I`ll Be Short
Essentials for a Decent Working Society
by Robert Reich


(Click for Amazon book review)

BOOK REVIEW by OnTheIssues.org:

This book was written as a summary of Reich's issue positions, in preparation for his gubernatorial run in 2002. Hence it's intended as a series of brief vignettes (the cute title is a double entendre because Reich is famously very short). It covers many of his big ideas and key concepts that he has covered in more detail in his many other books, including:

• p. 8: Centrist Democrats cause a "Dead Party"
• p. 11: The "Pronoun Test": when people care about an organization, they say "we" instead of "they".
• p. 11-4: The "social contract" in full-throated glory: anti-corporate; pro-social insurance; and pro-public education.
• p. 28: Consider companies from perspective of shareholder AND citizen (this piece was published previously).
• p. 90ff: "The Day I Became A Feminist" (which became the most popular page on his gubernatorial website)
• p. 33-6: Market Patriotism (a new piece in response to Bush's post-9-11 call for "going shopping")
• p. 37: An anti-Enron diatribe (another new piece, on a then-timely news topic)
• p. 58: Replace wealth redistribution with capital redistribution (one final new piece).
• p. 21: Overall solution: "reknitting of social fabric" from where the threads are (what today we'd call "the 99%").

-- Jesse Gordon, jesse@OnTheIssues.org, July 2012

OnTheIssues.org excerpts:  (click on issues for details)

Budget & Economy     Robert Reich: Fiscal prudence over market patriotism, even post-9-11.

Corporations     George W. Bush: Eliminate the corporate Alternative Minimum Tax.     Robert Reich: Post-9-11: Help out-of-work staff instead of airline bailout.     Robert Reich: Stop companies from pursuing profits that hurt public.

Education     Robert Reich: Public higher education is waning under budget constraints.     Robert Reich: Let any school enroll poor kids and funds that go with them.     Robert Reich: Progressive vouchers: more resources for poorer kids.     Robert Reich: One big high-stakes test seems grossly unfair.     Robert Reich: Universal high-quality K-14 education; expand from K-12.

Families & Children     Robert Reich: Paid leave to care for child or elderly relative.

Free Trade     Robert Reich: Stockpile vital materials rather than subsidizing industries.

Jobs     Robert Reich: Family-friendly workplaces can help the bottom line.     Robert Reich: We shut down sweatshops by publicizing them.     Robert Reich: Raise the minimum wage to $7 and then index to inflation.

Social Security     Bill Clinton: Universal Savings Accounts: tax credits for private savings.     Bob Kerrey: Kid Save: $1,000 nest egg savings account to every newborn.     Paul O`Neill: Questions why the government should provide Social Security.

Welfare & Poverty     Robert Reich: Entire idea of social insurance is under attack.     Robert Reich: Give the bottom half a capital share in America's prosperity.     Robert Reich: Redistribute capital instead of redistributing income.     Robert Reich: Redistribute capital instead of redistributing income.

Click for quotations from other sources by: Bill Clinton Bob Kerrey George W. Bush Paul O`Neill Robert Reich