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Eminentoes
Isn’t It Reich?
Obama backer says there can be no stimulus without affirmative action.
The biodegradable celebratory balloons at the parties marking the election of the nation’s first black (or half-black) president weren’t even half-deflated before Robert Reich, economic adviser to Barack Obama, took a direct shot at white males and their allegedly overprivileged and overly snug and comfy position in the America economy.
More specifically, Reich took aim at “white male construction workers,” warning that they might be positioned to be on the receiving end of a disproportionate share of the government’s stimulus package and the ensuing jobs.
“I am concerned, as I’m sure many of you are, that these jobs not simply go to high-skilled people who are already professional or to white male construction workers,” said Reich, labor secretary under Bill Clinton and currently a public policy professor at the University of California at Berkeley.
Saying he has “nothing against white male construction workers,” Reich warned that “if construction jobs go mainly to white males who already dominate the construction trades, many people who need jobs the most — women, minorities and the poor — will be shut out.”
Reich also expressed concern that spending in the stimulus package on the development of alternative energies and other high-end programs will just increase the paychecks of those who are already plenty comfortable.
“If there aren’t enough skilled professionals to do the jobs involving new technologies,” explained Reich, “the stimulus will just increase the wages of the professionals who already have the right skills rather than generate many new jobs in these fields.”
So exactly what is Reich recommending?
Instead of getting our biggest bang for the buck as taxpayers when it comes to repairing the nation’s infrastructure — bridges, sewers, levees, ports, water pipes and highways — our top priority should be gender-balancing the work, even if there aren’t too many women around who majored in the engineering of sewage?
Is Reich saying that we should kick-start our rush to energy independence by way of geothermal, wind and solar research and the development of safe nukes and clean coal by hiring the less skilled and the disproportionately needy?
In fact, if Reich believes that the goal of stimulus spending is to create jobs for the needy, he should recommend a cut in spending in his own two areas, education and government, and push for a spending hike to create jobs for construction workers, regardless of pigmentation, since the unemployment rate in construction is currently running four times higher than the jobless rate in education and six times higher than the unemployment rate for government employees.
Instead, Reich appears to see no problem in more billions flowing to education and recommends that a numbers game be set up for those who labor in places other than academia, a quota system based on alleged victimhood, a top-down planning model designed to redistribute income rather than increase the productivity of labor or improve the level of American competitiveness or increase the efficiency of government spending.
To ensure that white male construction workers don’t pocket a disproportionate amount of the bailout money, advises Reich, “Criteria can be set, so the money does go to others, the long-term unemployed, minorities, women.” In other words, the long-term unemployed and government-defined perpetual victims will be up on the bridges and levees, patching and constructing, while the guys who know how to do the work will be sent off to join the ranks of the long-term unemployed, all for the purpose of leveling.
In Reich’s worldview, it’s groups that matter and individualism that’s the enemy. “The American myth of the Triumphant Individual may have outlasted its time,” Reich has explained. “The story of the little guy who works hard, takes risks, believes in himself and eventually earns wealth, fame and honor” is outmoded.
Instead, “we must begin to celebrate collective entrepreneurship,” states Reich. In place of individuals who “buck the odds” with “drive and guts,” Reich argues for a world where the central planners right the wrongs, determine the production, distribute the rewards in a “fair” manner, i.e., with “only modest differences in income,” and knock the rough edges off anyone who doesn’t demonstrate sufficient obedience to the collective.
“Success can be measured only in reference to collective results,” Reich asserts, warning against an economic system that encourages “individualistic endeavor.”
The correct ideology, according to Reich: “We need to honor our teams more, our aggressive and maverick geniuses less.” In short, it’s not unlike the Cuban model — a nice photo of Fidel goes to the top cane-cutting team and any Bill Gates types are sent off on an inner tube to Key West.
About the Author
Ralph R. Reiland is the B. Kenneth Simon professor of free enterprise and an associate professor of economics at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (103) | Leave a comment
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Drudge Ette Obama| 2.5.09 @ 6:50AM
So we are now back to the whiteness plague viewed by white liberals as the impediment to the success of all nonwhite others.
