The System, Robert Reich

The System:  Who rigged it, how we fix it by Robert B. Reich is a book my wife saw and I have been following Robert Reich on twitter, so it seemed like a good idea to read it.

Started: 4/30/2020
Completed: 5/2/2020
Recommendation: Recommended
Recommended By:  my wife

Review:

So, hold onto your hat.  You are about to get pounded with fact after relentless fact that makes it clear we live in an oligarchy.  Reich does repeat himself, a lot, but I think that it is intended to set up a pattern in the book.  Sort of a chorus to which he comes back after discussing one of the myriad ways that really, really rich people are busy taking over the country.  What can we do?  Well, for starters, we can come together.  Bernie was my hope (and it seems like Reich's as well), but that hope doesn't have to die.  We have to bring together the vision Bernie, AOC, and, frankly, FDR put together and put it back in place by brute force of majority rule.  The GOP is just in the pocket of big business and they simply will not help.

I was interested to see how Reich played out the change from a stakeholder held corporation to a shareholder held corporation.  The pivot to businesses "maximizing shareholder value" even if it meant destroying the underlying company was shocking in detail even if known in scope.