I was 19 when the market crashed in 2008. I'm 32 now and nothing has changed. America is in a depressing state of affairs.

This is just a comment of appreciation to keep the algorithmic wheels moving. I *really* appreciate your work.

Thanks Robert, never despair!

Thank you, Mr. Reich. I wish we could clone you a million times! We need your intelligence and integrity in our government and everywhere. You are indeed a national treasure.

That there’s still more to do

We need more Elizabeth Warren, more AOC, more Katy Porter, less Mancin & Sinema.

The problem that's addressed far too infrequently is that the battle against oligarchs needs to be *GLOBAL!* American workers will continue to compete against slave labor without representation throughout the world. Unionization needs to be taken world-wide!

We must take corporate money out of politics! Surely someone is writing a law to change how donations are made.

Occupy Wall Street was inspirational, but didn’t inspire Democratic politicians to enact public financing of our political campaigns because they apparently like selling their souls for the easy money. Campaign-finance reform would have accomplished far more good than Obamacare.

Thanks tor everything you do Bob.

Thank you Robert Reich. Excellent analysis of the inevitable demise of the occupy movement. Bless you and please keep posting your commentary. America needs you now more than ever and you are an inspiration.

The political process, as the research by professors Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page underscores, no longer advances the interests of the average citizen. It has turned the consent of the governed into a cruel joke. “The central point that emerges from our research is that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence.” This facade of democratic process eviscerates one of the primary social bonds in a democratic state and abolishes the vital shared belief that citizens have the power to govern themselves, that government exists to promote and protect their rights and interests. The economic structures, like the political structures, have been reconfigured to mock the belief in a meritocracy and that hard work leads to a productive and valued role in society. American productivity, as The New York Times pointed out, has increased 77 percent since 1973 but hourly pay has grown only 12 percent. If the federal minimum wage was attached to productivity, the newspaper wrote, it would be more than $20 an hour now, not $7.25. Some 41.7 million workers, a third of the workforce, earn less than $12 an hour, and most of them do not have access to employer-sponsored health insurance. A decade after the 2008 financial meltdown, the Times wrote, the average middle class family’s net worth is more than $40,000 below what it was in 2007. The net worth of black families is down 40 percent, and for Latino families the figure has dropped 46 percent. The economic disparity and political dysfunction have been exacerbated by the collapse of the judicial system, as Matt Taibbi writes in his book “The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap.” There is aggressive criminalization of the poor while the ruling elites are protected by high-priced lawyers and non-enforcement or rewriting of laws. Amid selective enforcement of laws in the ruleless society, the high rollers on Wall Street and in wealthy enclaves are not prosecuted for possessing and ingesting illegal drugs but the poor are thrown into prison and must forfeit all their property for being caught with small amounts of the same drugs. HSBC, the world’s seventh largest bank by total assets, after admitting to laundering $800 million for Central and South American drug cartels, was slapped with largely symbolic fines and a deferred prosecution agreement, which is the legal equivalent of a get-out-of-jail-free card. The poor, meanwhile, are hounded, arrested and fined for absurdly criminalized activities such as not mowing their lawns, loitering, selling loose cigarettes, carrying open containers of alcohol or “obstructing pedestrian traffic”-which means standing on a sidewalk. These fines are used to fill state and county budget shortfalls resulting from corporations and the wealthy fixing the rules to avoid paying meaningful taxes, if they pay taxes at all. This virtual tax boycott by the rich has broken yet another social bond, the idea that everyone contributes a significant portion of his or her income to make the society function. The elites, who sacrifice nothing for society and are not held accountable for their criminal behavior, live in what Taibbi calls a “stateless archipelago.” They are empowered to pillage the nation, amass obscene wealth and wield unchecked political and legal control. The result has been the obliteration of the primary social bonds that, however biased in favor of the white majority, held the nation together.

Thank you sir

Keep up the great work you are doing professor. God bless you!

Robert Reich is an OG of the progressive movement.

A man of his age using the word 'meme' correctly lets you know he's got his ear to the ground and actually listens to people.

It's still happening I believe even more so since the pandemic brought to a glaring light the inequality that is undeniable. I have been hearing and reading more about these very issues lately than I have in the past 10 years.