Well, I want the best person to repair the bridge that I am about to cross and, if he is a white male, well then I must grapple with my white guilt (along with any residual feminist guilt) to accept that.
Robert Reich is a stale hold-over. As are some of my former law professors at Washington University who promote liberal white guilt theory. (Forget the bequest, guys.)
I will need all my money to treat my apparent lack of guilt because I have no guilt about my whiteness. Or I could just forgetaboutit.
Melvin| 2.5.09 @ 7:00AM
Apparently Robert Reich has never been to a construction site, because if he had the first thing he would notice that 99.9% of all construction workers are from South of the border.
Liberals are such putz's.
Rocco| 2.5.09 @ 7:13AM
For a time I always thought that, despite being a Dem, Reich was a halfway intelligent guy, ie. not totally booksmart like libs define it, but intelligence tempered with common sense. Well, with this idiocy, (or ideological blindness), I guess I was wrong. As Melvin notes, especially here in Virginia, many construction workers are from south of the border. And if there are qualified workers who have come up through the ranks in the trades, then I say yeah and amen. Give 'em the job. But if not, then I stand with Drudge Ette.....
daddio| 2.5.09 @ 8:47AM
Comrade Reich should put down Marx and get a real job. And shut the h*ll up.
John Stiles| 2.5.09 @ 9:02AM
Mr. Reich has some very sound ideas for helping the "Little Gut" in these bad economic times. He should be the first to aske to be terminated from his position (for the good of he "Team" ) "so the money does go to others, the long-term unemployed, minorities, women." - PUT UP OR SHUT UP MR. REICH
moron| 2.5.09 @ 9:28AM
I ran across just the guy for your job Mr. Reich. Your "professor" job. She is black and a permanent resident at People's Park in Berkeley. She really doesn't want to work, but perhaps if illegal drugs were a perk she would be interested in that position.
Mark T| 2.5.09 @ 9:43AM
I'm an academic at Berkeley, and I often see this 4' troll lounging in my favorite coffee shop on Euclid Ave, gaseously expounding on some point of BS with an equally ratty looking companion. He is a living example of an over privileged white man enjoying a comfy position in the America economy, in good times and bad.
May Robert Reich go on a permanent sabbatical (preferably to the hereafter), real soon.
oldschorz| 2.5.09 @ 10:00AM
Remember, while Bill Clinton was not inhaling, his mini buddy was sucking the fumes all the way down. The long term effects of recreational drug use can be seen in all of the highest echelons of whatever that liberal party is called...
The highest ranking woman in the history of the country thinks that 500 million jobs get lost every month. I rest my case.
Doctor Right| 2.5.09 @ 10:08AM
Maybe Reich is onto something...
After all, we have just elected our first A-A (Affirmative-Action) President, so why shouldn't we adopt this as our prevailing system of patronage??
James Pawlak | 2.5.09 @ 10:30AM
Why not stop discrimination by not discriminating (Other than on the basis of ability).
Dustoff| 2.5.09 @ 10:35AM
policy professor at the University of California at Berkeley.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This statement say's it all. (Berkeley) the school of fools & nuts.
Anthony| 2.5.09 @ 10:48AM
The diminutive Mr. Reich will never be confused for a burly white construction worker. More the pity, he, Daschle, ACORN board members, and the rest of the leftist elites, could do with some heavy lifting along side a hard scrabble roadside, preferably in bright orange. Now that's change we can really believe in!!
PR| 2.5.09 @ 10:49AM
"The correct ideology, according to Reich: "We need to honor our teams more, our aggressive and maverick geniuses less."
____________________
Sounds like a quote from Wesley Mouch in "Atlas Shrugged"
Jon Wade| 2.5.09 @ 11:31AM
"Remember democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."
John Adams, 1814
Seems Mr. Adams was a prophet after all!
Dustoff| 2.5.09 @ 11:58AM
Jon
The US is not a democracy. (-:
Michele San Pietro| 2.5.09 @ 11:59AM
Then Obama is the classical liberal out of touch with reality. Affirmative action is a disgrace, because it increases problems instead of solving them.
btenney| 2.5.09 @ 12:19PM
Robert Reich's main contribution to Society is as a Comedic Foil on Larry Kudlows Show.
