Robert Reich is a man of intelligence and integrity.

K&R

Yes, Reich is very smart. He's written many books and had an illustrious career, including being Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. And he has a sense of humor.

is that polarization in Congress (Repubs vs. Dems) has peaked when income inequality peaked. There was much less bickering in, say, the 50s and 60s than in 1928 or now. I thought that was kind of interesting.

The 50s and 60s means dealing with the Dixiecrats. Democrats had to be relatively unoffensive to avoid offending them, and Republicans were thrilled with them since they essentially were Republicans. That's gonna cause a lot less bickering.

On a winter day in 2012 over 633,000 people were homeless in the United States. Based on an annual single room occupancy (SRO) cost of $558 per month, any ONE of the ten richest Americans would have enough with his 2012 income to pay for a room for every homeless person in the U.S. for the entire year . These ten rich men together made more than our entire housing budget.

For anyone still believing “they earned it,” it should be noted that most of the Forbes 400 earnings came from minimally-taxed, non-job-creating capital gains.

http://inequalityforall.com/fact-2/

Each of the Koch brothers saw his investments grow by $6 billion in one year, which is $3 million dollars per hour based on a 40-hour ‘work’ week.

Their income portrays them, in a society measured by economic status, as a million times more valuable than the average restaurant server that earns $2.13 an hour. A comparison of top and bottom salaries within large corporations is much less severe, but a lot more common. For CEOs and minimum-wage workers, the difference is $5,000.00 per hour vs. $7.25 per hour.

In 1983 the poorest 47% of America had $15,000 per family, 2.5 percent of the nation’s wealth.

In 2009 the poorest 47% of America owned ZERO PERCENT of the nation’s wealth (their debt exceeded their assets).

At the other extreme, the 400 wealthiest Americans own as much wealth as 80 million families – 62% of America. The reason, once again, is the stock market. Since 1980 the American GDP has approximately doubled. Inflation-adjusted wages have gone down. But the stock market has increased by over ten times, and the richest quintile of Americans owns 93% of it.

are taxed at a very low rate compared to earned wages. Most of those dividends and capital gains go to people who already have lots of money. So the rich get richer, the middle class works harder than ever for lower wages, and the poor get more and more desperate.

The "job creators", as Boehner calls them, don't buy much with their obscene incomes. Since they don't buy much, they don't contribute much to the economy.

Our economy is 70% consumer spending, and the consumers can't (or shouldn't) spend money they don't have (unless they borrow more than they can ever repay). Lower demand for consumer goods causes businesses to cut back on production. That leads to loss of jobs. The job losses result in lower tax revenues, which leads to a reduction in government services, including support of education. Lower government support for higher education has forced colleges to raise tuition and fees, making it harder for the middle class to send their children to college. Many of those who do make it through college are saddled with enormous debts which they may never be able to pay off.

But we mustn't even think about raising taxes on the "job creators". Oh no, that would be class warfare. Never mind that the "job creators" have waged war on the rest of us, and won, for the last 50 years.