Saving Capitalism Page #2

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I was excited,

because maybe we could actually

make some real, real progress.

You had this pent-up demand

in the country

for something

that is very, very different,

that has a different vision.

We wanted to create the possibilities

for people who were not really yet

participating in the economy.

Because it was building

the future of the country.

It was building the capacity

of the country to not only grow,

but to bring everybody along

in that growth.

We were young.

We were the new generation.

We were the boomers.

I was gonna go down

and try to help him figure out

what to do about the economy.

In Focus this evening,

the shrinkage in America's middle class.

Even though the economy is now growing,

many of the jobs it is creating

pay poverty wages.

President Clinton

has been promising wages would rise.

But, at the Labor Department,

Secretary Robert Reich

sees the number of working poor growing.

More and more of the nation's

income and wealth were going to the top.

People in the middle - the middle class -

were under greater and greater stress.

The poor were not doing well at all.

I thought we could

actually reverse that direction.

I spent a lot of time all over America,

and what I got back from people

was a lot of the skepticism and cynicism

and the beginnings of the anger

that has really emerged full force

in 2016.

It was just beginning then.

A pleasure to introduce

Secretary Reich to the Show Me state,

and to mid-Missouri.

Thank you for being here.

As Tim said...

I'm...

This started out as a book tour.

You know? I've done a lot of books.

I've written a lot of books.

I've tried to help people understand

what's really going on.

I don't want to just

go out to book stores.

I really want to talk to people

about their lives.

Yes, that's true!

That's great.

My name is Darvin Bentlage

and I'm a farmer.

And...

There are other names

they use for me, but...

I just mainly go by "farmer"

and "cattle man."

The family farm has been around

for 80 years.

You're kind of raised into it, you know?

I jumped on my first tractor

when I was ten years old.

I could barely reach the pedals.

It's a lot of hard work.

Our margin of profits are way down,

you know?

Farm income this year

has been predicted to drop 50%.

Well, excuse me.

Nothing I buy has dropped 50%.

I don't think anything

in the grocery store has dropped 50%.

I have a son who would kind of like

to come back on the farm.

There's nothing that I would want more

than to sell my home and move down here.

The fiscal part of it is pretty rough.

What kind of profit margins

are you pulling in a year?

Oh, the profit margins, yeah.

It varies, but...

The total deal, you know...

I make around...

Um...

The year before was like $320,000.

-You spent...

- $300.

$300, so, in my mind,

your profit margin...

would have been $20,000.

Correct?

Yeah.

There is a vicious cycle that has set in.

The American economy today

is almost twice as large

as it was in 1980.

But the median wage has gone nowhere.

If fact, if anything,

most Americans' wages,

adjusted for inflation, have declined.

So where did all the money go?

It went upward.

In 2014,

corporate profits before taxes

reached their highest share

of the total economy

in at least 85 years.

Meanwhile, the percentage of the economy

going to people's wages

has dropped dramatically.

Hidden inside the rules of the market,

money flows upwards -

out of the pockets of average Americans,

and into the profits of major industries,

executives

and shareholders.

The vicious cycle is that,

as income and wealth go to the top,

so does political power.

And here is where it gets interesting,

because as political power

goes to the top,

the top has more and more ability

to influence the rules of the game.

I began my political education

when I went to Washington in 1967

as an intern for Robert F. Kennedy.

Being in Washington was thrilling.

People in the bottom 20%

were getting ahead.

In 1964,

when our large and growing

middle class was the envy of the world,

roughly 77% of Americans

said they trusted government

to do the right thing.

That's compared to 20% today.

Washington itself was kind of seedy

in those days.

There wasn't much money

flowing into Washington.

The business community

was just beginning to come to Washington

and set up shop.

It was just... just starting.

In the late 1970s,

I got a job as Director of Policy Planning

for the Federal Trade Commission.

While I was there,

we came out with a proposed rule

that would ban advertising

directed at children,

with regard to unhealthy, sugary products.

The Federal Trade Commission votes today

on recommendations by its staff

that would put tight new restrictions

on TV commercials aimed at children.

Advertisers are spending

hundreds of thousands of dollars

fighting the consumer groups

and the FTC staff proposals.

The makers of sugared cereals, candy,

and toys are fighting back.

You would have thought

we had declared World War Three,

because the business community

was so upset.

I began to see businesses

and business associations

begin to get more and more power

in Washington,

more and more power over...

the legislative process.

They closed the Federal Trade Commission

because of that rule.

At the Consumer Complaints

Office, yesterday's mail was unopened.

Hearings with food companies

were suspended.

A laboratory machine that smokes

500 cigarettes a day

to monitor tar and nicotine content

of the different brands got a break.

It didn't have to smoke.

What I discovered

is that big corporations, Wall Street,

very, very wealthy individuals,

they could actually change laws

and regulations

to favor them,

and to hurt others...

that that process was almost invisible.

It happened inside

the administrative agencies,

inside legislatures.

But the net effect of all of it

was to, very subtly,

change the rules of the game.

What I had witnessed

had been quietly launched in 1971.

The Chamber of Commerce,

a powerful business lobbying group,

asked a corporate lawyer

named Lewis Powell

to write a position paper.

Known as The Powell Memo ,

his paper rapidly circulated

among national business leaders.

"The American economic system," he said,

"is under broad attack."

Business must learn "the lesson

that political power is necessary,

that such power must be

assiduously cultivated,

and that when necessary,

it must be used aggressively

and with determination,

without embarrassment,

and without reluctance."

His memo tuned into a manifesto

for new business-oriented think tanks,

lobbying groups,

trade associations,

and professional organizations

committed to shaping the government

to better meet their needs.

The vicious cycle was in full swing.

First, let me ask,

how do you like to be called?

How should we call you?

-Your Excellency.

-Yeah.

Bob.

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