Robert Reich

Robert Reich

Small businesses are not our economic backbone

Small businesses are not our economic backbone

Thank god for taxes

Such a great article. Government employee like firefighters, teachers, police are heroes. This story is heartwarming. It would be awful if it was like the person in Kentucky that watched their house burn down because they did not pay a fire house fee. Firefighting is part of the Commons.



Thank god for taxes

Stop Privatization of the Country

The idea of competition and business can solve our problems in the US is totally false. Business and competition work in private companies like candy, food, toys and other things. To have the benefits of competition the government needs to regulate the market place to make sure there is no market collusion, oligopolies or monopolies. To have the benefits of free enterprise we need lots of small companies competing against each other. The benefit of competition are low prices, better quality and more innovation. One does not get these benefits with market concentration, few large companies and monopolies. Republicans are trying to take the market place to schools, police, military, prisons and the commons. Business will make things worse and cause more issues. In prisons, with the profit motive there will be more people in prison, more people will serve more time. In terms of tickets, if the profit motive is there, there will be more cameras, more tickets, more arrests. Profits will cause more corruption with judges, lawyers, police that will get the incentive to make decisions based upon money, not law. In education, schools will be paid by customers and if a student fails, they will not get paid. It is seen in the University of Phoenix and private schools for degrees. They are diploma factories where people just take a class and get automatic A grade. The courses are easier and easier, if they are hard, they don't get paid. You have hard core sales and lying to get people to sign up for the school. In K--12 the same will happen with more private schools. Teachers will be paid less, decisions made upon profits not education. Education decisions need to have children at the forefront and profit cannot be the central issue. Police have to be public employees. Private police can have more arrests and more issues. If police are paid by private companies, they will be paid less with bonuses for arrests. We need the law followed. Profit cannot dictate law. If police have incentives for arrests, tickets and percentage going to jail, this will be the dominating factor in dealing with people. The Post Office needs to be alive and survive. We cannot get rid of the Post Office and just have FEDEX or UPS. We need the mail delivered to every person, every day no matter where they live. While I understand we have email and the Internet. The Post Office is profitable and has been making money. The Post Office has turned operations around and service is good. Profit is not the issue. Profits are not the goal of Post Office but delivery of mail is the issue. The library, the Military, parks and the commons must be held by the Public. We cannot turn over the Commons to private companies. Private companies and profit have their place. This is not anti capitalism, but that the Commons are for everyone not companies. We must end the privatization of the country. We need to reverse the trend. We need to move forward and help the Commons.

Why Would Any Republican Vote for Romney?

Mitt Romney is the Republican candidate for President. Most Republicans in the South and areas are regular, lower class working people. Now yes, many are CEO's and business people but the Republicans I know are just regular workers and people. They have nothing in common with Romney and why would they vote for him? It makes no sense what so ever that any working or middle class person would vote for Romeny. 1) Obama is a Christian, Romney is not-Morman is not Christian in any way..might not matter but true 2) Obama had student loans to pay for college-Romney's parents paid all expenses 3) Obama born and raised by single mother and had food stamps and government help-Romney's Dad Executive of AMC Motors and Governor of Michigan 4) Obama's family, wife's family are middle class hard working people with regular jobs and issues-Romney's family never had to worry about money, jobs or income 5) Obama has been in public service helping others as community organizer or in government. Romney has been destroying jobs, outsourcing jobs and making money. 6) Obama pays taxes and files taxes. While rich, Obama has all money in US. Romney has Swiss Bank accounts, Blind Trusts, hidden accounts in the Caymans 7) Obama cares for people and wants to make lives better. He reads letters and has given money to people. Romney's goal is to be President only and will do anything to be President. Why would anyone want to vote for Romney? He does not represent ANYONE but the super rich. He laughs about firing people, he outsources jobs and is proud of it. He will lie about his record, beliefs and feelings. He makes John Kerry look like GW Bush in his rock solid beliefs. Why would any Republican vote for a person that is so out of touch?

STUDY: Obamacare Will Help The 43 Percent Of Women Who Skipped Health Care Because Of High Costs

STUDY: Obamacare Will Help The 43 Percent Of Women Who Skipped Health Care Because Of High Costs: pWomen tend to have higher medical expenses and lower incomes, leading them to often forego expensive medical needs that might be a drain on their insurance policies. A new study from the Commonwealth Fund reveals that 18.7 million women in the United States between the ages of 19 and 64 were uninsured in 2010. That’s [...]/p

Alabama Judge Rebukes Private Correctional Company For Running ‘Debtors Prison’

Alabama Judge Rebukes Private Correctional Company For Running ‘Debtors Prison’

Honesty

Be honest in all you say or do. Do not lie to yourself, friends or anyone. Your word is your being, your life. Do not expect people to lie to you, expect the truth. Politicans should be honest, ministers and business owners. To trust someone, share and give. Allow the truth. Accept the truth. We are better.