He says things this preposterous with regularity.
Pingback| 2.5.09 @ 1:23PM
Isn’t It Reich? « Depravity links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Howard| 2.5.09 @ 1:25PM
Reich is "too smart by half". He seems to live in a fantasy land. I gather beneficiaries of his manifesto would be trial lawyers. Since unskilled woman and minorities would more likely die or be injured at the construction site, there appears to be plenty of litigation potential. See, he always is looking out for the Democrats core constituencies. Good man.
Alan Brooks| 2.5.09 @ 1:43PM
two words:
LIBERAL GUILT
Marc Jeric| 2.5.09 @ 2:03PM
What Reich says is way beyond marxism and socialism - it is a true depravity, more dangerous than Islamofascist terror. But he must feel quite comfortable at Berkeley, among his peers>
Interloper| 2.5.09 @ 2:59PM
Reich's comments are completely reasonable. It is important that the stimulus funds help those most in need. Minorities and women are the most likely to be unemployed or underemployed. The funds should not be funneled pass fields that employ minorities and women to those that still shut them out. Reich wants to avoid the mistake of Bush's first stimulus payments, which further enriched the largely white, male and affluent management class of financial institutions. Only the kind of mossbacks who write for and frequent this site would find fault with his point.
Alan Brooks| 2.5.09 @ 4:46PM
if we're mossbacks then why come here? guilt eating away at you?
Truth to Power| 2.5.09 @ 5:16PM
Interloper,
Fine but don't call it stimulus. Call it a transfer of wealth. It is a great plan causing both tax payers and non taxpayers to be less productive. Everything the government does feeds off the productivity of its people. Sometimes I get the feeling lefties think it is the other way around.
Alan Brooks| 2.5.09 @ 5:34PM
maybe reich is correct-- give massive funds to minorities and women and they'll shut up.
maybe after a giant funds transfusion they will shut their whining victimologist mouths.
cj acworth| 2.5.09 @ 5:51PM
Sure, he's got nothing against white male construction workers. Why, some of his best friends are white male construction workers!
Jim| 2.5.09 @ 7:34PM
As a white male , over 50, Vietnam veteran, mechanical engineer I can honestly tell you most minorities don't want a position in an engineering career field. The work is too demanding , requires a high level of math knowledge, and has a high degree of accountabilty most minorites just aren't up to it.
There are plenty of opportunites in engineering but the only people entering the field are whites and asians.
Interloper| 2.5.09 @ 9:03PM
You all represent the same Republican Party that has become so small, Southern, white and male that it is trying to attract more diverse members, right? Suffice it to say you are your own worst enemy.
tazman| 2.5.09 @ 10:28PM
People who are the neediest, need to spend less time complaining and more time working. Some of us work more then one job because we want to stay a head. We want to make a better life for our families. I don't feel sorry for any of you loafers. Eight years a go I lost a great job. I took the first job that came to me. I worked for several weeks cleaning out hog houses. I didn't go wine and complain to the government. I kept on working! That sounds like a job an illegal alien would do, because whitey won't? Get off your lazy tail and get to work!
Alan Brooks| 2.5.09 @ 11:37PM
after reading your posts, Interloper, i'm starting to like the South.
Andrew P| 2.6.09 @ 8:43AM
As others have mentioned, most construction workers are from south of the border. Besides, unskilled people can do construction - just like in the Old South. If a 1920 Sheriff could round up press gangs and force them to build levees at gunpoint during hurricanes, the same could be done today with unemployed inner city youth and women.
Veritas| 2.6.09 @ 9:08AM
Mr. Reich needs to read less Karl Marx and more Ayn Rand. I am sure that he will recognize himself in several characters from the classic "Atlas Shrugged." He is dead wrong. It is EXACTLY the heroic individual, who by his or her sweat, ingenuity, and risk taking, has always driven progress and created jobs. Group thinking only encourages mediocrity and conformity. Reich should know this as one of the head priests of group victimhood. People like Reich should be patently ignored except for amusement purposes from time to time. He couldn't be more wrong if had tried.
