Saving Capitalism

In SAVING CAPITALISM, Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary under Bill Clinton, discusses the increasing separation between the haves and the have-nots, the shrinking middle class, how we got here, and what can be done about it. He meets with farm families in rural Missouri, successful Republican businesspeople and lobbyists in Kansas City, and a McDonald's employee struggling to make ends meet on minimum wage to get a better understanding of the rage and discontent so many feel about a system they believe to be rigged in favor of "elites." Through personal anecdotes of his own rise in Washington, D.C., government as well as through history lessons and statistics, Reich shows how big business interests starting in the 1970s began to assert more and more of their power over government, using their deep pockets to ensure the laws that are passed serve their interests more than the public at large, and the explosive growth in the number of senators and representatives who become high-paid lobbyists after serving their terms in Congress. Reich concludes on a hopeful note, seeing the similarities between these times and the Gilded Age of the 1880s and 1890s, and the populist revolts that fought back against similar financial power and won.