What's Wrong With America:?

The majority of Americans are concerned about a future in which their children will not live as well as they have lived.  Many believe that the system is rigged against them.  However, most Americans are unaware of the extent to which political power, and the ability to rig the system, has shifted over the last four decades.  Robert Reich, who was in the Clinton cabinet, and is now a professor at Berkeley, delivered a speech at a meeting of political scientists that offers an apt description of the changes that have taken place.  He told them that they needed to do their job as political scientists and not leave this up to economists who refuse to go beyond the factors that encourage economic growth and efficiency.  He explains how the system has been rigged to discourage real discussions about income distribution.  In general, he argues that we no longer have a system of countervailing power that led to a more equal distribution of wealth and power.  He provides lots of details on how this has happened, and he goes well beyond the role of the economics profession in aiding and abetting the transformation.  We have undergone a quiet revolution that has taken place without firing a shot.