Robert Reich in Dialogues, by Jerry Brown

On Welfare & Poverty: Income for wealthy increased 30% while poorest income fell

Today in "The New York Times", retiring Labor Secretary Robert Reich put out a kind of valedictory; he had a bar chart and some nice words for President Clinton. He happened to mention that the wealthiest 20% -- all the people who do things in this society that get any visibility--that their income has increased 30%, while the bottom 20% had sunk significantly. The story also says that our President has been told specifically not to talk about these class issues.

Now Reich might have said, "This is a horrible thing. It's a scandal. The President's doing nothing; the Congress is doing nothing. I quit." Instead, he explains that the President is on the right track and he'd be doing even better if Gingrich wasn't in the way. But it's there if you read it. The shameful growth of inequality in America is continuing.

Source: Dialogues, by Gov. Jerry Brown, p.142 Apr 16, 1997

The above quotations are from Dialogues by Gov. Jerry Brown. Click here for other excerpts from Dialogues by Gov. Jerry Brown. Click here for other excerpts by Robert Reich. Click here for a profile of Robert Reich.
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