The Common Good

by Robert B. Reich

as political equals, we are bound to accept the outcomes even if we dislike them. This requires enough social trust for us to regard the views and interests of those with whom we disagree as equally worthy of consideration to our own.

“The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.”

We still join together, but now we join for services too expensive to purchase alone—child care, the schools our children attend, recreational facilities, and security. Rather than come together for the common good, we come together to get the best possible deal.

It is hardly the case that every president has been a moral exemplar, but a president inevitably helps set the moral tone of the nation. The values a president enunciates and demonstrates ricochet through society, strengthening or undermining the common good.

We need a generation that sees leadership as a noble cause, defined not by personal ambition, but by morality and a call to service.” Exactly. The purpose of leadership is not simply to win. It is to serve.

We often honor people who haven’t advanced the common good but have merely achieved notoriety or celebrity, or amassed great wealth or power. We shame people not for having exploited the common good for personal gain but for failing to conform to prevailing ideas about fashion or coolness, or for associating with the wrong people.

The precipitous decline can be attributed partly to the media’s increasing willingness to do whatever it takes to maximize profits. Most large media corporations are moved by shareholder returns, not the common good. In order to generate high profits and share prices, they have to attract consumers rather than serve citizens. This has transformed journalists from investigators and analysts offering serious news to “content providers” competing for attention.