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Robert Reich: The 3 biggest myths plaguing the U.S. economy
Salon ^ | March 12, 2015 | Robert Reich

Posted on 03/12/2015 1:33:02 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife

1. The “job creators” are CEOs, corporations, and the rich, whose taxes must be low in order to induce them to create more jobs. Rubbish. The real job creators are the vast middle class and the poor, whose spending induces businesses to create jobs. Which is why raising the minimum wage, extending overtime protection, enlarging the Earned Income Tax Credit, and reducing middle-class taxes are all necessary.

2. The critical choice is between the “free market” or “government.” Baloney. The free market doesn’t exist in nature. It’s created and enforced by government. And all the ongoing decisions about how it’s organized – what gets patent protection and for how long (the human genome?), who can declare bankruptcy (corporations? homeowners? student debtors?), what contracts are fraudulent (insider trading?) or coercive (predatory loans? mandatory arbitration?), and how much market power is excessive (Comcast and Time Warner?) – depend on government.

3. We should worry most about the size of government. Wrong. We should worry about who government is for. When big money from giant corporations and Wall Street inundate our politics, all decisions relating to #1 and #2 above become rigged against average working Americans.

Please take a look at our video, and share.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; Government; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: economy; freemarket; jobs; reich; robertreich; stubbs; taxes
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
The real job creators are the vast middle class and the poor, whose spending...

Where does their money to spend come from, Bob...can I call you Bob?? In the midget's world, obviously from government largesse.

21 posted on 03/12/2015 2:19:08 AM PDT by hattend (Firearms and ammunition...the only growing industries under the Obama regime.)
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To: All

isn’t this guy late at the Elf 2 set.


22 posted on 03/12/2015 2:19:35 AM PDT by newnhdad (Our new motto: USA, it was fun while it lasted.)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Wretched little dwarf that he is. He perverts economic principles to support his elitist big government argument


23 posted on 03/12/2015 2:21:08 AM PDT by Jimmy Valentine (DemocRATS - when they speak, they lie; when they are silent, they are stealing the American Dream)
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To: DB
"...There are lots places in this world filled with “the poor”...Funny how wealth just doesn’t spring out of those places..."

Well, THAT is simply because they don't have efficient perpetual motion machine governments like ours that simply create wealth by taking money from citizens in the form of taxes and doling it out to people so they can buy products with it and create more wealth!

Conservatives are sooooooo stupid!

24 posted on 03/12/2015 2:23:38 AM PDT by rlmorel ("National success by the Democratic Party equals irretrievable ruin." Ulysses S. Grant)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
"The free market doesn’t exist in nature.

Isn't the free market what existed on the internet and what helped accelerate the medium's evolution?
25 posted on 03/12/2015 2:24:05 AM PDT by clearcarbon
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

“Macroeconomics” is the pretend scientific study of non-scientific phenomenon by persons who do not understand anything much about the reality of their subjects’ variables, in order to do something apparently useful with a very expensive Ivy League education.


26 posted on 03/12/2015 2:26:42 AM PDT by anton
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To: 4rcane

Liberals simply don’t believe that wealth can be “created”. They think the concept is absurd.

We know that wealth CAN be created from an idea.

To liberals, the fact that wealth can spring from an idea and hard work is anathema.

In their mind, it does so only at the grace of the government.

We see it happening in SPITE of the government.


27 posted on 03/12/2015 2:27:29 AM PDT by rlmorel ("National success by the Democratic Party equals irretrievable ruin." Ulysses S. Grant)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Ronnie replies to Reich
28 posted on 03/12/2015 2:39:26 AM PDT by McBuff
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
His first 2 points are delusional. (no surprise there) Regarding #3, I guess he is in disagreement, then, with this current administration (not to mention the RINOs) who are beholden to $$.

GM & their unions, big pharma, big agriculture (ethanol subsidies, etc.), Solyndra, Keystone XL pipeline (gotta keep Warren Buffet & his railroads happy), George Soros, et al.

29 posted on 03/12/2015 2:39:49 AM PDT by mellow velo
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To: McBuff
: )

"A Time for Choosing" by Ronald Reagan - someone who worked for a living.

30 posted on 03/12/2015 2:49:37 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Little Bobby needs and editor badly...

"The free market doesn’t exist in nature. It’s created and enforced by government."

The free market doesn’t exist in nature. because Government weenies like Robert Reich have destroyed it with endless rules and regulations that are It’s created and enforced by government.

31 posted on 03/12/2015 2:54:34 AM PDT by Mad Dawgg (If you're going to deny my 1st Amendment rights then I must proceed to the 2nd one...)
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To: DB

hahahah, great comment....

look keep that right wing, tea party propaganda to yourself please, HE IS EDUCATED AND ALL KNOWING...facts are not welcome ...


32 posted on 03/12/2015 2:54:56 AM PDT by Irishguy
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To: T-Bird45

Reich lives in a fantasy, removed from the basic reality of life, he imagines himself to be brilliant when he is spouting mostly nonsense.


33 posted on 03/12/2015 2:55:21 AM PDT by RipSawyer (Racism is racism, regardless of the race of the racist.)
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To: Carthego delenda est
The free market doesn’t exist in nature. It’s created and enforced by government.

By this "logic" the biggest economies on Earth should historically have been centrally planned ones like the Soviet Union and North Korea, but they never get off life support until they abandon the oppressive control like the Chicoms.

34 posted on 03/12/2015 2:59:25 AM PDT by stormhill
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Baloney, rubbish, and wrong.


35 posted on 03/12/2015 2:59:36 AM PDT by P.O.E. (Pray for America)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
The free market doesn’t exist in nature. It’s created and enforced by government.

Naturally, he's putting the cart before the horse, since one of the largest factors that motivates the creation of government is in order for people to be able to ensure that the property and wealth that they accumulate in ANY market (free or otherwise) can be protected by some system of laws, so that they continue those market efforts in confidence.
36 posted on 03/12/2015 3:06:36 AM PDT by zencycler
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To: P.O.E.; All

The three biggest myths....
1 - Government involvement helps (aka stimulus)
2 - Government regulations work (yeah, to choke growth)
3 - Taxes make it fair (more choking)

What a nasty little troll Reich is.


37 posted on 03/12/2015 3:08:54 AM PDT by PenguinM
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Three strikes and you are out!


38 posted on 03/12/2015 3:14:48 AM PDT by fortheDeclaration (Pr 14:34 Righteousness exalteth a nation:but sin is a reproach to any people)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
Baloney. The free market doesn’t exist in nature.

The regulatory state does not exist in nature. The free market exists in every single voluntary exchange.

39 posted on 03/12/2015 3:15:10 AM PDT by jimfree (In November 2016 my 14 y/o granddaughter will have more quality exec experience than Barack Obama)
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To: hattend

The Fed creates it!


40 posted on 03/12/2015 3:16:01 AM PDT by fortheDeclaration (Pr 14:34 Righteousness exalteth a nation:but sin is a reproach to any people)
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