, now pretending he is a Progressive? Could it be so the plutocrats can continue to have their agents within the system when most of this crashes around our feet? Reich must be hoping Gore Vidal's "Unites States of Amnesia" still applies.
Imagine disliking this video & not being a Billionaire. 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
@@Zach-ju5vi found the Prager U graduate
@CL Wil Don't forget the simps of big capital
Bootlickers love to worship the undeserved pillaging of their self appointed betters.
@@Zach-ju5vi it is not about blaming rich people, we are talking here about the 1% insanely rich that pay zero taxes while the rest of us are paying maybe more.
enlighten us smart boy ! how does the economy works and tell us why it is okay they shouldn't pay their fair share, or tell us why the people should pay any taxes at all in the first place
Imagine liking this video and having a brain.
@@csanderson5163 so whats wrong with the video since you have such a big brain.
We also need to shield the poor and middle class from these laws. The rich dodge them but I sure didn’t, I had to pay capital gains tax when I sold one of my two acres of land to my in-laws so they could build a house. I just needed the money to pay off debt and I still ended up owing a lot extra on my income tax. Now I’m in debt to the IRS and will have a payment plan this year. Sell an asset to get out of debt and end up in debt for my trouble.
It's largely the built-in wealth tax from inflation. You sold two acres of land that were still the same two acres of land that you bought or inherited, yet with the declining purchasing power of the Dollar were worth more in Dollars so you owed capital gains. Gains and interest below the rate of inflation shouldn't be taxed.
That's shit and sounds like gods honest truth. Feeling like I'm spinning my wheels and only chance at retirement is societal collapse
Exactly - negligible increase of enforcement on the Rich, and an army of bureaucrats squeezing pennies from those who barely have any...
We need a flat rate tax on everything. No irs nedded.
@@franklinloll2229 Or the ultra-rich should actually pay their fair share - why shouldn't people with obscene amounts of money earned on the back of the masses, and partially attribute to national architecture/programs pay their fair share? Think of all the societal problems that could be solved if the relative few earning godly amounts paid their fair share - the middle-class sure aren't allowed to dodge taxers/employ tax shelters etc.
As an investment enthusiast, I often wonder how top level investors are able to become millionaires off investing. I do have a significant amount of capital that is required to start up but I have no idea what strategies and direction I need to approach to help me make over $400k like some people are this season.
I believe the safest approach is to diversify investments especially under professional; guide. You can mitigate the effects of a market meltdown by diversifying their investments across different asset classes such as stocks, etfs etc It is important to seek the advice of an expert.
Yeah, financial advisors could make a lot of difference, particularly in a market such as this. Stocks are pretty unstable at the moment, but if you do the right math, you should be just fine. Bloomberg and other finance media have been recording cases of folks gaining over 250k just in a matter of weeks/couple months, so I think there are a lot of wealth transfer in this downtime if you know where to look. I have been using an FA since 2019, and I return at least $121k ROI, and this does not include capital gain.
I'm pleased I found this conversation. If you're comfortable with it, could you share how I can get in touch with the advisor you rely on for your investments?
'Carol Vivian Constable, a highly respected figure in her field. I suggest delving deeper into her credentials, as she possesses extensive experience and serves as a valuable resource for individuals seeking guidance in navigating the financial market.
She appears to be well-educated and well-read. I ran an online search on her name and came across her website; thank you for sharing.
I finally had it explained in a way that was simple enough for me to get: The strength of the economy depends on how much of the money is being used. If massive piles of money are disappearing into some cartel warehouse or billionaire's bank account and never coming out, that money is removed from the economy, which gets smaller and weaker.
Not only that but those massive piles of money gain interest just by existing. Which means their ability to grow exponentially will continue to take a larger portion of the pie.
@@Zach-ju5vi Economic activity is what makes the economy grow. Fiat currency isn't based on pulling a number out of thin air.
@@Zach-ju5vi Depends on the activity. Hoarding wealth does not activity make. You can either have a river or a pond.
@@Zach-ju5vi If we tax companies, we will use it to build the infrastructure to improve logistics and develop talent to make better hires. In 2017, Mnuchin was at a meeting of executives and asked how many would use the (then-potential) tax cuts to invest back in the company or hiring people. Five said yes in a room of hundreds. Most of the money from the corporate tax cuts went to stock buybacks. How is that circulating money? Send the money where it actually gets spent, and the economy will grow.
@@Zach-ju5vi Fixing the infrastructure that is falling apart would be a big start.
And, of course, the reflexive complaint about the one organization that has actually helped working people make a better life.
The need for affordable housing and the transition to renewable energy are also things that definitely haven't been completely addressed.
I love this man. I love his passion, his kindness and his clarity.
I wish that more people heeded his warnings and accepted his ideas.
Obviously, trickle down economics hasn’t worked.
I’m making about the same as I was when I started working in the early 80’s. And that’s in real dollars not adjusted for inflation. My standard of living has steadily gone down.
I have a house (inherited and needing repairs) and a minimum of savings.
I expect to have to work until I die and I’m good with money.
I was born into the upper middle class but how can you save if you can barely cover regular expenses?
Within my lifetime, America’s economic structure has been decimated. And it’s not because people don’t work hard 😓.
The people who have so very clearly benefited are the ones who are responsible.
The loopholes and special interests must end and they must pay their taxes.
We the people deserved it.