Dana| 2.6.09 @ 9:34AM
Perhaps the sawed-off little commie would like to give the same speech in a room full of white construction workers.
Timothy L. Pennell| 2.6.09 @ 9:47AM
I wonder where Mr. Reich would draw the line on all of his Affirmative Action, Liberal White Guilt Schtick? He seems to have no problem with some single Mom, with a couple of kids, and maybe a High School Equivilancy Diploma, doing the repairs on our Bridges. Not the bridges He drives over, of course. The other bridges. And, apparently, he gives thumbs up to the crack addict, that can't seem to hold a job, working on shoring up our DAMS. Of course, he doesn't LIVE near any Dams. So he doesn't really have any 'SKIN' in the game. It's just the FAIR way of doing things. Hmmm. I wonder what HIS situation is? I wonder what his DOCTOR looks like? I wonder if his ATTORNEY, just got bye, on his Law Exams, because he was one of those AFFIRMATIVE ACTION applicants, who never really had the stuff to compete at the higher levels? Do you think that he REQUIRES the Airlines to supply him with, at the very least, one Minority Crew Member? What about his Childrens' Pediatrician? Or their Babysitter? Do they have to be REALLY QUALLIFIED?
Always remember. The things these guys demand, are for YOU. They're for ME. They are NEVER meant for THEM. By the way, Bobby, how are YOUR TAXES? Idiot.
Draconis| 2.6.09 @ 9:51AM
"(W)e must begin to celebrate collective entrepreneurship ... " Collective farms in the age of Facebook.
If we don't comply, are you going to starve and execute us, Comrade Reich?
DeeBee9| 2.6.09 @ 10:13AM
Well, if the objective is to get construction money to other than the "white males," does that mean Reich favors ending Davis-Bacon? After all, the point of that New Deal monstrosity was to funnel money to unionized white males who didn't want competition from non-union black labor.
Draconis| 2.6.09 @ 10:15AM
Alan Brooks| 2.5.09 @ 5:34PM
"maybe reich is correct-- give massive funds to minorities and women and they'll shut up.
maybe after a giant funds transfusion they will shut their whining victimologist mouths. "
Been there, done that, didn't work.
LBJ's War on Poverty cost $6 trillion over a thirty-year period. This was borrowed money (national debt), most of it your Social Security funds since LBJ also dumped the SS accounts into the general fund. Results of the WoP: poverty won, the poor lost, the taxpayer paid, and the Democrats bought the votes of the poor losers with your tax money.
Then when the WoP became politically untenable during the Clinton Administration, Clinton and the Republicans killed it, and Clinton and the Democrats fabricated a stealth program to replace the WoP. This, of course, was the Mortgage Follies, $1 trillion more utterly wasted on the same constituency. Now we are all losers.
We have sold our Constitutional birthright to a bunch of lying Marxists.
turbo| 2.6.09 @ 10:15AM
Reich is an unabashed Socialist. "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need". Sound familiar?
Interloper is ignorant. It's not important that the stimulus "help those most in need". What's important is that the American taxpayer gets the most bang for the buck and the jobs go to those who DESERVE them. Most of those who are "most in need" are "most in need" for a reason. The main reason being that they spend too much time being victims and not enough time working.
You can have a stimulus plan that is as effective as possible or you can have one that satisfies social engineering quotas. You can't have both.
Josef Stalin| 2.6.09 @ 10:33AM
Comrade Reich is right! Let's turn this into the USSA! The United Socialist States of America!
djaymick| 2.6.09 @ 10:47AM
This is racism at its finest. This is reverse discrimination at its finest. Let all the successful people work, while the irresponsible people can sit home and wait for their money.
Let me explain. It costs roughly $10-16K per year to send a child to public school. The taxpayers are asked to invest in their future. We, in return, pay taxes to have this happen. During the 12 years of schooling, we invest $120-192K for their future. The student then has two choices - make the most of the investment and become successful or waste the investment. When the student makes the second choice (waste the investment by either not going to school, getting pregnant, etc.), they are rewarded with Welfare, Medicaid, food stamps, etc. Talk about rewarding irresponsible behavior.
