Inequality for All Page #9

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has focused its wrath

on Wall Street

and big corporations.

The White House is really

in the pockets of the banks.

It's a plutocracy, basically.

It's not about the money

and how much money people have.

It is about people

not having their voices heard.

There's so many people

who've lost their jobs.

There's so many people

who've lost their homes.

It's just totally unfair.

You've got a lot of people

who feel like

the game is stacked

against them.

Can you hear us now?

The game is rigged.

Can you hear us now?

We need to get lobbyists,

Goldman Sachs,

George Soros, Merrill Lynch,

everyone out of our politics.

Whoo!

Why should they be allowed

to throw millions

at politicians?

They're supposed

to be our voice,

not their voice.

Losers of rigged games

can become very angry.

You don't love America.

You don't love the Constitution.

You don't love anything

but your stupid,

smarmy-ass, taking little self.

Health care.

- Kill the bill!

- Kill the bill!

Most people are still worried

about their jobs.

They are angry.

They are frustrated.

They're looking

for people to blame.

We think the Muslims

are moving in and taking over.

Go back home!

Go back home!

Go back home!

One nation under God,

not Allah!

These trends are dangerous.

We're seeing an entire society

that is starting to pull apart.

Education must be free.

No costs!

No fees!

Education must be...

Oh, my God.

At Cal Berkeley,

after being beaten by police

and cleared out

of their protest site,

Occupy Cal was back

with a full day

of protest activities today.

Joining us now is Cal Berkeley

professor Robert Reich.

Well, on campus,

there is a kind of mood

of restlessness and uncertainty.

A lot of the students

don't know

if the police

are coming back in.

The irony of all of this is that

instead of allowing people

to peaceably assemble

to express their outrage

at how much money

is now going into politics,

we've got mayors

and other officials

all over the country

who are saying,

"You can't assemble.

"You can't express yourself.

"But we are going to listen

to the money

"from the big corporations

that now are basically

engulfing American politics."

We are losing

equal opportunity in America.

We are losing

the moral foundation stone

on which this country

and our democracy are built.

It undermines our democracy

when all that money

can come down

from the wealthy,

from the corporations.

When there are no limits

to the amount of money...

money they can infect

and undermine

and corrupt our democracy,

then what do we have left?

What do we have left?

If you can permit me

a personal note.

Because I was always

short for my age

and I was always very short...

in fact...

When I was a little boy,

I was even shorter...

I was always getting beat up.

When I was a kid,

the bigger boys

would pick on me.

You know,

that was what you did.

That's what is done.

So I got an idea

that I would make alliances

with older boys,

you know, like, just one or two

who would be my protectors.

The summer when I was about ten,

one of the older boys

who I depended on

to kind of be a protector,

his name was Michael Schwerner.

In the summer of '64,

I learned that Mickey

had been in Mississippi

registering voters.

And he and two other people

who had been with him

registering voters were...

were tortured and murdered.

And when I heard

that my protector

had been murdered

by the real bullies...

I think it changed my life.

I had to protect people

from the bullies,

the people who would

beat them up economically

or the people who would

subject them and their families

to real harm.

Because if you don't

have a voice,

if you don't have power,

if you are vulnerable

economically in society,

you don't have anybody

to protect you.

There's no single magic bullet

to solving this problem.

I mean, I've written

a lot of books.

I've come up with a lot

of policy ideas.

I'm not alone.

Policy ideas are plentiful.

Remember, we make the rules

of the economy.

And we have the power

to change those rules.

You've got to mobilize.

You've got to organize.

You've got to energize

other people.

Politics is not out there.

It starts here.

Today's our last...

our last class.

Whoo!

I'll try that again.

Today's our last class.

Remember the first part

of the course,

we looked at the dynamics

of wealth and poverty,

and many of you...

many of you

were a little bit down

after that?

And some of you worried

that that dynamic

was inevitable.

Is this going to be

just a partisan fight?

Are we just going to have

class warfare in this country?

No.

The rich actually do better

with an economy

that is growing faster,

when everybody else

is doing better.

This is not a zero-sum game.

History is on the side

of positive social change:

Unemployment insurance,

social security,

civil rights,

and voting rights,

environmental protection,

the Environmental

Protection Act,

signed into law

by Richard Nixon,

of all people.

Any one of you

who feels cynical

about the possibility

of social progress,

just consider

where we have been.

- Roger.

- Eagle's undocked.

Which sort of comes to you.

To you.

You don't necessarily

need to be elected

president of the United States

or be a secretary of labor

to have a huge impact.

You can be a leader

in many, many different spheres.

There are a lot of other things

I could be doing.

But I choose to be here

in this course

because I believe in you.

I believe that some of you

are going to change

the community, our society,

maybe even the world.

One final word.

May your lives

be filled with passion,

and also,

may your days be filled

with wonder and happiness.

May you do great things

with your life,

and may you have a wonderful,

exuberant, brilliant career.

Thank you.

Tumble out of bed

and stumble to the kitchen

Pour myself

a cup of ambition

And yawn and stretch

and try to come to life

Jump in the shower

and the blood starts pumpin'

Out on the street

the traffic starts jumpin'

With folks like me

on the job from nine to five

Working nine to five

What a way to make a living

Barely getting by

He inspired me, actually,

personally

to really want to go out

and make a difference.

Going to Brazil to work

with an NGO in the Favelas.

Oh, you can get a hug.

I know my wife definitely...

Erika wants to go to school too

now that she sees

that it's possible.

I wanted to become a lawyer.

You know,

I've thought about it a lot.

I wrote a couple of books

on this stuff.

Move ahead

but the boss...

If I knew what to do,

I would...

on my weekends, I would take

a day off to start, okay,

not a revolution.

I...

But you know what?

Maybe we do need

something like that.

They let you dream

just to watch them shatter

You're just a step

on the boss man's ladder

But you got dreams

he'll never take away

In the same boat

with a lot of your friends

Waiting for the day

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