“There are two modes of invading private property; the first, by which the poor plunder the rich . . . sudden and violent; the second, by which the rich plunder the poor, slow and legal.” — John Taylor, An Inquiry into the Principles and
     Policy of the Government of the United States (1814)

Robert B. Reich’s latest book, Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few, begins with the above quote and he uses others to show today isn’t the first period in America history that we have had a national discussion on our economic system.

Reich is former secretary of labor in President Bill Clinton’s cabinet and now professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley. His most recent effort starts with the premise that American capitalism is broken and needs fixing.

Reich writes that those who believe the game is rigged to benefit the rich and powerful are right. He cites a 2013 study that shows 78 percent of voters believe that corporations are running America. In 1964, he wrote, just 29 percent believed the same thing.

He notes that changes made to the rules of the game have helped the rich and powerful, big corporations, “too big to fail banks” as well as Wall Street players by using the power of the purse to influence elected representatives to write laws to benefit them using legal bribes (campaign contributions). Those groups, Reich writes, also have the backing of many judges and attorneys general because, in many states, those positions are elected.

He argues that the American worker has seen his portion of the wealth pie drop. He says this is because of the decline of union power caused by technological advances and jobs being shifted overseas and, in order to keep the value of stock high, the elimination of many jobs. This has also had the effect of making U.S. CEOs the best paid in the world.

It has gotten to the point, he writes, that everyone takes their cut out of the American workers’ pockets through such things as too-high cable TV rates charged by legal monopolies; prescriptions and health care (both the costliest in the world); tax cuts and inheritance laws that benefit the wealthiest; and bankruptcy laws that have made it easier for U.S. corporations to seek protections than the average citizen or college graduates with massive debts and no jobs available to them.

He argues that wealth HAS been redistributed, but to the wealthy and not the poor or the middle class.   

The result, he wrote, is that the American middle class has gotten squeezed almost out of existence. The numbers he cites are well-known: During the past 30 years the wealthiest Americans have seen their net worth increase by more than 300 percent while the middle class has seen its net worth flat line. The current recovery has actually seen the household income of the middle class decline -- the first time in U.S history American workers have seen it drop during a recovery.

He explains the reason the recovery from the Great Recession has been slow and almost non-existent is because the middle class has no money left to buy their employers’ products.

How to fix it? Reich writes those clamoring for a “free market” over “government” intrusion are using a smoke screen. He says the “free market” is whatever the “government” allows it to be. He writes the use of the phrase today means only that those who are involved in the system want to keep the status quo. Throughout the book, whenever Reich writes about “free market,” he puts the phrase in quotes -- a writer’s trick of drawing attention to the phrase, while casting doubt on its truth or accuracy.

Among other things, Reich advocates (and has for awhile now) for a more activist government that raises taxes on the wealthy while at the same time investing in schools and infrastructure. He writes that government should help the American worker get ahead while also redistributing some of the wealth to the needy. He argues for the slimming down of the “too-big-to fail” banks by doing away with subsidies and the reintroduction of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 (prohibiting the blending of investment and commercial banks). He argues also for curbing the power of Wall Street players as well as the full-funding and staffing of enforcing parts of government that prevents cheating by the obscenely wealthy, Wall Street and the most powerful corporations.

Reich packs Saving Capitalism with lots of numbers, charts and notes (40 pages of notes and citations). But it is a readable book by a college professor who writes the way he speaks: quietly, articulately while packing his arguments with facts.

Reich has written 14 other books including The Work of Nations, Supercapitalism and Aftershock. He has written articles also for The New Yorker, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few, by Robert B. Reich, Alfred A. Knopf, Sept. 29, 2015, 280 pages.

William L. Haacker is an award-winning journalist and editor who worked for various New Jersey newspapers including  the Asbury Park Press and other Gannett New Jersey newspapers.