Saving Capitalism

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In 1964, I got a job on a radio station.

They needed somebody from midnight to,

it must have been, 4:00 or 6:00 a.m.

The station policy was you can only play

the same Top 10 songs,

over and over and over again.

I just... I was so bored, that I... I...

I announced on the air,

"If anybody's listening to this program

and would like to engage

in a little bit of a banter,

just a little discussion -

not much, just 30 seconds -

it would be great.

And I'll give you 25 bucks,

the first person who calls in."

This was before talk radio, by the way.

And nobody called in.

I upped it to $50.

Nobody called in.

I got up to $100.

Not a soul called in.

And I had a feeling...

of what so many people have felt,

and continued to feel for years,

of desperately wanting to be heard...

and nobody is listening.

The whole world is watching!

Protect who you serve!

You work for us!

Work hard - we have!

There's a huge amount of anger

and frustration in the United States.

It's been growing for years.

People are worried about their jobs,

they're worried about their wages.

They feel like they don't have a voice

in deciding anything

that pertains to them,

politically or economically.

I pick this up everywhere I go.

Americans all over the country

are asking...

"How can we make our voices heard?"

Well, thank you.

The name of the book is Saving Capitalism.

I've got two kinds of reactions

just to the title.

"Saving Capitalism? Wait a minute.

That implies that

there's something wrong with capitalism."

How are you paying for this?

There are others who say...

"Why would you want to save capitalism?"

Robert Reich,

Professor of Public Policy at UC Berkeley

and former Secretary of Labor

under President Clinton.

You've captured this moment

in American culture

and politics very well in this book.

It's Saving Capitalism:

For the Many, Not the Few.

We've got 20 seconds. Can you...?

I thought we'd have

more time than that.

Can you define the aspirations

of the middle class today,

as opposed to 30 years ago?

I think the aspiration

of the middle class today

is almost exactly what it was

30 years ago.

That is:
"Let's have a better life."

"If I'm working hard,

I want my children to have a better life."

Upward mobility is what people expect from

this system, but they aren't getting it.

Most Americans now

have severe doubts about the system.

They think the system is rigged.

The real issue is,

is the system working for most people,

or is it working for a very small group,

becoming smaller and smaller at the top?

Robert Reich, thank you very much

for being with us.

Former Labor Secretary

under President Clinton...

These days, a lot of people certainly know

the game is rigged.

They hear that, they feel it.

But they don't know

exactly how it's rigged.

I wanted to go to where people

didn't really know me, my books...

I wanted to go to places

where I could actually interact.

I didn't expect to sell many books,

but I did hope to learn something.

You found us.

- Hi, Yuja.

- Welcome.

- Nice to see you.

- So great to finally meet you.

Look who we found.

-Morning!

-Reverend Sandoval.

-Welcome to Kansas City.

-Reverend.

-Thank you.

-Claudia Nelson.

Hi, Claudia.

-You're Chair of the Board?

-I'm the Chair.

I am a part of this work

because of my family and my community.

My youngest son, Paul,

is married and has four little children.

He's worked all of his life.

But unlike when I started to work

as a young person,

he seems to find jobs

that don't have a livable wage.

They're not full-time jobs.

He works 60 hours-plus a week

to take care of his wife and four kids,

and still struggles a lot,

even to the point that

he's had to move back in my house

with his family of six at one point,

because they continued to struggle.

His wife has $100,000 in debt

in student loans.

She has a Master's degree. She has no job.

It is not an uncommon story

in our community.

Unfortunately, Claudia,

I'm hearing it all the time.

And it's...

It's a story that affects

huge numbers of Americans.

A lot of these things

that we're talking about, to me,

is all a spin-off...

of...

an economy that has been immoral

from its inception.

It was not designed to include everyone...

in a fair way,

in the sense of access.

How do you reform something

that's immoral...

at its core?

There's nothing inherent

in an economic system

that makes it either immoral or moral,

or good or bad.

It depends on how it's organized.

And if it's organized for people,

then it can be a good and moral system.

Our American economic system -

capitalism -

is a system based on private property

and a free exchange of goods and services.

One of America's greatest strengths

is our free market.

Let the free market system decide.

We all believe in the free market.

You know, that's...

That's what

our capitalist system is about.

The law of supply and demand

operating unimpeded by government.

Government is not the solution

to our problem,

government is the problem.

Few ideas have more profoundly poisoned

the minds of so many

as the notion of a free market

existing somewhere in the universe...

into which the government intrudes.

There's no such thing as a free market

without government

making the rules of the game.

What kind of rules?

Rules governing property.

Monopoly.

Contracts.

Bankruptcy.

And enforcement.

Let's take property.

Until the 1860s,

human beings were lawful property

in the United States.

It took years of activism and a civil war,

but Americans

finally made slavery illegal.

We'll take bankruptcy.

If you're a big business,

you can declare bankruptcy

over and over again

to protect your assets.

But if you're a student,

you can't reorganize your debt

in bankruptcy.

Or if you're a homeowner who's under water

because the market has collapsed,

you can't use bankruptcy.

It's illegal.

These rules don't come from nature.

They reflect the interests

of those with the most power.

Which means they change over time.

In the name of all those

who do the work,

pay the taxes,

raise the kids and play by the rules...

In the name of the hard-working Americans

who make up our forgotten middle class,

I proudly accept your nomination

for President of the United States.

Just about 50 years ago,

I met Bill Clinton.

I had already met Hillary Rodham.

She was an undergraduate at Wellesley.

I had been president of my class

at Dartmouth.

We were both involved

in student government.

So I knew her and I knew Bill. And I...

Even the first day of Yale Law School,

I was sitting in the cafeteria

talking to Bill Clinton,

and Hillary came up and she said,

"Bob, how are you?"

I said, "Great, Hillary.

I want to introduce to you

my friend from Oxford.

We were just at Oxford together.

Bill Clinton."

She said, "Hi, Bill."

And he said, "Hi, Hillary."

And then, 25 years ago,

Bill Clinton called me.

He wanted me to be his Secretary of Labor.

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