What a pile of garbage. Liberals think “working hard” is anyone that works 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week.
Yet- sales professionals that often make the highest wages often work 70-100 hours a week - and shocker-they earn a lot more money.
You fools that call anyone a “hard worker” are just ignorant as hell.
Even if the IRS were fully funded, I believe that they would need the backing of all 3 branches of federal government to actually go after the rich to make them pay their fair share. As it is they Target low hanging fruit by going after the poor who may done the earned income credit incorrectly when they filed doing their own taxes because they couldn't afford professional to do it for them
They're going to double down on going after the poor with the new right wing conservative Democrats ( aka moderates) created tax law in
back back better. Up until now any income from ebay sales under 20,000 Dollars wasn't reported,the new law has Ebay with PayPal and your bank report all payments deposited in your account anyone with over $600 will now get a 1099 form .
The IRS *does* target those of us at the bottom. Do you know why? Simple economics. They do not have the resources to fight the army of lawyers the wealthy can hire, but they know that you and I are on our own and cannot afford a protracted battle over a few quid. So they would need a MASSIVE budgetary increase and, as you said, full governmental support to take that task on... effectively we all have to decide "this is happening or none of you are going to live through the end of the year" and then force our government to do it. If they were sure we'd revolt if it didn't get done I am pretty sure it would get done... yeah money is nice, but what you gonna do about 50 million people willing to die to make you pay your share? You can't jail them. You can't kill them all (for every 1 you killed 2 more would spring up in righteous fury over it). Basically at the end of the day it's on us to fix this.
@@TheActionBastard Ideally that would be a great solution. Unfortunately, there are too many ppl who are afraid to push for change. Ppl on the streets and minimum wage earners are busy just trying to survive, while others are too scared of losing what little they have. They're told it's immigrants or the homeless or any number of minorities that are "spoiling" it for them. Instead of educating themselves, they believe the propaganda of the ultra wealthy that flows through corporate and right wing media. Not to mention the power of religious institutions who's millions of members are living in an alternate universe.
It's maddening. How do we get through to all those ppl who think they already have the answers?
@@TheActionBastard the IRS has the backing of the federal government. Their lawyers are more than capable of standing up to anyone's lawyers.
What is a fair share?
Just watched your other video "what if we actually taxed the rich" and this one is just as clearly put. Thanks for doing amazing work that is easy to understand and shareable. Very articulate.
I don't mind these big wigs amounting such wealth, but when they affect (or rig) the system and screw the working class in multiple ways, something's gotta give. People working in the essential medical field such as EMT shouldn't have to make a second income to pay their bills. They're the frontlines of saving lives. Then again, the medical field here in US shouldn't be a private sector to begin with, again going full circle on these big wigs.
it is not about whether it bothers you or not people getting insanely rich or not, it is about paying back to the society their fair share !! after all, they benefited from the services offered by the society and should pay their fair share taxes. What bothers me people that keep licking their boot and a $ $ hoping one day they become themselves in their place. pathetic
Those giant balls of money always affect the system they're in. Especially in a system where elected officials have to spend so much time looking for donations to fund their next campaign. And the grotesque wealth inequality only happened *because* the working classes were being squeezed for every penny they're worth and more. You have done the equivalent of saying "I don't mind rain unless things get wet".
NO ONE should have to work so much just to survive. Everyone has the right to life...
It’s a matter of balance. Between the political duopoly greedy for donations and the ultra rich greedy for their addiction, our nation and our world have gone way out of balance. It can either destroy the engine or it can be brought back to balance. There are zero tolerances left in this human machine. Especially considering the CO2 problem. The piper is owed!
Rigging the system and screwing workers is how they build that kind of wealth.
Remember when Dubya insisted that "the Death Tax" affected Average Americans?
*Well, Dubya was lying. Dubya worked for people like this **4:16*
Tell a farmer that fable.
@@edarcuri182 A real Farmer would know that Farms are exempt - because; something about "growing food" sounded important.
You're not criticizing Farmers, are you?
@@edarcuri182 You mean like Monsanto? They would prefer more wealth, and land consolidation.
@@arcanondrum6543 They aren't exempt.
@@youtubesucks1499 Indeed they are. Learn more, THEN Comment. No one will look after a simpleton who is unwilling to learn. You'll just be an angry victim, lashing out. "Different" than now?
These economic concepts should be taught in every school, even to the very young.
Aaaaand conservatives screeching about critical wealth theory in 3.... 2.... 1....
@@ThePanMan11 lol true
Robert can’t do economics
'No man can serve 2 masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.' Mathew 6.24
Thanks again Robert Reich!
I wish Professor Reich would also focus on how wealth inequality is a damper on the economy. Imbalances and stratification create fetters in the consumer economy, production, research etc. that are driven by an aspiring middle class. Economic oligarchy starts eroding it’s own source of wealth and power as the middle class becomes poor, less educated and unable to drive a robust culture and its economy. Collapse will ensue.
Hallelujah! A commenter that still remembers the lessons of the Great Depression. Inverting your insight also implies that social wealth can be created by ending poverty, too.
