![\"RR](\"http:\/\/www.annefocke.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/RR-portrait.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe very last questioner in the Q & A following Robert Reich\u2019s talk<\/a> at Town Hall Seattle this past October, challenged him with the words of Martin Luther King in a 1966 Leadership retreat, which were essentially these: \u201cThere is something wrong with capitalism. It is time for America to move toward a democratic socialism. I believe in the right of a guaranteed minimum income.\u201d<\/p>\n The solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely discussed measure: the guaranteed income.*<\/em> In response, Reich handed the questioner a copy of his book, Saving Capitalism for the Many, Not the Few<\/em>. Then he said, \u201cThe last two chapters in that book make the case for a universal basic income.\u201d While he argued that \u201cisms\u201d are not helpful, he went on to say, \u201cWe need to ask the fundamental question, which is: Is this system working for all<\/em> of us, giving us all a fair shot? Or is the system biased in some very important structural ways. And if it\u2019s biased, how exactly do we unrig that system?\u201d<\/p>\n Reich believes our current system is <\/em>rigged. Earlier, in his more formal talk, Reich maintained that to \u201cunrig\u201d it, the system\u2019s rules must change. \u201cYou can\u2019t have a market without government,\u201d he said, because the market needs rules. It needs rules around property, contracts, monopoly, bankruptcy, enforcement, and more. The market can\u2019t function without these mechanisms. The rules change over time, and, right now, the rules are being changed to serve the few not the many. The changes are a major cause of inequality and of the declining income of the poor and middle-class. \u201cWide-spread prosperity isn\u2019t just a moral good, it\u2019s an economic good as well.\u201d The low and middle-classes don\u2019t have enough purchasing power to generate a healthy economy. And he added, \u201cWall Street isn\u2019t the job generator; the middle class is.\u201d<\/p>\n Other forces have picked up steam over the past 35 years and also work against a system for the many. Reich outlined some of them briefly at Town Hall and discusses them in his new book, Saving Capitalism for the Many, Not the Few<\/em>: globalism and the outsourcing of labor that accompanies it for one, and labor-replacing technologies for another. But both his talk and his book focus on the increasing failure of the rules, on what in the rules needs to change, and on how the changes could be made.<\/p>\n The vast majority must regain influence over how the market is organized. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>\u2013 Robert Reich<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Over the same 35 years, large corporations and banks, along with wealthy individuals, have been able to get changes in the rules to benefit themselves. And this feeds on itself, he added. \u201cAs income and wealth have concentrated at the top, political power has moved there as well.\u201d We need to \u201clift the curtain\u201d on how the rules of the \u201cfree market\u201d are being set and learn how government rules are allowing money to flow upward, from the bottom to the top. One of Reich\u2019s reasons for optimism today is a belief that \u201cif the smaller players understood this dynamic,\u201d they could ally themselves and form a new countervailing power. \u201cThe vast majority must regain influence over how the market is organized.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to understanding how the rules are being changed, the vast majority comprising this countervailing force will need some good new ideas. His book describes a range ideas for policies that need to change, including reform of our campaign finance system to get money out of politics, ways corporations could be reinvented, and possible additions and revisions to the tax code. And he proposes what he calls a \u201ccitizen\u2019s bequest,\u201d a way to \u201credistribute the profits from [new and] marvelous labor-saving inventions so we\u2019ll have the money to buy the free time they provide,\u201d to quote from his blog post on Labor Day this year, \u201cLabor Day 2028.\u201d<\/a> That is, as he envisions it, this\u00a0citizen’s bequest\u00a0could be a way to fund the provision of a basic minimum income.<\/p>\n In the end, his final questioner at Town Hall gave Reich what he\u2019d hoped for, \u201can opportunity to summarize with great exhortation.\u201d He closed with this:<\/p>\n We believe in a system that works for all of us. We don\u2019t believe in an aristocracy. We don\u2019t believe there should be people called \u2018the working poor,\u2019 who are working full time and are still poor. We don\u2019t believe there should be non-working rich. We don\u2019t believe in pure equality \u2013 that\u2019s silly \u2013 but we believe in a system where everyone has a chance, a real chance, to make it, and everyone moves upward as the economy improves. We believe there is a moral core to this system, whatever you want to call it.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n And then he read the final paragraph in his book:<\/p>\n The vast majority of the nation\u2019s citizens do have the power to alter the rules of the market to meet their needs. But to exercise that power, they must understand what is happening and where their interests lie, and they must join together. We have done so before. If history is any guide and common sense has any sway, we will do so again.<\/em><\/p>\n _______________________<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n * \u00a0\u00a0 Martin Luther King,\u00a0Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? <\/em>(1967).<\/p>\n You can watch the video of Robert Reich’s talk at Town Hall here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n
\n\u2013 Martin Luther King<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\n