If we would end these programs (not stop completely, but stop taking new enrollees), we would see more responsible behavior from students. They will realize that they are accountable for their decisions and nobody will be their to "bail them out". Teen pregnancy will go down, test scores and college entries will increase and the government will be able to cut costs and increase revenue.
The time for rewarding irresponsiblity has to stop. Then again, you won't see it happening, because it needs to start from the top - being the White House.
Wendy| 2.6.09 @ 10:59AM
Reich has no idea what he is talking about. Forget the race issue for a second. Does anyone honestly believe that progress comes from group think? Progress comes when INDIVIDUALS like Andrew Carnegie, JP Morgan, Commodore Vanderbilt, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates go against the status quo and bring new their creations into existence. It takes a LOT of independent thinking and work for these guys to produce what they do. They don't have regular work hours and vacations like the rest of us do. Cut these guys off at the knees, and it is GAME OVER for the rest of us.
Chris| 2.6.09 @ 11:01AM
A Jewish guy who is a Professor at Berkeley. What do you expect? I hope he forgets to wear his hard hat.
BohrEffect| 2.6.09 @ 11:05AM
There is a comically, yet tragically, flawed belief among extreme social liberals that if you take wealth from productive, successful people and give it to unproductive, unsuccessful people, the beneficiaries of such charity will somehow become successful. This feels so good, and if considered only to that end is hard to argue with if one's intellectual framework is rooted in class warfare and conflict theory. The gaping hole here derives from several factors: 1) ability and potential are not uniformly distributed across a 'standard' population no matter how much we would love to think they are 2) Every single attempt at redistribution of wealth has resulted in two major outcomes, the first being a mainstream culture of mediocrity and dependency that ultimately fails miserably, the second being a vibrant underground economy to which the successful and talented are drawn given the penalization of competing in the mainstream. This in fact worsens the plight of the needy and less capable because the wealth and power amassed via the counter or underground economy is not accessible to the masses. This is an inevitable outcome. The wealthy, the talented, the sucessful will simply redirect their energies. They ALWAYS have. It is far better to reward success and ability while creating a non-punitive, pro-growth economic environment, modestly taxed to support the most needy, while rewarding the bahaviors that in effect are the 'rising tide' capable of floating the boats of the fattest part of the bell curve. People like Reich spew their Marxist garbage exclusively because he has yet to become the target of the prolitariate he so avidly defends. However, the history of countless socialist movements will support the assertion that he, too, will ultimately suffer the consequences he hopes to bring upon the class with which he chooses to wage war because he can't escape the fact that he, like them, currently sits 'above' and is ultimately in no way a part of his chosen pet populations. And like so many well-intended highly placed 'recreational socialsts' he'll be completely incapable of comprehending why they will come for him given his self-image of the benign patriarch. In years past, those who have seen their freedom squashed in the name 'the people' have had places to run if they could just survive jumping the wall. We won't because there won't be anywhere to run.
Mark Newman| 2.6.09 @ 11:06AM
Alan Brooks, no matter how much you give to these idiots they will never shut up. It's what loud mounthed liberals do instead of sports.
johncuckti| 2.6.09 @ 11:07AM
Yes, all stale holdovers from eight years of peace and prosperity must go. But said blogger makes a good point about merit. Who was a better labor secretary, white Robert Reich or Asian Elaine Chow? A look inside the numbers tells us there isn't much of a debate.
wildman| 2.6.09 @ 11:16AM
Mr Reich, I did not choose my parents, I did not choose my race. You sir, are a complete Idiot.
Irwin| 2.6.09 @ 11:42AM
Mr. Reich. Have your resignation on my desk by the end of the day.
John Q. Public
John Prairie| 2.6.09 @ 11:45AM
Like Krugman, Reich bends economic logic to fit the liberal agenda.
Idividualism is what made the USA great and by focusing on groups we will continue to slide towards mediocrity .
