Robert Reich | Registered nurses and health care workers protest a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) available for frontline workers amid the coronavirus pandemic Credit: Win McNamee/Mario Tama/Getty
Robert Reich is probably the most outspoken former secretary of labor. I mean, have any others become a household name, with an outsize presence on progressive news and social media sites to match? (Okay, maybe Frances Perkins.) This is all to say that the career trajectory of Mr. Reich, who was Clinton’s labor secretary from 1993 to 1997, is more unusual than the average elder statesman. Rather than settle into a comfortable retirement, Reich has spent the past 23 years as an engaged activist, writing and speaking publicly about income inequality in the United States. That issue, Reich argues forcefully, is the singular thread that devolves all other aspects of our democracy; nearly every ill, from police violence to the rise of the far-right to the ascension of Trump, stem from the starkly unequal economic situation we find ourselves trapped in.
Yet for someone who covers bleak subject matter, Robert Reich is hopeful in interview. I asked him if history […]
I cannot believe that the rich are also getting Coronavirus payments, which they do not need. We, as a nation would be better off if we did not reward the rich, we should do the opposite: tax them more to help the poor who need help. What a backwards government we have under Trump.