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Wednesday, August 17, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
O
P
I N I O
N
Robert B.
Reich
American Voices
Letters to the Editor…
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ters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor.
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To the Editor:
Cultures in contrast.
Recently, we traveled to the Scandinavian
and Nordic countries. Beautiful landscape,
lovely people and a vastly different social
economy. It was not hard to distinguish social-
ism from a capitalistic market. All of the coun-
tries had high tax rates, up to 70 percent.
Those we spoke to said they had the ben-
efits of health care coverage, free education,
liberal maternity time away from work, and a
28-hour work week. But they acknowledged
doctor appointments were difficult to schedule
and serious treatments could be a year or more
out.
The post-50-year-old crowd complained
about the free education and free housing for
students. Students lived better than seniors
on a pension. And that they had to accept stu-
dents from across the EU and pay for them
as well. In Denmark, it was reported that the
millennials had the lowest personal savings
rate. They spent their money on near-term
choices and personal credit was at an all-
time high. The reason stated was that because
nearly all their costs were covered by the gov-
ernment, they had no reason to save. A lament
that personal accountability was being lost.
In the American system, personal account-
ability still counts, though it is being eroded.
Our history is about a personal work ethic
that rewards greater effort. The individual
is responsible for their 401Ks and saving
options. Personal accountability means “plan
and take care of yourself. Don’t rely on the
government.”
Ever notice that those who complain about
a cost want someone else to pay? To those
who promote increased entitlements, whose
funds are you tapping? We might question, is
See LetterS on page 18
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It looks increasingly
likely that Hillary Clinton, a
self-described “progressive
who likes to get things done,”
will have her chance starting
next January. But how much
that’s progressive will she
actually be able to get done?
The Senate may flip to
the Democrats, but there’s
almost no way Democrats
will have the 60 votes they
need to stop Republicans
from filibustering everything
she says she wants to do.
She is unlikely to have a
typical presidential honey-
moon because she won’t be
riding the wave of hope and
enthusiasm that typically
accompanies a new president
into office. She’s already
more distrusted by the public
than any major candidate in
recent history.
She hasn’t established a
powerful mandate for what
she wants to get done. Her
policy proposals are admi-
rably detailed but cover so
much ground that even her
most ardent supporters don’t
have a clear picture of what
she stands for.
To say nothing of the
moneyed interests — wealthy
individuals, big corporations
and Wall Street — that are
more powerful today than
at any time since the Gilded
Age and don’t want progres-
sive change.
Even if Hillary sincerely
intends to raise taxes on rich
Americans in order to pay for
universal child care, afford-
able higher education and
infrastructure spending, the
moneyed interests have the
clout to stop her.
They’ll also resist any
effort to raise the federal
minimum wage to $12 an
hour, require employers to
offer paid family leave, or
push employers to share their
profits with employees.
Economist John Kenneth
Galbraith noted in the 1950s,
a key legacy of the New Deal
was creating centers of eco-
nomic power that offset the
power of giant corporations
and Wall Street: labor unions,
small retail businesses, local
banks, and political parties
active at the state and local
levels.
These alternative power
centers supported poli-
cies that helped America’s
vast middle and working
classes during the first three
decades after World War II
— the largest infrastructure
project in American history
(the Interstate Highway pro-
gram), a vast expansion of
nearly free public higher edu-
cation, Medicare and Medic-
aid, and, to pay for all this,
high taxes on the wealthy.
(Between 1946 and 1980, the
top marginal tax rate never
dipped below 70 percent.)
But over the last three
decades, countervailing
power has almost vanished
from American politics.
Labor unions have been
decimated. In the 2012 presi-
dential election, the richest
0.01 percent of households
gave Democratic candidates
more than four times what
unions contributed to their
campaigns.
Small retailers have been
displaced by Wal-Mart and
Amazon. Local banks have
been absorbed by Wall Street
behemoths.
And both political par-
ties have morphed into
giant national fundraising
machines.
The most promising
source of a new countervail-
ing power in America was
revealed in Bernie Sanders’
primary campaign: millions
of citizens determined to
reclaim American democ-
racy and the economy from
big money. That movement
lives on. Organizers from
the Sanders campaign have
already launched Brand New
Congress, an ambitious effort
to run at least 400 progres-
sive candidates for Congress
in 2018, financed by small,
crowd-sourced donations and
led by a nationwide network
of volunteers. Sanders him-
self recently announced the
formation of “Our Revolu-
tion” to support progressive
candidates up and down the
ticket.
Hillary Clinton has been
relying on big money to
finance her presidential cam-
paign, but she’s always been
a pragmatist about govern-
ing. “A president has to deal
in reality,” she said last Janu-
ary in response to Sanders.
“I am not interested in ideas
that sound good on paper
but will never make it in real
life.”
The pragmatist in her must
know that the only way her
ideas will make it in real life
is if the public is organized
and mobilized behind them.
© 2016 By Robert Reich;
Distributed by Tribune Con-
tent Agency, LLC.
Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and
are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.