Mark S.| 2.6.09 @ 12:05PM
For the past eight years the Bush government policies transferred wealth from the truly needy to the truly greedy. The theory was that the truly greedy would provide jobs to the truly needy, even if they were just $7 per hour Wal-mart jobs.
But, the result of those policies was the economic catastrophe we now are in. Perhaps a little transfer of wealth from the truly greedy to the truly needy might actually stimulate our foundering economy.
We all have seen
Patrick b| 2.6.09 @ 12:09PM
Mr Reich should be beaten in the streets with sticks. Brought to trial for conspiracy against the revolution and sent to a labor camp for reeducation. Just like what would happen in the marxist paradise he advocates.
mike flynn| 2.6.09 @ 12:51PM
Like Rocco above, i always thought Reich was kind of a voice of reason, an honest liberal, concerned about a better world for all. if this report is accurate, how sad Reich, and those of his ilk don't see how racist and bigotted they are in the name of diversity. When is the white liberal class going to decide it is not race that is the problem, but economics. there are more poor whites than blacks, etc. But rich whites dump on their own blood even more than other races. i say tax the rich. they benefit most from this country\economy. let them support their less fortunate brothers who will never figure out how to legally squeeze mega-million pay days out of cds's or other hocus pocus. Wake up white people.
Chris1| 2.6.09 @ 12:51PM
As grim as the Messiah is the moonbat baggage train that comes with him is really more frightening. Reich is a rooten-tooten full-moon wack job.
All over the talk-a-sphere he told a callin it is important to save while the government should encourage spending. It's the whole oxymoron of liberal thinking in one sound bite. The great "progressive" movement is really a New Deal nostalgia party. It's pathetic, not a new idea since Marx.
Warren| 2.6.09 @ 1:21PM
Wonder when the last time was that Mr Reich visited a construction site?
jay22| 2.6.09 @ 1:25PM
Wow. Reich makes a comment that job creation should not just happen for 1 segment of the community...and that segment of the community has a heart attack freaking out.
When a gov't official gets up and says that all the jobs wont go to one specific race, that race panics and whines?
What a bunch of babies here. Oh my gosh! Someone said that white people wont get all the jobs! Everybody panic!
OCCAM49| 2.6.09 @ 1:31PM
"
Chris| 2.6.09 @ 11:01AM
A Jewish guy who is a Professor at Berkeley. What do you expect? I hope he forgets to wear his hard hat.
"
He doesn't require a hard hat. He could suffer a massive brain injury without any reduction in his apparent IQ.
Rick| 2.6.09 @ 1:33PM
European-American Homeland on the North American Continent. Robert "Third" Reich is simply proving that Jews are not immune from being racists. He's also exposing the deep vein of anti-European-American racism that runs through every thought, word and action that comes out of the liberal fascist Democrat party. Our government and our political system are illegitimate because they have abandoned Constitutional principles in favor of liberal fascist ideology. The sooner European-Americans accept that the US government is their enemy, teh sooner we can establish a European-American Homeland on the North American Continent.
Renfield| 2.6.09 @ 1:35PM
Good to see there are plenty of racists and imbeciles standing ready for the restoration.
the Turd Reich| 2.6.09 @ 1:48PM
Can we waterboard this little fucker.
Please
Michele San Pietro| 2.6.09 @ 1:51PM
I think it's shameful to use "Josef Stalin" as a nickname. Stalin was a mass murderer responsible for the death of millions of unfortunates.
pashley| 2.6.09 @ 3:10PM
The underlying issue here is that, where the government and government money is concerned, the infrastructure,productivity, and the economy, are far-away-countries-of-which-they-know-nothing. They know political correctness, they know interest groups, they know how to play the victum card, they know how to play wealth transfer.
You pull Reich's string, the political message comes out, should be no surprise. You get Obama, he knows crisis, political power, government action, that's it, folks.
That's why we try to keep those guys on a very short leash.
Matt | 2.6.09 @ 3:13PM
How about replacing some of those white economists, eh Robert?
jerry| 2.6.09 @ 4:08PM
WOW!! Comrade Reich certainly has laid-out how he wants the U.S. to look and function in this new century. Gees, I feel like I am caught in a nightmare...I am waiting or Uncle Joe Stalin to send me off to the "re-education" camp and "get my mind right." Is this scary or what?