Talk about a damper on the economy . . . . . . . . Here are some facts for you, taken straight from the Federal Reserve. Ever since the final business quarter of 1980, the sum total of financial assets (from which IRA's and 401k's are derived), has been greater than our GDP. This happened because Congress gutted company funded pensions in 1974. At the end of 1980, the sum total financial assets was half a trillion more than our GDP. By 1990 that gap was enlarged to $6.9 trillion. By the year 2000 the gap had widened further to $21.2 trillion. Today that gap is $93.684 trillion or 4.8 times the size of our GDP. Today the gap has widened so far that extraction from the population is simply not enough to fuel a 12% annual growth rate, so the government is now being looted. The money to grow IRA's and 401k's is stolen, not earned. What gives anyone the right to take money they have not earned? Also, what happens when there is no more loot to steal?
Now when I say "looting" and "stolen", this is all legal and on the up and up, because the wealthy paid for the politicians who made it all legal. If we are supposed to live in the "land of the free", why are these few people able to literally strip us of our freedom through legalized theft?
All of these economically-foolish short-term-thinking business/political dealings for the top 1% will cause ruin for all.
Economics Explained said wealth inequality isn't a big deal economically but I don't know.
If we continue this route, we are going to end up living like many developing countries where a few have money and the majority struggle to support themselves.
Professor, why don’t you ever mention that the Fed’s Quantitative Easing policies (that is, maintaining ultra-low interest rates) have been transferring wealth from the Bottom 90 Percent to the Top 10 Percent for the past 13 years? As interest rates fall toward zero, the present value of future cash flows increases, which increases the value of the underlying asset (e.g., stock; real estate). At the same time, savers earn little interest income on their savings.
Savers are also rich. The claim that low interest rates intrinsically worsens inequality without looking at the fiscal expenditure side is highly dubious.
@@MicahErfan I wasn’t attempting to describe all the problems of the world in three sentences.
@@MicahErfan Absolutely, all of those 401Ks and IRA are benefiting from the stock market growth. The only ones who miss out, don't fund these accounts. The individual is the cause of lack of wealth generation is because of their spending habits and lack of thinking about their future.
@@gibblespascack1418 - Wrong. The individuals cause of lack of wealth generation is that the money used to grow those IRS's and 401k's is extracted from from the society in the form of increased costs year over year, with the money from the extraction going to those who have not actually earned that wealth. Blaming the individual is a con job. Over half of the 2020 GDP went to grow the value of financial assets. Compounded interest is wealth extraction, not wealth creation.
@@coolmodelguy Your reason that an IRA or 401k does not grow is because the company makes a profit on the goods sold or are you saying that it is the manpower/raw materials costs? Ok, so the profits go to the company(after paying those expenses), which pays the investors in that company The investors in those companies are the people who own the stock and for public companies, the largest shareholders are the IRAs and 401K funds. So if you have that IRA or 401K and invest in mutual funds, you account grows with the rest of the market. For my S&P fund, that growth rate has been ~12% for the past 30 years. Again, the lack of funding your investment account is the primary reason that people are not generating wealth. People like you spend everything that they earn, no matter how much they earn. That goes for people in the heartland and also people in NYCX who earn over $175K per year. No amount of income is enough when there is no control of spending. If you don't like the companies who are making profits selling you things, don't buy the stuff. And don't even suggest that 401K and IRA management fees(1%) are eating up the ~12% fund growth in the S&P500 mutual funds. That is just stupid.
What Roosevelt accomplished was vital and extremely impressive considering the power of the opposition he had to overcome
How can today’s Americans hope for anything remotely similar in this moment, when the power of wealthy opposition has increased so dramatically, and corporate media has indoctrinated millions of low income Americans to fight ferociously for the perpetuation of their own oppression, professor ?
A lot did it by making it racial based. "How dare those "poor" people demand socialist programs. That means my taxes will go up. I do not want to pay for another person's healthcare" By perpetuating racial and class warfare they are able to keep taxes low by manipulating the population into believing that they would suffer from tax increases.
The Filibusters also helps reaffirm minority by making it difficult to pass meaningful bills because you have to get 60 senators to agree and that's nearly impossible. But there is a solution and that is the midterms. Americans have to increase the threshold by three to make Manchin and Simena's veto power pointless and then that would allow Biden to pass bills, making Americans especially those who aren't politically suave to see actual results and those actual results will being people over.
Don't worry, Joe Biden is gonna solve it.
@@sirmclovin9184 he has 3 years left I'm scared
Greatest con of all time
Extend taxes ruined America cause idiots wanted free stuff
Grow the pie, grow the pie! We've grown the pie enormously over the years, and productivity is the highest it has ever been. We have 100 people who help make the pie & 100 very large pieces of pie. The first guy walks in & takes 90 slices. The next guy takes 9 slices. They are not job creators, they're just stock or bond holders. The rest is just crumbs for the remaining 98 people. Within such a system, no matter how big you grow the pie, it won't work. The math doesn't work.
Imagine doing a whole video on wealth inequality and never mentioning The Fed.
You know how Wealth inequality has spiraled out of control? Bailouts, trade restrictions, IP laws, regulations that get rid of competition, Zoning laws, drug laws, certificate of needs, etc. Why don't you go after these things that would have the MOST impact on people's lives?
uhhh probabl cuz they offer large pots of gold to folks who know how to take advantage i.e. payroll protection which alost 75 percent stayed with the employer and not 'doled' out to employees!!!!
@@elizabethpeterson56 you are just adding to my point.
Because it's just easier to yell into the void "Rich people bad! Hurr durrrrr!" People don't realize that government is the problem.
Nah. Just stop voting for democrats for 10 years.