Isn't the real question "What we didn't learn?"

I’ve been hearing the same arguments since the 80’s but nothing seems to get better. I don’t think we’ll ever see the changes we want until legislation is codified eliminating money motivation from politics. I’m afraid that will never happen. Yeah, I’m a tad discouraged 🙁

Our "representatives" are doing anything but representing us. Why couldn't a class action suit be filed against congress for dereliction of duty? What have they done in the last 20 yrs to benefit the majority of citizens??

Except that government sees their revenue coming from corporations actions and not what worker taxpaying does! And as long as politicians aren't independent of corporations we won't get change!

Thank you 🍀

If you watch the PBS Documentary Money, Power and Wall Street they talk about occupy wall street movement and the feeling on the side of wall street was no big deal!!!!!

Occupy helped pave the way for Bernie, AOC, Sunrise Movement

Thanks for your work, Professor

Thank you

Looking back, I remember thinking (for a time) that Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party were two names for the same movement. Both groups seemed to be unhappy with the current economic conditions of the average person/worker. But the groups eventually diverged when it came to who to blame. Occupy Wall Street followed the money and blamed, well, Wall Street and the government policies that prop up Wall Street, and the Tea Party went on to blame...poor people? immigrants? government in general? I can't help but wonder if maybe America's supposed two sides were getting a little too close to recognizing that they're on the SAME side, and the two political parties, and especially the right, hurried to use rhetoric and propaganda to make sure that didn't happen.

These are great points. Why can’t we improve on Occupy and resume an evolved form of it?

I had wondered if anybody remembers this. That anyone does and is talking about it impresses. That you have been fighting at least since then impresses acutely. Credit to you, Robert Reich.

DEMONSTRATIONS ARE NOT ENOUGH------------RUN FOR OFFICE, ELECT THE RIGHT PEOPLE, VOTE EVERY 2 YEARS, LEGISLATE CITIZENS UNITED OUT OF OUR LIVES.

I lost everything, and I haven't seen any change, they can do it again!

dont forget to like share and donate if you can...i like what robert has to say

IMO it makes a certain amount of sense that OWS didn't have any attachment to the Democratic Party, as it was a much more corporate oriented party 10 years ago. The true success of OWS is how far it helped move the Overton Window. Nearly everything they wanted back then is considered a worthy topic of discussion now, whereas nearly all of it was considered radical at the time. Social change always starts somewhere, but has to get increasingly organized and gain power before it can come to fruition.

I’m down to protest

Born and raised in Los Angeles if ever a time for this movement to happen again it's now.

Occupy is what long term senators & congressmen do so nothing changes for the people. "We the People" are the power & we're giving it up.

The 1%er answer to "Why can't we...?" (fill in the blank with anything good for the people and nation at large) is that those dollars are dollars ~they~ could have instead! And to give them a ~real~ thigh-slapping laugh, suggest they pay their fair share in taxes (or ~any~ taxes)!

Yo go Robert!

Professor Reich, I remember the 2011 Occupy demonstrations well. What annoyed me at the time was the demeaning response from the 1% people from Wall Street. A typical reaction was: "We just don't understand what (the protestors) want."

The Occupy movement needs to come back!

Mr. Reich, Occupy was incredibly organized; it was Obama who came down on it.

A lot of people are suffering.

Although keeping involved is essential, having a sense of direction and an ongoing sourced of income to support Cost Of Living, make this time one which appears to be slipping away from our control. This may be attributed to the massive loss of lives due to the COVID19 pandemic, which continues to be active, even in the background, where it thrives, unattended.

Occupy. Give the people UBI. The 2011 Occupy showed what we can do when we voice together. This scares them, this is why the rise of the divide in political party.

If only we could've united as workers and ordinary people.

Occupy needs to start up again and get the backing of the Unions.

That we need a spokesman who understands how the campaign finance system counteracts the capitalist system. Mainly they needed a leader.

I learned that campaigning for Bernie Sanders for President was a good start.

We learned that we are powerless against our rulers. But we should have known this before.

