Robert Reich and Plutocratic Trends

Among those whose Facebook postings appear regularly when I check that site is Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, who is currently a professor at University of California in Berkeley and is one of the smartest and best informed people in the country. Reich is a master of statistics, which he is adept at using to expose plutocratic trends.

He recently pointed out that Jeff Bezos, the chief plutocrat in the country, could give each of his tens of thousands of Amazon workers a $100,000 bonus and he would still be as rich as he was before the pandemic. (Bezos apparently has made 60 billion in Amazon stock appreciation this year.) I don’t think that would be the best use of Besoz’s spare change, but Reich’s hypothetical nicely illustrates how growing income and wealth income inequality have come to define our country.