Robert Reich: Forget China - it's America's own economic system that's broken

[Soph0571]

The American economic system is focused on maximizing shareholder returns. And it’s achieving that goal: on Friday, the S&P 500 notched a new all-time high.

But average Americans have seen no significant gains in their incomes for four decades, adjusted for inflation.

China’s economic system, by contrast, is focused on maximizing China. And it’s achieving that goal. Forty years ago China was still backward and agrarian. Today it’s the world’s second-largest economy, home to the world’s biggest auto industry and some of the world’s most powerful technology companies. Over the last four decades, hundreds of millions of Chinese people have been lifted out of poverty.
---------------
Instead of trying to get China to change, we should lessen the dominance of big American corporations over American policy.

China isn’t the reason half of America hasn’t had a raise in four decades. The simple fact is Americans cannot thrive within a system run largely by big American corporations, organized to boost their share prices but not boost Americans.

[link:https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/23/china-america-economic-system-xi-jinping-trump|

Very interesting analysis. Well worth a read

I wrote an article a while ago about this which is explored why emerging economies would pick democratic models of governance when they can look to China and see economic success linked to totalitarianism.... not sure they will.

[Girard442]

1. You can draw a lesson from the "Economic Miracle" of Hitler's Germany.

Hitler needed a thriving industrial economy to build his war machine. Was he some sort of economic genius? Nope. He just prioritized economic recovery and growth.

He also did some pretty brutal and evil things to facilitate that growth, but it's my belief that those weren't the key. FDR did essentially the same thing in this country without being a Nazi. Our problem is that the priority in this country right now is enhancing the wealth of the .01%, even if everyone else drowns.

[sandensea]

4. +1

Today's GOP are neo-fascists: like fascists; but without any of their few virtues.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

2. It is interesting but he doesn't really offer any concrete

ways that we can reduce the dominance of big corporate interests in our economy? I would love to read ideas on how we could do that without central planning.

As US unemployment goes down, you would think that there would be more competition for workers and wages and benefits would rise?

If we could control all branches of government, we could pass worker's rights legislation?

I happen to think instant business news has really hurt our economy over time. A long time ago, a shareholder might check the newspaper periodically and if their stock went up they were happy. Now, you can see it's fluctuations 24/7. This puts enormous pressure on management, now in a fishbowl, to keeps earnings growing. No one wants to be a CEO who sees CNBC or Bloomberg announce to the world that their company missed its earnings.

Over time, to maintain consistent earnings growth, corporations went to the easiest place to cut expenses...salaries. they moved from pensions to IRAs. They cut profit sharing plans, and free health care.

[Auggie]

3. +1,000,000. And exactly why we need higher taxes on corporations and the 1%.