The people are speaking and they’re not listening. LOUDER, they’ll here us.

involved how? provide a solution. we need to demand money out of politics. we need anti corruption laws.

We learned that nothing happens, and that things just get worse.

I like how they discuss both the flaws and silver linings of the Occupy movement.

I was there I was there when the police and the fire department took away our generators we were using for our electric space heaters Claiming its really about fire safety I was there when they came quietly in the night and dismantled our internet. I was there when they pepper-sprayed us.

It is wrong to see civil actions like Occupy as flashes in the pan. Rather, they are minor tremors that foretell and precede a massive change that is coming in the form of a massive shift. Change is a comin'!

Bring it back

Damn. I was like 18 when this stuff happened. I remember seeing it on the news and not thinking much of it.

I was 11 years old when this went down

#HOMELESS , #Finance , #Technology When I first moved to Springfield, Illinois a few years ago, one of the shelters permitted the homeless to use their mailing address regardless of how often the homeless stayed in it (think overflow 😉) until the COVID-19 pandemic occurred. Now the same Springfield, Illinois homeless shelter doesn't allow outdoor homeless to use their mailing address, same as so many other homeless shelters I know about. Furthermore, credit/debit card companies send new cards upon expiration to the address on file (think homeless shelter) and no other real estate addresses are allowed. Some credit/debit card companies allow for the use of homeless shelter addresses and some don't. Some credit/debit card companies allow for the use of general delivery via U.S.P.S. and some credit/debit card companies don't. Such things change constantly as I know them. It's like everyone believes homelessness is just another social club for select members! ...🤦 ... Let's not waste so much precious time and donations on scammy homeless shelters and scammy financial institutions anywhere in the U.S.A.. 🙂

Noam Chomsky did a film on this called the Requiem of Democracy. And nothing has changed. Sad

Solutions start with changing the money.

The problem is, those with money, can get power. And those with power, will get money. Everyone else, gets NOTHING.

What we learned is no one at the top will take a fall. Richard Wolfe has been saying since 2008 that nothing has changed, and that it would happen again.

It ended with a couple of thousands of "thumbs up" for a youtube video of which most people only saw half.

- In a country economically backward, the proletariat can take power earlier than in countries where capitalism is advanced. Trotsky

*Power concentration is the chief problem.* Whether economic or political or even religious. Federal and State governments need to devolve their power to county, city and even further down. That will allow people to tame the corporations too. More freedom and power to the people.

The country is continuing to be more divided, and it's not by chance. The occupy movement incensed the bankers and corporate overlords and made them think of strategies to keep people distracted so they would find it more difficult to unite under a single purpose. Fast forward today and the American society is incredibly splintered to different groups and factions that could be strong if united, but are controlled opposition by the wealthy and those in power. They don't care even if a civil war broke out, they would make sure they capitalize on that too. The corporations are multinational and above the law. The people are too easily controlled by agendas and emotions instead of seeing what is in front of them. If people were able to have a single mind and purpose, that would be pushing humanity forward and allow real evolution in society. History repeats itself. The wealthy will overexploit to the point of everything crashing down at which state people become an uncontrollable mob like in the revolution of France. At that point the wealthy will infiltrate the movement and give rise to charismatic leaders who speak the "voice of the people" Bringing the mob back under control. Reforms and utopian society will be promised, people will fight for it, only to find themselves deceived once again.

Hi dear .. I'm Daryoosh Riyahi, a professor of university for 25 years. I'm researcher of Multidisciplinary Studies. Twelve years ago, I was a advocate for occupy wall street movement. Today, I have a plan in twelve paragraph to reform the world.. If you are interested in to talk about the problems of the world and the ways for solutions of them, I will be glad to talk with you.. Your sincerely ..2:22

In your personal opinion today will either or both infrastructure bills get passed? If so what do you think the final bill(s) include?

Reading your book now RR- The Common Good.

VOTE FOR THE SOCIALIST PARTY !

People got upset that wallstreet got bailed out by the Government, therefore people took it up with wallstreet instead of the Government. Trully a smart and highly productive crowd...

Wow, 10 years! I guess the Trump years skewed my sense of time.