Sec. Reich, I had no idea you had a TH-cam channel. I applaud your efforts to find everyday Americans where they are, using media they consume, to inform and educate people about important issues. This is how change starts, because we need more than news junkies/political scientists/economists to build momentum at a grassroots level.
Also because the media is owned and run by powerful wealthy people or families and are corporations too they push against this stuff because it runs against the rigged tax system that greatly benefits them. FOX is laughable when they push against it, but you get it with media that supposedly is considered "liberal" too.
Roberts ideas are failing in every progressive city in America
I understand where Mr. Riech is coming from. But I am a Stoic so I ask myself: Have I made decisions and taken actions that reduced my wealrh, reduced my potential? The answer is: YES....
So how can I hold others responsible for my actions or non-actions?
Democrats are that stupid
This is sound information and it infuriates me that my value as a wage earner decreases every year to the point where I am always working two or three jobs and looking for other ways to earn money. Unfortunately, the wealthy apologists who are among us believe that the wealthy pay more than their fair share. It’s going to take real starvation with a side order of cannibalism before they get it.
Stop Getting Used. Start watching 'Second Thought', starting with his videos 'America Compared' and such.
"Don't get mad at politicians, they are just employees of large corporations". Noam Chomsky
Great way of condensing complicated topics into short videos!
He just gave us the blueprint to attaining wealth as long as you control your expenditures. The only thing you don’t control is taxes. Which is what he is advocating for more of. Sure he says tax the wealthy but crap never rolls uphill.
only tax cuts for the rich , the non rich always have to shoulder the burden.
The wealthy are already taxed. In 2020, the top 1 percent of earners (with incomes over $548,336) paid nearly 42 percent of all income taxes. The amount of income taxes paid in this percentile is nearly twice as much as their AGI share.
Source: National Taxpayers Union: Who pays income tax?
Their figures are straight from the IRS publicly released data.
Not true at all the top five percent pay over half the federal taxes what are you talking about
Here's the thing. We used to have much higher taxes as most countries do.
Then Reagan started selling people on tax cuts for the rich helping everyone and what happened? Ever since that period of time wages have fallen further and further away from inflation.
So cutting taxes has simply helped the rich keep more of their money.
It's not hard to find examples of countries with higher taxes, more equality and a higher quality of life.
" There is no greater misfortune than greed." - Lao Tzu
a normal guy could avoid paying taxes
They seen pretty fortunate to me.
Wrong. We all have personal greed. Greed drives achievement
It all started with Reaganomics, also the huge divide between parties.
Reagan wasn’t president in 1978, which is when Robert said this started. Jimmy Carter was president. That’s why Reagan was able to beat Carter so easily in 1980.
Bingo!
@@johnmartin4641 Carter did begin to bring neoliberalism, but Reagan super-sized it + put it on steroids
@ADHD Insane Asylum in 1 AD scientists thought the world was flat.
@@RobinHerzig neoliberals are more moderate than Carter. Carter had a 70% tax rate. There’s nothing moderate about that. That’s what the progressive caucus is calling for today.
I am a self-published author. I sold $100 worth of books in 2021. Amazon 1099's authors and I neglected to include this in my filing and the IRS flagged me for not including the 1099, for $100 which is not required because it is under the required amount.
Mister Reich, could you please do a video about the Gini index (2024 predictions) ? And where US stands to other nations. 😊 i would like that .
we need a separation of industry and state. stop letting corporations make the law or fund politics. and just get rid of lobbyists all together.
sure, it'd mean we couldn't tax companies, but it's not like they're paying taxes now. this way, they wouldn't get representation.. and the only thing the govt. would have left to represent is (gasp) the citizens.
The Netherlands, I heard, has a clever way of closing the loopholes even for wealth that's held by their citizens regardless of where it's located. To me, this would make more sense than a wealth tax. The "Money and Macro" channel talks about it.
How about you focus on making your own money rather than how to steal it from someone else? Jesus. Leftist fools.
Very well said! Thank you for all you do for us regular folks. Now we just have to "splain it" to unwilling minds and ears .Thanks amillion.
When during the Trump administration the 1/5th of wage earners had their incomes rise the fastest of all groups. That was the first time that had happened since the George W Bush administration.
Because both Trump and W. used Kennedy's theory of using lower taxes, less immigration, deregulation, and smaller government to tighten up the labor market. Which raises wages, allows mobility, allows for advancement, and gives people dignity.
Compare that to the Democrat policies of using high taxes, over regulation, open immigration, and big government to put permanent slack into the labor market. Which drives down wages and drives up housing prices at the same time, to the point tens of millions of people don't have any money left over at the end of the month. And it's the low wages at the bottom that allows the excesses at the top, causing the wealth gap.
Raising the bottom 1/5th of wage earners wealth relative to everyone else is something liberals will never be able to do because of their policies.
If Reich actually cared about working class people, Reich would be a Kennedy Reagan conservative.
Splain it? Why did you say it like that?
"Lucy, you've got some splaining to do!"
- Classic line from the TV show. I Love Lucy.
So s
Susan , You enjoy being s tool? So splain it to me Puddin' What have the Gimmedats done that makes you think they give a rip about 'regular folks?
Work harder. No one is holding you down but yourself.
And try working for welfare - you will get sick to your stomach watching the poor who do nothing get big fat checks.