Hasn't this man and his acolytes learned anything from history? Apparently not!!!
docbone9| 2.6.09 @ 4:19PM
Why don't we cut to the core of the issue. Professor Reich is talking about a two tiered society. The top tier composed of the "intelligensia" and then tere is the rest of us. How else can these people maintain a power base if they don't keep a large proportion of the population so dependent on the government that they have no choice when voting. Would you bite the hand that feeds you?
If we continue with a philosophy of mass mediocrity, we will have just that. Of course I want my doctor, lawyer, accountant and bridge builder to be the best they can be. But people who want to do well and succeed will no stand for the transfer of their hard earned income being redistributed to those less willing to work and/or be responsible. Uhoh, here comes a voter rebellion!
I have personally witnessed the effect of accepting a lesser performance from one group as oppossed to another based on criteria as outlined by Reich. Academic institutions turn their collective heads regularly on underperformance based on some predefined set of rules (parameters). The results are not pretty and in some fields absolutely dangerous.
Individuals like Reich have the right to express their views but the well informed public will reject them ouright. Even those in more impoverished circumstances with the motivation to leave the dependency ranks.
dw| 2.6.09 @ 5:03PM
collectivism, unabashed unapologetic. i wonder if america knows they voted for the destruction of individual spirit? i don't think so. reich was an absolute disaster in the clinton administration. why would any sane person listen to him? are you listening president obama? i hope not.
john| 2.6.09 @ 5:21PM
I've seen and heard Mr. Reich for years when in the Clinton administration, on The Morning Report on NPR, as a guest "pundit" on TV, and as one of the handful of people who read his book - I've never thought he's made any sense at all.
He is one of the few unabashed neo-socialists in public. It is hard to believe anyone can continue with such tired and dangerous ideas. Despite over a century of Communist oppression and socialist poverty (e.g. everyone is poor, not just some people), Mr. Reich and his likes still cling to nonsensical ideas.
It is sad to think President Obama listens to people like Robert Reich. The only thing I have to fear is the future my children will have in store if Reich and the like try any more utopian ideas.
Rufus T Firefly| 2.6.09 @ 5:40PM
Robert Reich is a member of the American Jewish congregation, perhaps the wealthiest segment of the US population. And it is almost completely lily white. Perhaps Mr Reich can produce more results by opening the Synagogue to all those currently being excluded and thereby serving two purposes, integrating a segregated religion and imparting their secrets to success to the larger and now more diverse flock.
Pingback| 2.6.09 @ 5:45PM
Reich Is Loco « Full Frontal Liberty links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Alan Barton| 2.6.09 @ 6:26PM
Sounds like the Cultural Revolution all over again. Let's rusticate the those darn bourgoisie.
Joe| 2.6.09 @ 6:37PM
I'm sorry, which half of Obama is white or black?
demsAreEffingStupid| 2.6.09 @ 6:41PM
The sooner the left is eradicated from the earth, the better off we'll all be.
Joe| 2.6.09 @ 6:47PM
Would you all like a little cheese with that whine?
zintu| 2.6.09 @ 7:02PM
And these people are in power. God help us.
Patriot 1| 2.6.09 @ 10:18PM
I grew up in an ethnic and socio-economic background in the 40's and 5o's very similar to that of Bobby Reich. Although he spent summers in the same small area of upstate New York where my family vacationed, he rarely if ever spent any time with his contemporaries and it was difficult to get to know him. I find it a mystery why his political views tend to tilt so strongly toward socialism, as all of us with similar backgrounds in those years never felt attracted to that ideology even though we were very "middle class". The playing field was never level and it never will be level in a democracy (representative republic). Meritocracy is the standard by which this country has measured itself. We have had bumps and inequities along the way, but as John Kennedy said, "Life isn't fair", and not everyone will achieve unparalled success. I see no other way to go but to educate yourself and work hard to get ahead. It's worked for 232 years - let's not change now.
