Robert Reich's "Saving Capitalism"
For the Many, Not the Few
Robert Reich would be an unexpected ally for the movement on the Left, or the more liberal members of the American society. Reich is a classically trained economist that has actually won a Nobel Prize in economics for some of his work. Such awards and achievements would typically be associated with an individual that was more economically conservative than what Reich is arguing. However, the economic conditions that have provided decades of economic growth for many of the advanced nations are changing quickly and the standard economic perspectives are no longer creating the results that they did in previous circumstances. Reich makes many claims that might seem counterintuitive to many people who believe that the free market operates best when it is left to its own devices and not subject to government regulation.
However, the concept that hard work will allow you succeed and make a better life for you and your family does not apply to the new generation to the extent it did in previous years. For example, middle-income children are half as likely to climb to the top quintile...
Trends such as these create conditions in which inequality is rampant and provide the foundation for Reich's arguments. This
analysis will review the work Reich presents and his ideas restoring economic mobility in the United States.
Saving Capitalism
Many of the arguments that Reich is tackling are a direct response to the notion that free markets are worthy of some ideological status that beyond any
criticism. People in the United States often feel that capitalism and the free market is a system that has proven itself to be the best system that has ever been tried and have consequently developed an obsession with the free market and the basic rules of capitalism that represents such a closely held belief that it could be perceived as approaching more of a religious sentiment than anything related to a
public policy. At the same time, there is also mounting evidence provided by other countries that illustrate alternatives to strict free market adherence that have shown to be effective in many regards, especially relative to policy outcomes.
The main idea that Reich rallies around is that inequality is producing social results that are inconsistent with effective public policies and possible (or probably)
democracy in general. In an
interview with Rolling Stone Magazine about the book Reich has stated that he has received two basic categories of responses to his proposals, which he describes as (Konczal, 2015):
"You called your book Saving Capitalism. Why…
