Robert Reich - Is Capitalism Always Good for Democracy?

[Sapphire Blue]

Run time: 04:18 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCMIgzSWkeU   Posted on YouTube: September 25, 2007 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: September 26, 2007 By DU Member: Sapphire Blue Views on DU: 1036

 

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/fora/showthread.php?t=1587


Former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich argues that certain aspects of capitalism are often at odds with the best interests of democracy.

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Robert Reich discusses "Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life."

In his newest book, "Supercapitalism," Reich explores the clash between capitalism and democracy. Our economy has become more efficient than ever, with turbocharged, web-based global capitalism morphing into supercapitalism. While supercapitalism is working well to enlarge the economic pie, democracy - charged with caring for all its citizens - is becoming less and less effective under its influence. He makes clear how the tools traditionally used to temper America's societal problems have withered as supercapitalism has burgeoned, and sets out a clear course that can lead the nation to a vibrant capitalism and a concurrent, equally vibrant democracy - Cody's@FCCB

Robert B. Reich is Professor of Public Policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He has served in three national administrations, most recently as secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton. He has written eleven books, including The Work of Nations, which has been translated into 22 languages; the best-sellers The Future of Success and Locked in the Cabinet, and his most recent book, Supercapitalism. His articles have appeared in the New Yorker, Atlantic Monthly, New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal. Mr. Reich is co-founding editor of The American Prospect magazine. His weekly commentaries on public radio's "Marketplace" are heard by nearly five million people.

As the nation's 22nd Secretary of Labor, Reich implemented the Family and Medical Leave Act, led a national fight against sweatshops in the U.S. and illegal child labor around the world, headed the administration's successful effort to raise the minimum wage, secured worker's pensions, and launched job-training programs, one-stop career centers, and school-to-work initiatives. Under his leadership, the Department of Labor won more than 30 awards for innovation. A 1996 poll of cabinet experts conducted by the Hearst newspapers rated him the most effective cabinet secretary during the Clinton administration.

Reich has been a member of the faculties of Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government and of Brandeis University. He received his B.A. from Dartmouth College, his M.A. from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and his J.D. from Yale Law School.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCMIgzSWkeU

[Taverner]

1. Wow. I had no idea this was being discussed by Reich

Currently this is something avoided in our politics....

[The Wielding Truth]

2. Kucinich has been fighting this for years. So has Feingold.

It is so good to see it being opening discussed by Reich.

[provis99]

3. Capitalism and democracy are antipathetic to each other

What we have in America is Corporate capitalism. The Adam Smith idea of politically powerless small businessmen competing with each other is a delusion. Corporatism works best in a corporate state, the ideal of which is fascism. No surprise why Reich experiences cognitive dissonance over his two identities.

[Morereason]

4. Reich is turning into a corporate apologist. He says the problem is *us*

That our demands on corporations produce low wages. That our corporate masters would be nicer if we just didn't put so darn much pressure to their temples... boohoo. Then why don't those corporate masters feel pressure to lower their own wages???? Doesn't quite fit does it?

[defendandprotect]

5. About time we began to challenge capitalism which is not synomous with democracy . . ..

It's a "ridiculous King-of-the-Hill system" --

intended to move our nation's wealth and control of natural resources from the many to the few --

[Selatius]

6. There will always be an adversarial relationship between capitalism and democracy.

Whenever there are people who seek power and wealth in the markets, there will always be people who wish to aid that goal by subjugating the freedom of the people by taking over the government in various ways.

[NoGodsNoMasters]

8. Damn straight!

UNCHECKED capitalism, as ours is, is the antithesis of democracy as it seeks to redistribute the nations' money (Read as "power") in the fewest hands, in a word: facism. As much as I support things like the Seattle protests and direct action, our best weapon against the corporate juggernaut is LEGISLATION. Like california when it demanded automakers produce elctric cars. (Which worked great, by the way.) we need LEGISLATION to stop outsourcing, pollution, and to protect workers rights. The first step is CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM. While our "representatives" are financially beholden to the companies that are damaging our health, or livelihood, and our democracy, this will never happen. We need to make Campaign Finance Reform a big sexy issue.

[The Purple Shamrock]

7. Capitalism encompasses a whole lot of behavior.

Having said that, there does seem to be a big problem with the way WE (as in pretty much everyone, not just the US) practice it. I think our "more more more at all cost" mentality is a shared cultural inheritance that really is the culprit. Capitalism, communism...always too much, always in excess, always seems to end in exploitation and tyranny.
We really need to think about what our highest aspirations ought to be as a people and as a country.