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Editorial See other Editorial Articles Title: OWS has transformed public opinion For the first time since the Great Depression, the majority of Americans favor wealth redistribution OWS has transformed public opinion For the first time since the Great Depression, the majority of Americans favor wealth redistribution By Robert Reich ows protest Topics:Occupy Wall Street, Great Recession This originally appeared on Robert Reich's blog. A combination of police crackdowns and bad weather are testing the young Occupy movement. But rumors of its demise are premature, to say the least. Although numbers are hard to come by, anecdotal evidence suggests the movement is growing. As importantly, the movement has already changed the public debate in America. Consider, for example, last week’s Congressional Budget Office report on widening disparities of income in America. It was hardly news – it’s already well known that the top 1 percent now gets 20 percent of the nation’s income, up from 9 percent in the late 1970s. But it’s the first time such news made the front page of the nation’s major newspapers. Why? Because for the first time in more than half a century, a broad cross-section of the American public is talking about the concentration of income, wealth and political power at the top. Score a big one for the Occupiers. Even more startling is the change in public opinion. Not since the 1930s has a majority of Americans called for redistribution of income or wealth. But according to a recent New York Times/CBS News poll, an astounding 66 percent of Americans said the nation’s wealth should be more evenly distributed. A similar majority believes the rich should pay more in taxes. According to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, even a majority of people who describe themselves as Republicans believe taxes should be increased on the rich. I remember the days when even raising the subject of inequality made you a “class warrior.” Now, it seems, most Americans have become class warriors. And they blame Republicans for stacking the deck in favor of the rich. On that New York Times/CBS News poll, 69 percent of respondents said Republican policies favor the rich (28 percent said the same of Obama’s policies). The old view was anyone could make it in America with enough guts and gumption. We believed in the self-made man (or, more recently, woman) who rose from rags to riches – inventors and entrepreneurs born into poverty, like Benjamin Franklin; generations of young men from humble beginnings who grew up to became president, like Abe Lincoln. We loved the novellas of Horatio Alger, and their more modern equivalents – stories that proved the American dream was open to anyone who worked hard. In that old view, being rich was proof of hard work, and lack of money proof of indolence or worse. As Herman Cain still says “if you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself.” But Cain’s line isn’t hitting a responsive chord. In fact, he’s backtracked from it (along with much of the rest of what he’s said). A profound change has come over America. Guts, gumption, and hard work don’t seem to pay off as they once did – or at least as they did in our national morality play. Instead, the game seems rigged in favor of people who are already rich and powerful – as well as their children. Instead of lionizing the rich, we’re beginning to suspect they gained their wealth by ripping us off. Mitt Romney is defensive about his vast wealth (reputed to total a quarter of a billion). He’s reverted to scolding his audiences on the campaign trail for “attacking people based on heir success.” The old view was also that great wealth trickled downward – that the rich made investments in jobs and growth that benefitted all of us. So even if we doubted we’d be wealthy, we still gained from the fortunes made by a few. But that view, too, has lost its sheen. Nothing has trickled down. The rich have become far richer over the last three decades but the rest of us haven’t. In fact, median incomes are dropping. Wall Street moguls are doing better than ever – after having been bailed out by the rest of us. But the rest of us are doing worse. CEOs are hauling in more than 300 times the pay of average workers (up from 40 times the pay only three decades ago), as average workers lose jobs, wages, and benefits. Instead of investing in jobs and growth, the super rich are putting their money into gold or Treasury bills, or investing it in Brazil or South Asia or anywhere else it can reap the highest return. Meanwhile, it’s dawning on Americans that in the real economy (as opposed to the financial one) our spending is vital. And without enough jobs or wages, that spending is drying up. The economy is in trouble because so much income and wealth have been going to the top that the rest us no longer have the purchasing power to buy the goods and services we would produce at or near full employment. The jobs depression shows no sign of ending. Personal disposable income, adjusted for inflation, was down 1.7 percent in the third quarter of this year – the biggest drop since the third quarter of 2009. Housing prices have stalled, home sales are down. The only reason consumer spending rose in September is because we drew from our meager savings – mostly in order to pay medical bills, health insurance, and utilities. That’s the third month of savings declines, according to the Commerce Department’s report last Friday. This can’t and won’t continue. Savings are now down to 3.6 percent of personal disposable income, their lowest level since the recession began. Americans know a rigged game when they see one. They understand how much money is flowing into politics from the super rich, big corporations, and Wall Street — in order to keep their taxes low and entrench their privileged position. The Occupy movement is gaining ground because it’s hitting a responsive chord. What happens from here on depends on whether other Americans begin to march to the music — and organize. Robert Reich, a professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was secretary of labor during the Clinton administration. He is also a blogger and the author of "Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future."More Robert Reich Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 61.
#51. To: tom007 (#0)
OWS has transformed public opinion For the first time since the Great Depression, the majority of Americans favor wealth redistribution By Robert Reich Seems to me wealth redistribution is precisely what OWS is protesting. But I guess that will remain a point of debate among both sides.
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The gravy train's been fun for most people, but now it's over. The fundamental flaw in socialism is human nature. When you reward people for producing nothing that is what they will produce. Having said that though we do need a temporary net because the productive capability of the nation has been so sabotaged that if the safety net programs abruptly end today then you would see millions starve and it would create social turmoil. The dismantling of the socialist regime is going to have to be more gradual in order to rebuild the economy.
You get more of what you subsidize, lazy welfare corporations or individuals and both are unsustainable. The small business people should revolt as they have been getting the shaft to pay for both for decades now........
You get more of what you subsidize, lazy welfare corporations or individuals and both are unsustainable. The small business people should revolt as they have been getting the shaft to pay for both for decades now........ The problem of course is that we cannot cut off our nose to spite our face. "Galt's Gulch" lies only in the realm of fiction. While the situation is begging of a solution that solution will come only through a transformation of the society from irresponsible to resposible and criminal to law abiding. Of course the laws must also be ethical and responsible. As old Will commented: "The Bard of the law is offtimes an ass." As I pointed out to Eric above we are out of easy solutions. I think we may have perhaps tipped into the right direction but that will yet be a long road. As you rightly point out the current system is unsustainable, but unfortunately that is exactly what the people who have created it want - a total collapse where they foresee themselves emerging still at the top of the heap lording over all.
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