Uniting the People: Achieving Economic Equality Through Capitalism

Roger: Incredibly deep insights into the most dysfunctional country in the developed world, which still tries to hail itself as a beacon of democracy (!) and has its fingers in the pie of every geopolitical disaster of the last fifty years. The statements made can be researched and are backed by facts. The reading is captivating and distressing at the same time. A great professional has written a state-of-the art reminder of the need of ethics to come at last to be applied to a nation of lost people.

Italy on Sep 18, 2023

A Amarender Reddy: Saving Capitalism: For The Many, Not The Few is a timely and provocative book by Robert B. Reich, a former US Secretary of Labor and a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley. In this book, Reich challenges the conventional wisdom that the free market is the best guarantor of freedom, prosperity and democracy. He argues that the market is not a natural or neutral force, but a human creation that reflects and reinforces the power of those who shape its rules and institutions. He exposes how the wealthy and influential have rigged the system to their advantage, creating a new oligarchy that undermines the common good and threatens the future of the American experiment.

Reich does not advocate for abandoning capitalism, but for saving it from its own excesses and distortions. He calls for restoring the countervailing power of the many - the workers, consumers, small businesses, citizens and public servants - who can balance and check the power of the few. He proposes a series of reforms to make the market more responsive to the needs and preferences of the majority, such as raising the minimum wage, expanding the earned income tax credit,...

India on May 05, 2023

Israel Bloesch: There’s no doubt we are in the edge between utopia and distopia and the key to resolve the question is how democracy will remodel capitalism.

Spain on Oct 01, 2022

George Fulmore: This is an inspiring book. The copyright date is 2016, and it was clearly written before the emergence of Donald Trump as President. In fact, Trump is only mentioned in the book once, and this is because of his infamous bankruptcy issues over his Atlantic City properties. The author actually talks about some prominent Republicans voting for Hillary Clinton, in anticipation of her becoming President in 2017.
So much for that prediction or insight.
But as this is review is written, and the Presidential era of Joe Biden has begun, it is as if this book may be even more relevant in the current events of American history.
The thesis of this book is that there is nothing inherent in capitalism that should lead to “mounting insecurity and economic inequality.” He says that this has been the case in American history, in varying degrees over time, but that it can be changed. When this increasing inequality is unchecked by government intervention, it feeds upon itself and has to be “saved from its own excesses.”
If this is not done, we get to a point where the rich and powerful have most of the money and political power. Per Reich, this is not good for anyone, including...

United States on Mar 14, 2021

Luis A.: The core idea of the book is that markets are created by governments (in turn elected by people, in democracies) and thus the discussion of free market vs. government is nonsense, as markets have always been created and regulated by political powers. The book claims such artificial discussion has been imposed by those who have been benefiting from rules presented as 'market-friendly' to hide the reality that they in fact skew the market mechanisms towards the direction of multinationals, big banks and wealthy individuals. Key decisions for restoring balance must come from the political economy discipline.

The book is well written, and though simple, its main idea is interesting and probably new to most people. It starts by presenting the five pillars of capitalism, in a reader-friendly theoretical introduction; moving on to what's been reshaping those pillars in the recent decades, the consequences of such reshaping, and what can be made to restore countervailing powers that have been eliminated and contributo to inequality.

United Kingdom on Jan 15, 2018

Paul Froehlich: The middle class is shrinking and has become poorer. The median American household was earning less in 2013 than it did in 1989, while the proportion of income going to the top one percent has skyrocketed. Economist Robert B. Reich explains why in his latest book, and does so in a way non-economists can understand.

Conservatives tend to explain rapidly growing inequality as merely the result of “market forces” and globalization. They say unions are an anachronism that actually reduce jobs. Yet, not all modern economies have experienced a declining standard of living for the middle class and rapidly widening inequality. In Canada, for example, unions still represent 27 percent of the workforce, compared to 11 percent in the USA, and the Canadian middle class is doing better than the American. In Germany, unions also remain an important institution in the private sector. Real hourly pay in Germany has risen by almost 30 percent since 1985, while it has stagnated or declined in the USA.

The percent of total income going to the top 1 percent in the US grew from 10 percent in the 1960s to well over 20 percent by 2013, while in Germany, the richest 1 percent continue...

United States on Dec 11, 2015

Athan: Capitalism most definitely is at a crossroads. To claim otherwise is, at best, denial.

What’s more worrying is that that there is next to no debate on the relevant issues.

I disagree with, dunno, four out of five conclusions Robert Reich draws in “Saving Capitalism,” but it is regardless the best book I’ve read in years because it defines the terms of the debate.

You read that right. I consider this left-wing book by a former Clinton (wash my mouth) Labor Secretary one of the best I can remember reading. I’m buying copies for my whole family.

The first major issue he tackles is the false debate that pits “free markets” versus “the government,” and this he does straight from the Mancur Olson playbook: spontaneous free markets exist everywhere. A visitor to the former Soviet Union would be confronted with tons of black markets that of necessity sprung up in the absence of official ones, same way a visitor to Marrakesh can walk into the suk where he can find practically anything. (My favorite such market is the former Soviet market for dead lightbulbs you could then bring to work to screw into the fixture left open by the functioning...

United Kingdom on Oct 30, 2015