Summary Of Saving Capitalism By Robert B. Reich

The book Saving Capitalism, written by Robert B. Reich, explains the current economic situation, theory’s behind worker’s and voter’s moral, and ways to make the American economy work for the many and not the few. Reich examines the effect of corporate influence on the economy. Large corporations tilting the market in a way that would benefit the top and not much else. The old protections which limit the influence of money in government have been undone. Landmark cases which served to limit the amount of money that can be thrown into government. All the money going into the policy system is making the system skewing toward the top. The new rules allow different forms of monopolies, new property rights, contracts, and bankruptcy. Large corporations
are making the economy and the government work for them and failing the American people. The current system is making the worker feel like they are less deserving of a livable wage. While the economy was booming and these large corporations are making huge sums of money the working peoples wages were not moving. the income inequality is growing and the government is failing to protect the American people. Reich says that there is an increase in the number of people who feel that the system is rigged.
They feel like they have no power. They feel like they deserve the pay they are getting from their job. While CEOs are making millions of dollars for running a company. Many of these CEO don’t need to work at all, but they make millions. People who are the “working poor “according to Reich feel like these CEOs are “worth” their pay. The working people once had the power to demand fair pay. The way they were able to get these powers was because of unions. Unions gave them the power to fight and own collective shares in the company they work for. Wall Street has made the impression that companies must work for the shareholders. Changing the perception of who Wall Street works for and the large corporations influence of the government has made a system that only favors the top one percent of the American people. Reich makes the point there isn’t really a choice of “free market” or “big” government. Government is there to make the rules of the game on the free market. Reich mentions people want of the poor to tax the rich. A good portion of the rich didn’t make or have to work for their
wealth. These people were just born. Reich says people work toward their own interest. Robert Reich says change is coming because history has taught us this fact. Change has happened in the past because of unions and the collective power of the working people. The American people need to put back the countervailing weight to balance out the economy. Reich argues, if nothing is done to change our current capitalistic system than it will fail. We need to put back the countervailing weight. This weight will fall back into place when the next major change to the economic system comes. Reich these changes come with time. Reich wants a system the will serve the many. He wants money to be taken out of politics. Reinstate the laws that have been repealed in order the make the market fair. The market will be “free” and the rules will be enforced and made by the government. To reinvent the capitalism system where it would work for the many. Reich mentions the tax rate of a company will be from the comparing of the wage the average worker under the companies employ to the pay of the CEO. If the gap is a small multiplier, then that company will pay less in taxes. However, if the multiplier is bigger then that company will pay a higher tax rate. The way the economy is changing and the rules that govern the economy are not changing in conjunction. The American economic system needs to change from severing the few on the top too serve the many. The most likely change to our economic system will be computers and robots taking over more and more things. These inventions make our live easier. In the coming future these inventions will do away will the jobs that are currently in the market. This future is a high possibility but in order for the many to enjoy this time we need to change the current system. Political power and economic power have become hand in hand. In the book saving Capitalism, written by Robert Reich, he mentions how big companies have found new ways of getting monopolies. Reich says “by 2014 more than 80 percent of Americans had no choice but to rely on a single cable company for high capacity wired data connections to the internet.” You didn’t need to go far in order to determine this line was right on the money. When I moved into a new place I was looking for an internet provider. I was searching for the fast speed with the lowest price. I was able to find this deal with ATT. However, ATT website and the customer service told me I was unable to get their service. ATT told me the only provider I was able to get was Time Warner. Time Warner Cable was able to make the city of Los Angeles only their domain. Time Warner made it so no other company can give internet service between certain city limits. I wanted to know more about this so I went looking and found out the cities were broken down zones where only one provider was allowed. The street, Glendale Blvd, was a boarder of between Charter Cable and Time Warner Cable. To the left of Glendale Blvd, you were only able to get Time Warner Cable. On the right side of Glendale Blvd, you were only able to get Charter Cable. In the book Robert Reich mentions new ways of getting property’s. The new type of property is now intellectual and technology patents. There is a war going on right now over these rights. Reich said, “An entire legal industry has developed around defending patents or suing for patent infringement.” Not so long ago, there were news and article about Apple and Samsung suing each other for patent infringement. These court cases were being played out over the years. One of the big points was when a judge found Apple did infringe on one of Samsung patents. Apple was told to pay Samsung restitutions of one billion dollars. However, another judge found that ruling faultily and order it to be repealed. The people got angry will the two companies because they were suing each other so many times the courts were being backed up. As a result, other people or companies were not able to make their cases. These two cases are only the tip of how much of what Robert Reich has said is true.
Now people are thinking that there are only two choices in our economic system. You can ether choose the “free market” or government control of the market. However, there is a third option and Robert Reich has a touch on it in his book. We could have a market that is free but has governing rules to make sure people are treated fairly. Currently people who are working in low level jobs have no power to make their lives a little better. They can try to come together and form a union, but most of these people live paycheck to paycheck. These companies have made their employee take “at will” employment. Under this banner, the employer can let go of any person whenever they choice to. For example, I work for Target and we have a “at will” employment. In this contract is really does say that they can let me go for any reason. Reich mentions a way to counter. Reich says, “if the smaller players understood this dynamic, presumably they would seek to gain greater influence by allying themselves. This alliance, or set of alliances, would form the new countervailing power.” This movement is going on right now in the political election for the next president. I would say this movement is under way right now behind Bernie Sanders. Sanders is calling his movement a political revolution. He is gathering the small and having them join up to form a new alliance. Now I use alliance not to say that everybody
thinks and wants the same thing. In most alliance there is a common focus the people within the alliance want gone. We have been seeing the growing movement of Bernie Sanders being played in out in the voting result of states. Bernie Sanders was a nobody in the eyes of the public. However, people who feel and see what is going wrong with our current system. They want to change the system so it would help not only the rich, but the poor and middle class alike.