Michael Kubat| 2.6.09 @ 10:53PM
I have deeply pondered this anti-white male hysteria at Labor, and I have reached the conclusion that we are in the presence of the Fourth Reich, ueber alles.
Ensign Parker| 2.6.09 @ 11:03PM
52% of the people in the US deserve what we all are going to get from the socialist worldview of Herr Reich and all his thuggish pals in Washington.
Jason| 2.7.09 @ 12:00AM
Barak Obama, the Affirmative Action President
mike larkin| 2.7.09 @ 2:20AM
Didn't you clowns just lose an election? Didn't your policies create this mess?
Universe| 2.7.09 @ 4:05AM
I have never seen a more unbelievable parade of stupidity. I refute your very very existence. People this stupid can't actually exist. Palin: hiss! Begone devil! Take these morons with you!
joerh| 2.7.09 @ 2:06PM
It will be like the Monty Python skit where he builds a castle on a swamp. It sank into the swamp. So he built another one. It sank into the swamp. Third one did the same thing. But the forth one stayed up. LOL.
John Galt| 2.7.09 @ 4:46PM
This line of thinking is very dangerous. It is absolutely terrifying that this man is a prominent member of the Washington establishment, and has acted as an advisor to the current President no less! Social engineering is not the cure for what ails us. Reich and his cohorts, and the generations of looters that have preceded him and that will follow, will stop at nothing to stamp out individualism in this country. Who's ready to surrender choice to be pawn of the collective? Not me.
Pingback| 2.7.09 @ 7:56PM
Besieged Barack « The Sheeple Blogs links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Interloper| 2.7.09 @ 8:43PM
Considering the presence of several Jewish men on the staff and as contributors to AS, I wonder how they rationalize the anti-Semitism in much of the commentary. They claim to see nothing wrong with the racism here, some participating in it themselves, but the anti-Semitism is closer to home.
joerh| 2.7.09 @ 9:03PM
I agree with you pingback and J Gault. It is a slow (fast) socialism that is happening. We know what they are doing so lets counter it. Like I said to my daughter," lets not let them succeed. Let everyone know your opinion. So what if they don't agree with it. At least they will think, maybe.
Kevin Riley O'Keeffe | 2.8.09 @ 6:46PM
Robert Reich is anti-White, period.
Howard Ino| 3.30.09 @ 5:52PM
I will be at our downtown Tea Party on April 15th... on the steps of our capitol... and I will be one angry white male!
Howard Ino| 3.30.09 @ 6:11PM
Yes Mike, we "clowns did lose the election"... and you will soon relive the Carter years of 19% inflation 14% unemployment and 18% interest rates.... It's a result of the MASSIVE monitization of our debt.
FYI, Mr. Reich and Mr. Obama are not smarter than the laws of Economics... and they DAMN well know it!
Get ready for your rent, food and utilities to double within 4 or 5 years... with little salary increase... JUST LIKE CARTER ! ! ! !
IF you even have a job!
IF you can qualify for a loan... (The interest on an automobile will be more than the value of the car... makes sense eh Mike?)
Mike...
Dodd, Cox, Clinton, Regan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reich and Geihtner (sp?) et al CONTINUED Carters community redevelopment plan.
Dodd and Cox in congress FORCED banks to make bad loans (Mikie... does it really make sense for a banker to intentionally make bad loans without outside influence... we think not!).
Dodd FINALLY admitted that he wrote in the AIG bonuses!
Turn off ABCCBSNBCNPRCPR et al. Turn on C-Span and watch the actual hearings. Read the recorded documents man!
I say fire them all.... Democrat and Republican! Term limits through the power of the vote!
Mikie... this is not a football game between the Democrats and Republicans... Rah Rah Rah!!!
It is OUR freedom versus an all powerful government... and we all know what history teaches us about that!
"mike larkin| 2.7.09 @ 2:20AM
Didn't you clowns just lose an election? Didn't your policies create this mess?"
fghfg| 11.23.09 @ 4:49AM
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Trackback| 2.14.10 @ 4:25PM
Asian Singles, on Asian Singles, links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
gfdgd| 3.1.10 @ 9:59PM
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