Investigative journalist John Stossel compares Robert Reich‘s claims to economic facts.
Transcript:
Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich now makes videos, like I do. In fact, his “Inequality Media” is a lot like Stossel TV. He also covers economic topics and reaches people via social media.
His videos are also seen by several million people. It’s strange. Reich does what I do except, Reich is wrong about most everything.
Top progressive economist Robert Reich. The media call Reich an economist.
Economist Robert Reich. Robert Reich, an economist who served as Labor Secretary.
Reich doesn’t correct them, but he doesn’t have an economics degree.
And Reich’s videos say silly things like this: ‘Do billionaires have a right to exist?’ Ban billionaires, Reich says, because:
‘There are only five ways to become a billionaire, and they’re all bad! Number one, exploit a monopoly. Does Jeff Bezos really deserve his billions for building Amazon?’
Yes, he does. I don’t much like Bezos. But Amazon is wonderful. Its innovations lowered prices so much that Amazon cut inflation. Reich calls Amazon a monopoly. But the company isn’t a monopoly. It has to compete with Walmart, Target, eBay, Alibaba and more.
If we choose Amazon, it’s because it’s cheaper or we think it’s better. Billionaires claim they deserve their riches. Reich says billionaires don’t deserve what they have because they ‘Get money from rich relatives.’
But the biggest study of millionaires finds few did.
Billionaire Howard Schultz grew up in public housing.
Billionaire Larry Ellison quit school to work odd jobs. He only got rich after founding Oracle.
Jeff Bezos did get some money from his parents, but he grew Amazon with money from investors.
For a long time, people called them crazy. Each year it loses more money than it lost the year before.
They said Amazon wasn’t viable. It would never become profitable. Capitalism rewards such risk taking.
But Reich says:
‘If capitalism were working properly, billionaires would have gone the way of the dodo.’
But the opposite’s true. Capitalism working properly creates some absurdly rich people. And that’s ok because we freely chose to give them money in exchange for stuff we want.
As I’ve reported before: If this represents the wealth of America, progressives would say the rich take so much that the poor just get a sliver.
They believe Hollywood script writers, who say:
‘It’s a zero-sum game, somebody wins,
somebody loses. Money itself isn’t lost or made, it’s simply transferred.’
But that’s wrong. It’s not a zero-sum game. The “makers” who get rich,
get rich by baking many more pies. When Reich’s hated billionaires, like Larry Ellison,
Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk get rich, they can only do it by making all of us better off.
They only kept 2.2% of the additional wealth they generated for the economy. Actual economist Dan Mitchell: In other words, the rest of us captured almost 98% of the benefits.
Another Reich video trashes trade. Global trade is good for everyone.
Ahhhh! That’s bunk. Liar Liar pants on fire, get it? Of course, trade isn’t good for everyone. Nothing is. But when it comes to improving people’s lives, trade’s great.
It helps the rich and the poor. It’s what allows everyone to get better products for less money.
Actual economist Don Boudreaux made this video about it: None of us has a hint of how to make the majority of the things that we consume. Take this coffee for example. The beans come from Guatemala and they were brewed in this coffeemaker from Switzerland.
The container ship that carried the beans was built in Korea. It’s insured by a company from London and it’s captained by a Frenchman who loves Turkish cigarettes.
Trade lets people specialize in what we do best. It’s called comparative advantage.
I’m good at reporting, but lousy at growing coffee beans. Coffee tastes better and cost less because someone who’s good at that can do it much more efficiently than I, and I can specialize on my reporting.
That comparative advantage, multiplied by millions of capitalists, makes everything more affordable. But Robert Reich says: ‘What if a country’s comparative advantage
comes from people working under dangerous or exploitative conditions?’
I once asked Kenya’s June Arunga: Doesn’t the United States have the responsibility
to stop these companies from exploiting people in your country? Exploiting people?
Nobody in my country thinks about companies exploiting them. When there’s a new company opening a factory, people are excited about it. Trade creates opportunity.
It’s what’s allowed a billion people to lift themselves out of poverty.
Families who once survived by doing hard labor on farms now live better lives. Ignorant politicians from both parties trash trade. All these foreign countries that are
coming in and ripping us off and taking our jobs.
Yes, trade does take away some American’s jobs. But it creates more jobs.
Companies engaged in trade create 60% of America’s new jobs. It’s why unemployment is low today and why the number of Americans who have jobs has been rising. Finally, Reich says it’s ‘rubbish to say Biden’s huge spending caused Inflation. Inflation is caused by too much government spending. Bunk!’
Not bunk.
When politicians hand out big amounts of cash, it does cause inflation. Reich blames corporate greed: ‘Mega corporations raise prices to increase their profits.’
Greed is constant.
Again, here’s actual economist David Henderson: If it’s greed, how do we explain when prices fall? Do oil companies just suddenly decide I’m going to be less greedy?
As a Nobel Prize winning economist puts it. As I said, Reich, even though colleges pay him to brainwash students, is wrong about most everything. ‘Of all developed nations, the United States has the most unequal distribution of income.’
Inequality Media is a catchy name, but inequality isn’t bad if the poor get richer too.
Inequality is not a conspiracy. It’s simply what happens when people are free.
Taylor Swift is a billionaire. Should our government force people to listen to me sing to make life more equal? Should government handicap Joe Rogan
because he has more viewers than I do? Reich talks economic justice, but where is the justice in imposing rules that leave people less free? I wanted to ask him about that, but he refused ourvrepeated offers of an interview. Maybe now that this video is posted, he will respond. I’ll let you know if he does.