Taxing someone with slightly more than $1mln dollars isn't taxing the wealthy, that could be taxing someone who has worked hard all their life and contributed to their pensions. It would have to start at higher level than that.
Yes, the slope is slippery when the government wants more tax revenue.
Generally taxes are talked about as a portion of yearly income. So someone making a million dollars a year is absolutely wealthy.
I've yet to see anyone talk about taxing people on wealth unless we're talking about billionaires.
One key element you left out, international growth has caused much of the u.s. wealth gap increase. In 1965, only 5% of the U.S. stock market was owned by foreigners, now its 40%. That drives up the overall wealth of ANYONE in the stock market, including workers with pensions. Source: Federal Reserve Board report called “financial accounts of the United States”. In addition, way more of our entrepreneurs have been able to export, making them even richer.
'The Past and Future of WORK' by 'Some More News' and the follow-up video
about Unions are a Must-Watch for Worker-Class,
especially Americans.
Stop Getting Used. Start watching 'Second Thought', starting with his videos 'America Compared' and such.
Good, Robert! Very, very, very clear! You are an excellent teacher!
So was Karl Marx!
I have wealth. I earned below average wages my entire working life. I knew I couldn't afford to waste a thing if I didn't want to exist as a wage slave ending up with nothing. So I hung on to every bit of money I could. I started by eroding my debts and then channelled as much as I could into assets. Forty years later I've escaped. My time is now 100% my own. Liberation.
You were lucky. You had 40 years to make that effort. My generation is looking at not having a livable planet in 40 years.
I did the same. Did not blow it. Saved it. Invested it. Worked my way up, saving and investing all the way. Take a page from the rich. Most of them were once poor.
@@Dead_Guy_Bob they told me to planet would be uninhabitable by the year 2010 when I was a child in school. Believe what they tell you at your own risk.
I would love to hear a debate between the guy in the video and David Ramsey. Would be very interesting. I’m sure Dave Ramsey would win hands down.
@@Dead_Guy_Bob doom and gloom everywhere
Flat tax, 20%, businesses, people (below poverty line and retired exempt)...
No loopholes, no exemptions, no depreciation, no credits, no contributions of any kind - take all that stuff out of the income/profit tax system!
I'm tired of supplementing someone else's solar panels, or paying for their religion, or their favorite charity...charity means giving, not getting refunds from WE THE PEOPLE! If there isn't enough people caring for a cause without tax write off attachment, it wasn't worth having!!!
That's equal, fair, and Governments should be able to balance budgets and pay off the deficit, and stop rIsing spending ceilings (deficit spending, deeper in debt).
Money goes to one pot, Fed, State, and local governments figure out how to split and spend...with less IRS agents needed too...one page tax returns, no special and complicated schedules, etc needed!
Only refunds, for those who over paid!!!
KISS - KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID!
how about no'' - Big Bizzness
@@aceous99 Why?
Thank you Mr. Reich for the clear and concise description of this often misunderstood issue. Yourself and Bernie Sanders are two of the best political advocates the working class have. Keep up the good work!
Incorrect. reich and the rest of the "progressives" seek power by creating resentment.
Think it through and tell me how much of the economy should government take?
Do you know how much it already take?!
Oh my god. Look up the few debates Robert had done. He dials back his lies a lot when he debates. - signs of a true liar.
Regan economics started the .MISSERY AND REAL POVERTY IN THE USA. The homeless can thank REGONOMICS for being hoples today. THE TRUTH SCARES THE S_ _ T out of people like you. ROBERT AND BERNIE Realy scare you. We the reasonable people will keep listening to superior minds, we will not give up the fight against the OLIGARCS OR DICTATORS WANABE LIKE TRUMP. THE FIGHT IS ON.
Sanders is a Communist.
@@ronaldreagan-ik6hzyep
I love Robert Reich videos! They're always so informative ... and so easy to understand. Thank you, Robert Reich!
th-cam.com/video/9NhOLKcmSZQ/w-d-xo.html
I completely agree. I have NEVER understood economics before but now I can.
@@tracesprite6078 reich isn't a true economist, he's a politician. His take on economics isn't based on anything but his ideology.
@@edwinamendelssohn5129 Hi Edwina, I think it is also based on statistics and factual information.
@@tracesprite6078 based wholly on ideology not facts. You want facts then find Thomas SOWELL or Milton Friedman.
Thank u Robert 😅 hard to think it's been 40+ years since Reagan
You have done a great job explaining what has happened but I am surprised you do not explain what is underlies all this. A money system and government bailouts that always favor the most wealthy. I hope you will read "Broken Money" by Lynn Alden.
Underrated comment 🙏🏽
This is an impressive video! Thanks Uncle Bob for educating the public and raising our collective public financial intelligence needed to hopefully alter the course of the nation’s democratic experiment.
Democrats are fools for listening to Reich. But hell, look how many idiots voted for Biden?
Thank god we are a constitutional republic
I've just recently discovered this channel. I'm going to subscribe because I find these short educational videos are great for helping me to explain things more succinctly!
When during the Trump administration the 1/5th of wage earners had their incomes rise the fastest of all groups. That was the first time that had happened since the George W Bush administration.
Because both Trump and W. used Kennedy's theory of using lower taxes, less immigration, deregulation, and smaller government to tighten up the labor market. Which raises wages, allows mobility, allows for advancement, and gives people dignity.
