Beyond Outrage (Enhanced Edition) by Robert B. Reich

Author:Robert B. Reich
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780307961822
Publisher: Knopf
Published: 2012-04-16T16:00:00+00:00

Whom Is the Economy for, Anyway?

All of this raises the basic question of whom the economy is for. Surely it’s not just for a few Wall Street executives and traders or a handful of managers of hedge funds and private-equity funds, and not just for big corporations and their CEOs. The success of our economy cannot be measured by how fast the GDP grows or how high the Dow Jones Industrial Average rises, because in an economy like ours very few of the gains from growth or from a rising stock market are trickling down to most people.

The economy’s success can’t be measured by the unemployment rate, either. As I’ve emphasized, that rate doesn’t take account of declining wages. Nor does it account for all the people who have become too discouraged to look for work because there are no jobs for them, and all those who are working part-time who want and need full-time jobs—or the growing ranks of contract workers, temporary workers, and others living from paycheck to paycheck with no job security at all.

Our economy’s success can’t even be measured by whether average incomes are turning upward. An average can disguise what’s happening to the majority because averages are pulled up by the top, and when the top is exceptionally high, the average can be far better than what most people experience. Shaquille O’Neal and I have an average height of six feet.

Even if most Americans are able to buy more, our lives will not improve if our schools, parks, roads, air and water, and other public goods continue to deteriorate. We won’t feel better off if our workplaces are unsafe, if we can’t safely walk on the streets of our communities, if we have no regular access to medical care, or if the cost of a major illness can wipe out our savings. And our lives will not be better if our democracy is dying, replaced by a system mostly responsive to big corporations and wealthy individuals. It is impossible to live happily in a society that seems fundamentally unfair or to live well in a nation rife with anger and cynicism.

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