Robert B. Reich, "The System"

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Robert B. Reich, "The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It" (2020)

 

버클리의 공공 정책 교수인 Robert B. Reich의 이 책은 미국 '정치-경제' 시스템이 80년대 이후 소수 부유층을 위한, 그들에 의한, oligarch(올리가크, 과두정치)로 바뀌었다고, 그리고 어떻게 다시 민주주의로 되돌릴 수 있는지를, 이야기한다.

 

 

"Reich does a brilliant job succinctly reminding us of the scale and scope of corporate corruption, economic inequality, and political spinelessness in America.... Reich relentlessly demolishes the arguments of neoliberal capitalists ... and their insane drive to privatize, deregulate, and put profits and stock prices over the needs of the people. " -- William Hawes, New York Journal of Books

 

"Reich has an almost unmatched ability to make insightful observations about the nation’s inequities, and in The System, he observes that the question is no longer Democrat versus Republican or left versus right, but 'democracy versus oligarchy.'” -- Jeff Madrick, The New York Times Book Review

 

 

동네 도서관 라운지에서 이 책을 사서는 몇 페이지 더 읽으려고 탁자에 앉는데 우아한 자태의 노인 여성 한 분이 상냥하게 한마디 건넨다, "그거 좋은 책이지요, 그 저자가 책을 잘 써요." 이런 책을 읽는 -- 내 생각에, 사회와 시스템을 보다 잘 이해해서 보다 바른 의견을 갖고 싶어 하는 -- 이런 노인들이 여기 미국 사회에 그래도 많은 것 같다.

 

 

아래는 본문에서:

 

Don't assume that we're locked in a battle between capitalism and socialism. We already have socialism -- for the very rich. Most Americans are subject to harsh capitalism. (p. 7)

 

[Jamie] Dimon was at the helm when JPMorgan received $25 billion from the federal government to help stem the financial crisis, which had been brought on largely by the careless and fraudulent lending practices of JPMorgan and other big banks. Dimon himself was paid $20 million that year. If this isn't socialism, what is? In the wake of that cricis, 8.7 million people lost theie jobs, sending the unemployment rate soaring to 10 percent in 2008. (p. 43)

 

When JPMorgan and other big corporations donated to the Republican Party in the 2016 election in anticipation of a giant tax cut if Republicans won, their donations were also investments, and they paid off big.... GE contributed $20 million and will get back $16 billion in tax savings.... Not even a sizzling economy can deliver anything close to the returns on political investments. (p. 57)

 

Deregulation is another form of trickle-down economics in which gains go upward and losses trickle downward. It frees businesses to be more profitable but increases the risk the public will be harmed, fleeced, shafted, injured, or sickened by corporate products and servicies. (p. 74)

 

Almost all wealth and power now reside in the oligarchy. Yet the oligarchy is not committed to the public good. It does not want to raise the wages of working Americans, reduce inequalities.... The oligarchy's allegiance is to corporate share holders, and its major interest is enlarging their and its own wealth. (p. 77)

 

As a result, Americans don't get nearly as good a deal as do the citizens of other advanced nations. Governments elsewhere impose higher taxes on the wealthy and redistribue more of it to middle - and lower income households. Most of the citizens of other advanced nations receive free or nearly free health care, and most get free or nearly free college tuition. Americans receive neither. The United States is the only advanced nation that does not guarantee paid family leave. (p. 78)

 

Three big systemic changes over the last forty years have reallocated power upward in the system. They are (1) the shift in corporate governance from stakeholder to shareholder capitalism, (2) the shift in bargaining power from large unions to giant corporations, and (3) the unleashing of the financial power of Wall Street. (p. 95)

 

The academic conceit that workers are simply "resources" that will move to "higher valued uses" has proven to be crushingly naive.... They are rooted in families and communities.... They depend on some degree of security, predictability, and stability. They want to be respected and valued. (p. 107)

 

By 2019, corporate profits had reached record levels and share prices soared. This has been a boon to shareholders, especially the richest 1 percent of Americans, who own 40 percent of all shres of stock, and the richest 10 percent, who owns 80 percent.... Pay on Wall Street has reached  jaw-dropping heights, as exemplified by Jamie Dimon's $31 million compensation package for 2018. But most Americans have not benefited. Many have lost ground. For most, wages have been flat or have declined, their jobs have become less secure. (p. 107)

 

Even as the American middle class shrinks, America now has more billionaires than any time in its history.. There are basically only four ways to accumulate a billion dollars, and none of them is a product of so-called free market. They all depend on how the system has become organized. (p.142)

 

We could abolish billionaires by changing the way the system is organazied.... It does mean getting rid of monopolies, stopping the use of insider information, preventing the rich from buying off politicians, and making it harder for the super-rich to avoid paying taxes -- in other words, creating a system in which economic gains are shared more widely. (p. 144)