Compare that to the Democrat policies of using high taxes, over regulation, open immigration, and big government to put permanent slack into the labor market. Which drives down wages and drives up housing prices at the same time, to the point tens of millions of people don't have any money left over at the end of the month. And it's the low wages at the bottom that allows the excesses at the top, causing the wealth gap.
Raising the bottom 1/5th of wage earners wealth relative to everyone else is something liberals will never be able to do because of their policies.
If Reich actually cared about working class people, Reich would be a Kennedy Reagan conservative.
Lol. Robert e Reich is a lying fool
Hi Professor,
Have you interviewed and had a discussion about this with professor Richard Wolff from democracy at work?
Would love to hear your thoughts on the stuff he talks about.
Thanks.
They've debated capitalism - Reich believes in it, Wolff wants it to go away...
They agree on quite a lot and have referenced each other on the internet; Reich believes: with strong regulation, Capitalism can work for everyone. Wolff believes that Capitalism's problems are inherent in its structure, so 'saving' it is a fool's errand.
I think a wealth tax system to be introduced in USA, wherein the wealthiest 1% people to pay 20% of their wealth as "Balancing tax". It shall then be used to provide fees to poor students, free food to poor people, free medical care to poor people, etc.
I agree, but we have ot be carefull. If we tax them too much they will leave the country loosing us all that income and putting us behind the rest of the world economicaly.
Short answer: Reagan said "fuck it, let's give limitless power to the rich" and yeah it just
I've long said that the one difference between people who have money and those who don't (I'm not talking about a lot of $$$, but people that can come up with money in an needed emergency) is........... delayed gratification
Thank you for being a true steward in your realm. I became a fan of yours in B school about 10 years ago. I'm praying for all the suggestions you laid out to come to fruition. I am below the below the poverty line and it is a good motivation for me to be politically informed. I am amazed by those willfully choose not too or place their votes to populists that are blatantly working against the interest of the common good. Is there still one? Thank you from a recovering M.B.A.
Well Bernie & his movement of fellow Progressives like the Squad, Sen, Dick Durbin, Jeff Merkley to name some (even Warren though she isn't part of that group) have long been calling for this stuff but , yeah he is smeared in the media by many - so happy when he ran for the POTUS nomination (though I knew he wouldn't get it) because he put the spotlight and still does on this stuff. I love the effort by Robert too.
They’re all populist. I’d say the choices are few and thin.
Common good? You coward. We are a nation of individuals not fucking communists.
I remember how They said we couldn't raise the minimum wage to a more-than-the-basics-livable wage because it would raise the prices on everything... who then went on to raise the prices on everything anyway.
I am a college drop out. I did manual labor for 45 years. I drove beat up pickup trucks until they had no value. I gave up tobacco, alcohol, and partying. I stayed with my first wife and planned my family. With money I saved, I bought real estate and stocks. My wife and I are now worth over 6 million. He left out the fact that in our society, wealth is a choice between working hard and saving or pissing your money away.
We are roughly in the same boat. Wealth is not a zero sum game, it's transitory. The system is in fact rigged, but the rig is to help us build wealth! Live conservatively, max out ROTH's, buy property, and a few decades later, you can to be wealthy.
So suffer for your whole life until you are so old you can’t use your wealth in a beneficial manner. No thanks. I’d like to have a nice quality of life while I can still get out of bed in the morning without throwing my back out.
@@sunfeatherX3 Either way you'll be old.. You can either be old with wealth or old and poor. Take care of your health, and you'll be wealthy with health. The choice is yours.
@@sunfeatherX3 Thank you for your reply. I am an athlete (surf, run very long distance) and a grandpaw. My back is fine. I have always thought hard work makes you stronger, it is not a punishment or makes you suffer.
@@csilver7405 I like your description of living conservatively. A person can be liberal/progressive yet live conservatively.
What practical steps can we take to become more equal?
Tax the rich?
Wealth taxes and better education systems are the obvious choices.
This is so interesting and I can understand it. We need to keep circulating it so that everyone knows what's going on.
Freedom. That’s what’s going on in America
@@ronaldreagan-ik6hz Freedom is great but it has to come with the obligation to give everyone a fair go, otherwise it's not really freedom but just ruthless exploitation of the vulnerable. So we need fair wages and decent working conditions for everyone - not just the rich.
@@tracesprite6078 everyone in the USA has a “fair go” --“equal opportunity” etc.
Nothing is stopping you from succeeding but yourself.
@@tracesprite6078 you think rich people get rich on accident? No. They outwork most people.
Some of the highest paid workers are 100% commission sales people. Do you think they care about minimum wages? No, because the get nothing unless they sell something.
Stop playing the victimhood game. Liberals always think government is the answer. It’s not.
@@tracesprite6078 by the way. Explain to me how wage exploitation works in a voluntary labor market that rewards MERIT ABOVE ALL. yeah. Explain that one.
We would *_LOVE_* to see this guy discuss the Pareto Principle with Jordan Peterson!
No kidding!!!
Still not sure why the word “inequality” is so consistently used over the more descriptive “inequity”.
In any case, the good description of some of the surface level inequities is totally derailed by the final couple of minutes of wealth fetishist misdirection of potential remedies.
Revenue focused tax measures are essentially self defeating, they never earn what was projected and the failure to do so endangers the political viability of the projects they are tied to, like lead balloons.
