Avoid The Austerity Trap - Robert reich

professor robert arise shes on the lining of former secretary of labor in the clinton ministration economist author of the new book in eugene look beyond outrage what has gone wrong with our economy and our democracy and how to fix it professor reich welcome back to the program don't count how are you i'm great i hope you are too uh... i should add by shabbily robert rice shari i c h dot org is the website where people can find more information and i'm presuming they can find his newly booked there has yet to be the in fact the about the possibility of a paperback out in september okay great cell uh... the title begs the question why does god around with our economy and our democracy and i could fix it held up basically at instrum much of it is about eighty quality comic you've talked about this i've talked about this but if you look closely you see that has more and more income and wealth have uh... centralized his have concentrated at the top uh... the vast middle class and the port simply don't have enough purchasing power to keep the economy going at that's one big reason why this recovery is so anemic and uh... here which is to blast our on this uh... in america where bloomberg wants to ben big gulp drinks relieve the bailey's trying to do something about obesity he tried to get a tax on them of the lobbyists got to the legislators they couldn't do anything but you know you look at the research from wilkerson picket uh... over the u_k_ at equality trust in and a lot of other research in there seems to be almost a wonder one association between obesity and poverty and and and as poverty is exploding in the u_s_ is or a b_ c_ in inequality in societies when this is this is not just some smaller academic setting hia and to live but look at center cat uh... showed that one of the reasons for the inequality leads to so much uh... so many social problems uh... in the bottom half of the distribution is because uh... people feel that day that that that that that game is stacked against the uh... the dice are loaded at they they can't possibly get ahead more and more americans feel that way and the net result is is not just uh... a kind of giving up kind of sense of hopelessness uh... along with uh... many of the social problems that come from that sense of hopelessness but it's also a bad for a democracy because uh... as we can see right now you've got billions of dollars accumulating in the coffers of super pacts that barb basically bear into french the interest surya and the money of the very rich whole well how did we get here well and that we got here for a bit because uh... for decades in the you know i was a a cabinet member in the clinton ministration i did what i could uh... but innale frankly we didn't do enough and i think that that was true uh... of the first term of the whole bomb administration i hope there's a second term uh... certainly reagan uh... and the two bushes george w_ bush and his father uh... did a lot to push us in the direction of widening inequality uh... but uh... it's not a hopeless i i you know people who say to me well inevitably globalization and uh... technological change it's just great just inevitably going to happen as they were wrong i mean this country both in the first decade of the twentieth century it also in the nineteen thirties and again in the nineteen th sixties we reversed widening inequality we've done in or we can do it again right and so what are the policies that we should pursue to do that in your opinion uh... well number one we've got to have a truly progressive tax system uh... we have a tax system now where uh... the wealthiest americans are paying have the rate of taxes they were paying before nineteen eighty one uh... and that many of them are paying fifteen percent uh... you know i make a look at ross bromley so i'm twenty one million dollars he's paying less than fourteen percent y because so much of that is treated as capital gains subject to fifteen percent tax cut or that's that's absurd molina and particularly for private equity manages to others who don't even risk their own capital dot that's all the police is created for the priroda critique people well that and the have defended it very very well because uh... hope all of their money going to politics is a testament to the power of money and politics i mean you need a progressive tax system you need uh... to invest in education infrastructure you need to makes sure it that the fed to and also the uh... the fiscal policy that comes out of the white house and congress i'd generate high employment rather than high unemployment there's no way we can get you about wages back and uh... the middle class can do better if we have so many people unemployed uh... we've got expand something called the earned income tax credit at top i mean uh... either there's no single magic bullet but we've done it before we can do this again we did the words driver right she's got it and you you book out called beyond which will soon be a paperback and i'm sure you can pre-order written and it's not what right can you can people for your this is the correct you'll hear circuit greater detail is beyond our request gone wrong with our economy and our democracy how to fix it and is webserver right sherry i c h dot work aren't it it seems to me is that the the if you were dead takes the the seventy thousand foot view the you know the very biggest picture possible view of this that the original sin is money in politics and giving them montana no that is the original you know i a m agreed to become chairman of a group called common cause uh... it's been around for four decades uh... its primary intent in fact this entire purpose is to reduce the power of money in politics the citizens united decision uh... which by the way school leah and thomas uh... were instrumental in not only in terms of writing it but they very right wing groups uh... the uh... enough that plotted that into higher uh... strategy uh... that decision has opened the floodgates obviously and where we're now seeing uh... the results were reaping the whirlwind of all of that uh... money ad does not have to rule politics we have some very important reforms after watergate they lasted for a number of years uh... we can reform the system again although you know the founders did not say that the supreme court has more in the constitution at the supreme court has the power to strike down laws or for that matter to create doctrines like the idea corporations are people in the money is not property it's instead speech on the court took that power onto itself in eighteen oh three decades called marburg versus madison on isn't it that and in fact article to see article three section to the constitution explicitly says that the supreme court shall operate under regulations defined by congress so congress could say you know tomorrow you you have to at least fattened by by the judicial code of ethics uh... but parikh absent any kind of congressional oversight and absent the supreme court going back to you know the constitutional uh... basis of power that they that they have now we've got this probably got these nine guys uh... men and women just don't you know of three blocks more upsetting uh... are like the kings of america uh... don't we or do you think that we need a day a constitutional amendment to get around to them to say that money is property not speech and the corporations are legal fictions not human began operations yes i do i think that that is absolutely necessary uh... and that amendment could completely exactly that uh... nowhere in the constitution nowhere in the first amendment uh... can it be found nor should be interpreted that money his speech and corporations are people uh... congress has the power and the president uh... has the power with congress a term limits uh... money in politics and limit corporate uh... spending with regard to political spending and and uh... this kind of spending on advertising uh... whose intent is obviously political out right now uh... things are completely and totally out of control abut it we don't have to only way to a constitutional amendment tom uh... if we had a system of public financing uh... that really did match four dollar with public dollars on a check-off system every dollar that eight candidates for officer who is in a general election uh... raised from small donors uh... under let's say two hundred dollars each that clicky without the playing field that would make it very briefly before uh... of these republicans it's mostly republican terribly to depends upon such extraordinary well yeah financed their campaign server wilson professor robert rice his corroboration toward his new book beyond outreach check it out thank you sir i'd make it up