Portrait, Robert Reich, 08/16/09. (photo: Perian Flaherty)
31 May 13
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as the economy slowly recovers from the worst downturn since the Great
Depression, government-haters and deficit-hawks are sticking to their
same story: Americans have lived beyond their means and must now learn
to live within them.
The reality is quite different: The means of most
Americans haven't kept up with what the economy could and should
provide. The economy is twice as large as it was three decades ago, and
yet the typical American is earning about the same, adjusted for
inflation. All the gains have been going to the top.
The notion that we can't afford to invest in the
education of our young, or rebuild our crumbling infrastructure, or
continue to provide Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid, or expand
health insurance is absurd.
If the median wage had kept up with the overall
economy, it would be over $90,000 today - and tax revenues would be more
than adequate to cover all our needs. If the wealthy were paying the
same marginal tax rate they were paying up to 1981, tax revenues would
be far more.
Get it? The problem isn't that most Americans have
been living too well. The problem is we haven't been living nearly as
well as our growing economy should have allowed us to live.
Widening inequality is the culprit. If President Obama is looking for a central theme for his second term, this is it.
Robert B. Reich, Chancellor's Professor of Public
Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was Secretary of
Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named him one of the
ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has
written thirteen books, including the best sellers "Aftershock" and "The
Work of Nations." His latest is an e-book, "Beyond Outrage." He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause.
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