Ambitious projects are not financed by tax returns, they are enabled by the agency of those implementing them and financed by the social recognition of what is worthwhile. If all else fails parliament can finance anything it wants to with a majority vote.
As to dealing with the inequity of extreme wealth, start by banning political propaganda campaigns and the political corruption that finances them.
Tax the wealthy because they are doing a bad job of stewarding the resources they command, some sort of progressive deeming tax, similar to the regressive deeming taxes on welfare recipients. The more you have, the higher rate you are expected to earn.
My favourite would be a ”normalisation“ tax that simply transferred income and wealth until both were “normally” distributed as you would expect from a “fair” system. Exceptional people still earn exceptional incomes, but they lose the windfall profits provided by the unfairness in the system.
God bless you Robert. I feel like you're really looking out for people on the bottom
Unwittingly or intentionally Reich is looking out for the people at the top.
When during the Trump administration the 1/5th of wage earners had their incomes rise the fastest of all groups. That was the first time that had happened since the George W Bush administration.
Because both Trump and W. used Kennedy's theory of using lower taxes, less immigration, deregulation, and smaller government to tighten up the labor market. Which raises wages, allows mobility, allows for advancement, and gives people dignity.
Compare that to the Democrat policies of using high taxes, over regulation, open immigration, and big government to put permanent slack into the labor market. Which drives down wages and drives up housing prices at the same time, to the point tens of millions of people don't have any money left over at the end of the month. And it's the low wages at the bottom that allows the excesses at the top, causing the wealth gap.
Raising the bottom 1/5th of wage earners wealth relative to everyone else is something liberals will never be able to do because of their policies.
If Reich actually cared about working class people, Reich would be a Kennedy Reagan conservative.
It’s sad that you believe the lies of Robert. He’s just an msnbc hack
There is a shortage of labor for skilled jobs
Great Video. I just sold a property in Portland and I'm thinking to put the cash in stocks, I know everyone is saying its ripe enough, but Is this a good time to buy stocks? How long until a full recovery? How are other people in the same market raking in over $450k gains within months, I'm really just confused at this point.
Even with the right strategy and resources, some investors would still outperform others. As an investor, you should be aware of this by now. For me personally, I had to ask a market analyst for advice in order to grow my account close to a million dollars, withdraw my profit just before the correction, and start buying again.
'Laurelyn Gross Pohlmeier' is the licensed advisor I use. Just research the name. You’d find necessary details to work with a correspondence to set up an appointment.
The stock market can be very risky. I would suggest that you do your research thoroughly before investing. I'm not saying don't invest just do your research first.
If you're new to investing, find a nice balanced ETF or managed fund. Nobody makes those huge gains without taking massive risks. Take care out there, many investment houses are scammers.
To be honest, if you or I were rich we would probably be like these guys.
terrifing thought
run for president my guy, we need a progressive who actually knows how to make good policy.
Oh, I’m sure they’d find some dirt on him to ruin him, like that one time he grabbed a boob as a college junior or something.
Imagine working all your life to save up a couple of million for retirement. You will be on a fixed income of 4% of the principle or 80,000 per year.Above average income, yes. Rich? No. At least not in Chicago, LA or a host of other cities. And Mr Reich proposes taking 1/2 of that , i .e. 2% for tax. When you frame this by talking about Elon Musk it sounds so good. But what about ordinary people? 80k a year is hardly rich. This is why I don't favor the proposed tax on the unrealized gains of billionaires. Such a tax will quickly work its way down to people holding 1 or 2 million in their retirement accounts.
Second gilded age of wealth in a century for America.... Maybe consider FDR's solution to deal with it ? 🤔...☮️♥️
That's where the Reconciliation bill got torn up
@@RobinHerzig don’t be fooled into the notion that you wouldn’t be affected.
How has all this “ tax the rich” turned out in the last 30 years?
This should only apply to the Mega rich people, but not people working hard to get ahead for their family and for retirement benefit.
And what if you win the lottery? Then you will be accused of robbing the poor, when actually it is the poor robbing everyone.
Go research how much welfare people get in your state. Then you will see why the rich don't want to support millions of very lazy people!
I like how he constantly drops Jeff's and Elon's name, but hardly mentions the politically rich class of people that have have had money and power for generations. While Jeff and Elon have increased the technology and production of the world, all those rich politicians do is try to control our money.
He spends most of the video talking about the kind of dynastic wealth you’re talking about.
He didn't hesitate calling out the Waltons...
@@zdog3588 Yes but when he dropped names it was never the liberal rich names, always self-made men. The dynastic wealth problem occurs when the rich person dies, Jeff and Elon are not dead.
@@markintexas1296 First of all, there is no such thing as “self-made” men. Second, I can’t believe you just called Musk one. He comes from a wealthy family that got rich from owning a gem mine in an apartheid state. That’s one privilege (generational wealth), tripping over another (being white South African) to set him up were he is. He also didn’t invent shit, what he did was sue a company he funded for the rights to be considered a “founder”.
@@thinktransnational Self-made is a person who earned rather than inherited their money. If you think there is no such thing you are deluded.
Yeah aren’t a lot of these politicians in the federal government pretty wealthy themselves? I don’t see them wanting to tax themselves more
They're not wealthy through tax avoidance. Many get wealthy through insider trading.
Two words Ronald Reagan
Two more words. Powell memo
Yep. "saint" Reagan's policies really hurt America!
