Robert B. Reich's Blog, page 78
October 22, 2016
The Trust Destroyers
the presidential election exemplifies...
October 19, 2016
TAKE BACK THE SENATE!Amid all the focus on the presidential race...
TAKE BACK THE SENATE!
Amid all the focus on the presidential race it’s also important
to keep in mind Democrats have a fighting chance to take back the Senate in
November. There are at least 12 races in play. Win five, and Democrats are in
control regardless of the outcome of the presidential election.
Many of of the Democrats on the ballot this year are
progressives who have been fighting to raise the minimum wage, expand Social
Security, provide paid sick leave and paid parental leave. Many are women and
people of color who will make the Senate look more like the rest of America.
Win five of these races and we’d have a chance for a Supreme
Court that would prioritize the rights and needs of average Americans rather
than big corporations and overturn Citizens United!
Win five of these races and we’d put Senate oversight of the
government back into the hands of people who care that government actually
works.
We’d strengthen the ranks of progressives like Elizabeth Warren,
Bernie Sanders, Jeff Merkley, Sherrod Brown, and others – who we are counting
on in the fight to get big money out of politics, reduce income and wealth
inequality, confront devastating climate change, and push a progressive foreign
policy.
A Democratic Senate would also give us a line of defense, a
countervailing power in budget showdowns, foreign policy lock downs, and
threatened government shutdowns.
If Hillary Clinton becomes president, a Democratic Senate will
help push her positive agenda, and hold her accountable if she veers away from
it. If Donald Trump becomes president – well, let’s just say we’ll need a
Democratic Senate more than ever.
So please remember what’s at stake. And Vote on November 8th!
October 16, 2016
Hillary Clinton, Paul Ryan, and the Crisis of American Capitalism
winner when Donald Trump and his fellow haters are defeated on...
October 11, 2016
Why All Progressives Must Vote For Hillary
October 8, 2016
Wishful Thinking: First Hundred Days after November 8
October 2, 2016
The Real Scandal of Trump Paying No Taxes
million loss on his 1995 tax returns...
October 1, 2016
Focus on Trump Shouldn’t Give Other Republicans a Free Pass
focusing on the defects of Donald Trump rather than the defects...
Hillary Clinton’s Anti-Trump Campaign
focusing on the defects of Donald Trump rather than the defects...
September 29, 2016
Why We’ll Need a Universal Basic IncomeImagine a little gadget...
Why We’ll Need a Universal Basic Income
Imagine a little gadget called an i-Everything.
You can’t get it yet, but if technology keeps moving as fast as it is now, the
i-Everything will be with us before you know it.
A combination of intelligent
computing, 3-D manufacturing, big data crunching, and advanced bio-technology,
this little machine will be able to do everything you want and give you
everything you need.
There’s only one hitch. As the
economy is now organized, no one will be able to buy it, because there won’t be
any paying jobs left. You see, the i-Everything will do … everything.
We’re heading toward the
i-Everything far quicker than most people realize. Even now, we’re producing
more and more with fewer and fewer people.
Internet sales are on the way to
replacing millions of retail workers. Diagnostic apps will be replacing
hundreds of thousands of health-care workers. Self-driving cars and trucks will
replace 5 million drivers.
Researchers estimate that almost
half of all U.S. jobs are at risk of being automated in the next two decades.
This isn’t necessarily bad. The
economy we’re heading toward could offer millions of people more free time to
do what they want to do instead of what they have to do to earn a living.
But to make this work, we’ll have
to figure out some way to recirculate the money from the handful of people who design
and own i-Everythings, to the rest of us who will want to buy i-Everythings.
One answer: A universal
basic income – possibly financed out of the profits going to such labor
replacing innovations, or perhaps even a revenue stream off of the underlying intellectual
property.
The idea of a universal basic
income historically isn’t as radical as it may sound. It’s had support from
people on both the left and the right. In the 1970s, President Nixon
proposed a similar concept for the United States, and it even passed the House
of Representatives.
The idea is getting some traction
again, partly because of the speed of technological change. I keep running into
executives of high-tech companies who tell me a universal basic income is
inevitable, eventually.
Some conservatives believe it’s superior
or other kinds of public assistance because a universal basic income doesn’t
tell people what to spend the assistance on, and doesn’t stigmatize recipients
because everyone qualifies.
In recent years, evidence has shown
that giving people cash as a way to address poverty actually works. In study
after study, people don’t stop working and they don’t drink it away.
Interest in a basic income is
surging, with governments debating it from Finland to Canada to Switzerland to Namibia.
The charity “Give Directly” is about to launch a basic income pilot in Kenya,
providing an income for more than 10 years to some of the poorest and most vulnerable
families on the planet. And then rigorously evaluate the results.
As new technologies replace work,
the question for the future is how best to provide economic security for all.
A
universal basic income will almost certainly be part of the answer.
September 25, 2016
Time for Congress to Stop Hollering at CEOs and Take Action
barrage of CEO bashing.The Senate Banking Committee...
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