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Review of Robert Reich’s Book The System

Review of The System written by Robert Reich

By Joseph Langen

A friend of mine had just finished reading this book and thought I might like it. I was reluctant to try it after having my brain assaulted by politics for many months. I decided to at least glance at it and immediately realized it was not a book I could afford to pass up. It promised an explanation of the mess our country is in. I could not ignore it.

Toward the beginning of the book, the author shares Beto O’Rourke’s observation that “Our current system favors those who can pay for access and outcomes.” An oligarch is one of a small number of wealthy and powerful people (usually men) and large corporations which control a country’s government for their own ends usually involving increased wealth and power. The oligarchs band together to control a country an then are known as an oligarchy controlling government “for, of, and by the oligarchs.” Reich describes our current American ruling class as an oligarchy. He sees our country as no longer a democracy in practice.

He sees wealth and power as intertwined within the same group of wealthy individuals and corporations which have largely taken over the direction of our country. Division between Democrat and Republican, left and right, or liberal and conservative have lost their importance and yielded to the struggle between oligarchy and democracy holding
our way of life in the balance. This struggle pits the few ultra-rich individuals, families and corporations against the great majority of the rest of us.

Reich describes three periods in our history when oligarchs held significant power. These include the founding fathers, all men and mostly wealthy landowners and slave owners, the years of the steel, oil, railroad and financial empires in the early twentieth century and our current state where a very few control most of the wealth and power while the rest of us maintain the status quo if we are lucky. Those in the middle and
at the bottom have gradually lost ground while the oligarchs have become obscenely wealthy and powerful.

Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase appears prominently throughout the book, mostly as an example of a major oligarch. Oligarchies do donate to charities and public organizations but do so based on their own priorities while they strongly resist government control of how they operate. Conservatives view those at the other end of the economic spectrum receiving money they did not earn as socialism. Yet the greatest example of giveaways is bailing out the wealthy and corporations in ways not accessible to the rest of us.

One example is blaming people of color and non-European countries for draining resources and pitting struggling whites against “others.” The reality is that the oligarchy is seizing the majority of wealth and power while the rest of us may struggle to make ends meet.

Despite this dismal state of affairs, Reich sees us as a society capable of reining in the oligarchy as has been done in the past when our populace has risen up and restored balance. He sees positive signs in upcoming generations and young more balanced thinkers are elected to public office. Yet the question remains how much we are willing to tolerate. Work to understand the problem and then you can start to see what you can contribute to restoring our democracy.
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