Have You Heard???

It would appear that the President needs to take a long hard listen to Robert Reich’s economic suggestions. It would appear, given the tumultuous nature of our country’s economy in the past 3 years, that it’s obvious the efforts of our current Congress and Presidency have failed, and that new leadership with bold, stunning, and phenomenal ideas is urgently needed. Mr. Reich has brilliant plans, and is actively publishing them on his blogs. 

Via FB – “Those of you who worry that the President won't follow through on the ideas he put forth yesterday have every reason to be skeptical. But if we organize and mobilize around these ideas -- as the Occupiers have done -- we have a shot at creating a mandate for O and the Dems in 2012 and beyond. Nothing good happens in Washington unless good people outside Washington make it happen. Finally O is offering a large and true picture of where the nation has been and where we must go. He can't get there without us. We have to push him.” – Robert Reich

Now I am definitely not an economist and have had no training in the field but Mr. Reich seems to know what he is talking about and he possesses vast experience in the politico-economic theater. Reich advised the Clinton Administration on the economy, and those, as it turned out, were some truly exceptional times in recent history; that experience translates into a message Reich wants to get out and should be heeded. He has denounced the Republican’s obvious love for shielding the rich through their strict allegiance to a “Tax Pledge”, as well as for forgetting their Oath to the Constitution and the United States. When Reich focuses his attention on the more purely economic topics one finds some truly sensational ideas.

One of the progressive calls to action that Mr. Reich has made is now that the “SuperCommittee” has failed in their task, for the President to propose a sweeping and grand new piece of job legislation to help put the staggering number of unemployed people back to work. There is no time to lose; the ARR of 2009 was an exceptionally bad compromise which ended up being far too small and accomplishing far too little.  The new bill will have to overcome the shortcomings of the old, and then provide an economy with enough momentum to keep steadily moving forward instead of sagging back into a state of inertia. In order for this to work some important things, Reich argues, must change immediately.

The super-rich in this country must be taxed! Reich not only calls for this basic economic action, but urges the Occupy movement to not only vociferously call for it, but also to demand that the monies derived from surtaxes levied on the super-rich be distributed to educational institutions of all levels, that way we can forge a more knowledgeable and intelligent series of future generations. Another place for some of the surtaxes to go would be social services programs. It is asinine that in a modern society the income gap would be allowed to be so profuse. That millions of Americans are without healthcare is despicable.          

Another important argument that Reich makes is one regarding the pay of American workers; which has dropped dramatically in recent years and is barely, if at all, keeping up with inflation needs to be regulated so that a person working fulltime is actually earning a living wage whereby he/she can support a family. Reich also discusses the concept of the Basic Bargain. This is when American employers pay American workers enough to buy what American employers sell.  This sort of system creates a higher living standard, more jobs, better wages and it will begin to shrink the income-gap.  Workers who are paid more would buy more and the cycle would churn anew.  It is also time we rediscovered Robert Reich; for the good of the country as a whole and economy specifically. See what you think: http://robertreich.org/