@@Zach-ju5vi Only according to the corporate media. Which unilaterally gave treasonous Reagan that title because he made corporate propaganda more powerful and the economic elite more wealthy.
@@Zach-ju5vi To the oligarchs perhaps, but he did more lasting damage to America than any president. He's no hero in spite of all the revisionist history that you apparently swallowed.
@@VEGTheAgingHippie Don't respond to him. He's just a troll.
My question is…if we all have money, will there be enough supply? If so, what will it cost. The End.
Robert, all you have to do is drop an ‘e’ and you’ll be Rich! Womp womp… In all seriousness, this was very effectively explained presentation. One other solution that I would propose is to create a tax on those who gain wealth based on something that is negatively affecting climate change. Of course, there are deniers that such things exist, so this would be the biggest hurdle, and it would have to be something very specific like gaining (not necessarily inheriting) wealth from fossil-fuel profits.
Engineering outcomes....does. not. work.
Climate change is a massively overblown phenomenon pushed by the left. Shocker- lying democrats
I guarantee that Robert Reich uses every tax break possible.
He makes a fortune giving speeches
Humanity is seriously failing as a sentient species. We really need help from some more advanced sentient species in the Galaxy to come & take over Earth and/or provide guidance on how to survive & advance by restoring balance economically, environmentally, & politically. Otherwise, humanity MAY struggle through with major death & suffering, or suffer global destruction, either complete or partial, leaving humanity in a far worse more primitive state.
Well, yes and no. While it would be great to have a savior come in to save the day, we should not let that dream push aside the fact that we also need to put in effort to change. It's like trying to lose weight - if you have a trainer but don't yourself put in effort to make long term changes, the trainer really can only do so much and as soon as the trainer isn't there, you return to what you were before.
We just need Ra's Al Ghul, his daughter Talia, Bane, and the rest of the League of Shadows to set things right again.
Na, all we need is millions of people to get a strong enough back bone to stop them, called a civil war style.
@@PhotonBeast I agree, but looking at how the world is still barely doing anything about climate change, and military budgets are increasing dramatically in several major nations, it is the systems themselves that we have established globally that have become runaway threats in themselves that I don't believe we may necessarily regain true control over again without greater outside assistance. Like I said, we MAY regain control & reestablish a sustainable equilibrium, but it will likely involve much more time, death, and suffering globally, whereas a more advanced sentient species will almost certainly have experience with the problems we have now, & would be able to provide or implement more efficient means to solve them, avoiding much of the suffering. In fact there is likely a very common set of problems any evolved sentient species will face on their planet, & there may be a form of best practices galactically, & likely universally, that lead to the best outcomes.
Prof. Yuval Noah Harari says that AI or human genome manipulation may soon do exactly that--hopefully for better, but possibly for much worse (at least for us Human 1.0 models).
A straight wealth tax is a terrible idea. But I am all in favour of higher inheritance tax and capital gains tax.
Average salary across the board is $22.65 hrs? Adjusted for inflation, minimum wage should've been $21.00 hrs ten years ago.
It’s nice that Robert Reich has been spending the last decade or so teaching us about the wealth inequality he help to create while he was advising presidents who sent American jobs to Mexico with NAFTA.
Really ??
you prob voted 4 Trump
@@aceous99 nope
@@aceous99 well voting for Biden has been proven to be a disaster hasn’t it Brandon?
Under trump low income workers pay rose as a percentage faster than anyone elses low interest rates low inflation low unemployment lower illegal immegration what did you not like about these things
Robert your seminar style posts are excellent. The one thing that needs to be touched on is personal responsibility. I made roughly the same as my co workers over 30 years. We own 2 homes and have a total worth of 2.5 million dollars while having less than 150000 in mortgage debt. My friend and co worker with the same income owns 1 homes they’ve refinanced at least twice and with a total wealth of 1 million dollars with 400000 in mortgage debt. They go on 4 expensive vacations a year as well as buying cars every few years and every toy imaginable. And he can’t understand how we have what we have. Choices and priorities I tell him, that’s all
All the personal responsibility in the world won’t help someone who earns less than $100,000 a year buy a starter home selling for a million dollars. Housing is the best way to build wealth and now that is out of reach for the younger generations. Now with skyrocketing inflation, no job security and outrageous healthcare costs, even if someone could come up with a down payment for a starter home, there is the chance they could lose their job and still lose their home. Or an unforeseen illness or accident could wipe someone out.
Yes, personal responsibility is a must for any adult, but bad things do happen to the responsible.
@@akiram6609 corporate purchasing of residential properties should be outlawed. An individual who buys homes for investment has always been ok though.
Listen to Thomas sowell and you will realize how dishonest Robert Reich is.
@@ronaldreagan-ik6hz agreed. He preaches socialism while living a comfortable lifestyle brought to him by capitalism. He is brilliant though if dishonest
@@akiram6609 read the book “everyday millionaire” or “the millionaire next door”.
You will realize that the average millionaire is everyday people that live very responsible lives.
And they don’t have a victim mentality- like Robert Reich dishonesty sells in his pathetic speeches
I hate the lesson here on Capital Gains for estate because the money used to purchase those assets were bought with after tax dollars. Imagine being taxed and barely having enough left to buy a house and you can't leave it to your kids because the government is going to tax the asset when you sign it over to your children. Taxing a man's inheritance is just morally wrong, especially when considering everything was purchased with money that has already been taxed.
That’s why I vote Republican