Economist Robert Reich 'goes back 4 decades' to explain why Trump 'isn’t the cause' of US dysfunction

27 December 2024

Liberal economist Robert Reich has been a blistering critic of President-elect Donald Trump, and he isn't happy to see him returning to the White House on January 20, 2025. But in a December 27 article posted on his SubStack page, the former labor secretary for the Clinton Administration emphasizes that Trump's stranglehold on the Republican Party didn't come out of nowhere.

A long history, Reich writes, led up to Trump's first presidency and the MAGA movement.

Reich divides the last 78 years of the United States' post-World War 2 history into five periods: (1) 1946-1979, "we grew together," (2) "1980-2008, the great U-turn," (3) "2008-2010, the financial crisis," (4) "2010-2016, anger at the establishment," and (5) 2016 and beyond, "the choice between oligarchy and democracy."

The economist explains, "Donald Trump isn't the cause of what ails America. He's the consequence. The real causes go back four decades."

Reich notes that in the "three decades after World War 2," the United States "created the largest middle class the world had ever seen."

"During those years," Reich recalls, "the earnings of the typical American worker doubled, just as the size of the American economy doubled. Over the last 40 years, by contrast, the size of the economy has more than doubled again. But the earnings of the typical American have barely budged, adjusted for inflation. Most of the gains have gone to the top."

Reich continues, "In the 1950s and 1960s, the CEOs of large corporations earned an average of about 20 times the pay of their typical worker. Now, they rake in over 300 times the pay of an average worker. In the 1950s and 1960s, the richest 1 percent of Americans took home about 10 percent of the nation's total income. Today, they take home more than the bottom 90 percent put together."

According to Reich, the Great Recession and the financial meltdown of 2008 led to "anger at the establishment" and two very different politicians — Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) — emerging as "anti-establishment candidates," although the economist slams Trump's "anti-establishment persona" as "fake."

"The banks were bailed out, but millions of Americans lost their jobs, homes, and savings," Reich laments. "The experience revealed the gross inequalities of wealth and power that underlay the new economy. This caused widespread disillusionment with the system."

Now, Reich says, the U.S. is facing a "choice between oligarchy and democracy."

"The 2024 election represented a lurch toward oligarchy," Reich warns. "But I believe Trump and his oligarchy will overreach, and we'll choose a more robust democracy."

Reich illustrates his SubStack article with a video he has posted on YouTube. But instead of talking as he does in other videos, Reich makes his point by presenting a series of charts.

Read Robert Reich's full SubStack article at this link and watch his video below or here.

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