Letter: America’s wealthy already have socialism

Robert Reich, a former U.S. secretary of labor, in a recent article in The Guardian, talks about  Trump’s statement that this country will never be socialist. However, Reich explains, we are already a “hotbed of socialism” — for the very rich.

He says, “To the conservative mind, the specter of socialism conjures up a society in which no one is held accountable, and no one has to work for what they receive. Yet that’s exactly the society Trump and the Republicans are promoting for the rich. Meanwhile, most Americans are subject to an increasingly harsh and arbitrary capitalism in which they’re working harder but getting nowhere, and have less security than ever.”

For example, thanks to Trump’s tax cuts, the nation’s largest banks saved $21 billion last year, while 4,000 lower-level bank employees lost their jobs. GM’s Chair/CEO made almost $22 million in total compensation in 2017 alone, while GM is planning to lay off more than 14,000 workers. Trump himself has used bankruptcy to protect himself from his poor decisions, leaving his employees with little or nothing. Ah, socialism for the wealthy.

Reich goes on to say that about 60 percent of America’s wealth is now inherited and asks, “What about the capitalist principles that people earn what they’re worth in the market, and that economic gains should go to those who deserve them?”

Do you believe the average American needs better safety nets and deserves a bigger piece of the economic pie? If you want to call this socialism, well, how about socialism for all instead of just for the very wealthy?

Katherine Delanoy

Eagle