Hi Robert. Keep up the great work.👍 Here's a thought. Perhaps instead of saying "we need to tax the rich". Yes duh, but how about we flipped things around here? Instead we work to get a law passed that prevents rich people (and their corporations) from lobbying politicians unless they can provide evidence of having paid the average taxpayer percentage in taxes. If they can't or don't then it is illegal for these same rich people (and their corporations) to lobby politicians.

What did we learn? When it gets cold they go home.

A dollar on main street packs more punch than a dollar on wall street. A dollar on wall street is at the expense of everyone else. A dollar on main street benefits everyone else.

Funny, Robert- I strongly think we need your sentiment in New Zealand, we're being subsumed by weird Asian antagonism.

But there needs to be real consequences for failure. If a representative fails to campaign on the issue of public campaign finance, he or she needs to be challenged in the primary. And if such challenge fails, then we need to withhold our votes. We need to do this even at the cost of the other party winning the seat. As bad as it is, the other party faithfully represents the bigots, religious militants, and plutocrats that are its base. Whom does The Democratic Party represent?

"Step into" power you say; in other words if you can't beat them, join them and become one more oppressor who is well-paid.

Here's a potential candidate,that would have bipartisan support the likes of which the country has never known.And hardly anyone knows who he is.Robert,I know you have done more for this country's economy than any other person in history.But,we need you again.There just st aren't enough dollars left in circulation for any young people starting out,to ever have a chance.Buying a starter house for $30k,and then turning around and selling them for $180k ten years later just doesn't happen anymore.It's probably why the divorce rate stands at 75 percent now.The political will may never be there to address income disparity,but the will of the people is.We need you, because nobody else will do what needs to be done

A third party is nearly impossible. The US has been structured to have only two. Reform to proportional representation at the state level is an existential necessity. It exterminates the value of gerrymandering and grants 40% of the population the ability to have political parties represent their voice. Independents are such a huge set of US citizenry that have no parties to represent them. Only in America is the choice of toilet paper wider than political representation.

The occupied Nashville movement actually formed at the same time with the intent of exposing it addressing the corruption of the state legislature in Nashville this works actually quite well as the response to the occupy occupation was to actually explicitly demonstrate the level of corruption of Molly state leadership as well as the city please The end result however was to effectively move the Tennessee legislature another step direction of fascism basically by creating a law that required explicit permission of the government to allow people to protest the government

Everything is worse now, the end.

We are the richest nation from our work, but like the old saw regarding neurotics, psychotics and psychologists, only the latter collects the rent.

Maybe people should do it again

Every now and then I look at the snapshots I took at Zuccotti Park during its occupation. So what was accomplished and how have things changed?

fed up

Occupy was massively disruptive, the idea of merging the tea party energy with occupy would be historic. Thank you for your work and your joining of minds.

Infuriating.

Poor people all suffer from deep diseases of despair. Every “Occupy” center became a homeless shelter. Some bad dudes showed up. The occupy movement ended up being a bunch of broken zombies. It’s just over. We already lost

Comment for the algorithm.

We have learned that nothing actually happened.

End citizens united too!

None of the People's Movements seem to Go the Full Nine Yards , Politicians know that & will suppress such movements at no expense to them using the People's Resources available to them only .

Seeing the "American Dream is Over" on the back of that jacket, how about "The American cream rising to the top is over -- Homogenize Now!" ?

that George Carlin was correct, saying voting is a mere illusion to make you think you can make a difference as to who is elected ?

The enemy is the state, and the banks are the enemy because they are cronies to it. But the power structure is statism, capitalism is how you hold corporations accountable. The state protects their cronies from accountability. "Read anatomy of the state"

Robert, I don't think it's fair to say the Tea party movement was co-opted by the Kochs and similar people so much as it was always theirs to begin with. Maybe my understanding is wrong or incomplete but my understanding was that the tea party was basically bankrolled by them from the very beginning and that it actually had VERY little true grassroots support. Of course there were always ground level believers but true ground level organizers with no outside support were rare to the point of nonexistent for the tea party. Again, I could be wrong but that was my understanding.

Wowwwwww the Tea Party and Occupy DC have split into the liberals and conservatives what would the Third party be named

We’re not the richest we’re in debt.