Beyond the obvious, specific hazards ahead (such as global warming, excessive population growth, and nuclear proliferation), a more universal drama will play itself out in the coming century. Two great opposing forces are likely to grow stronger, and the contest between them may well determine the fate of humankind. The first force is technology. The […]
Robert Reich
Robert B. Reich, a co-founder of The American Prospect, is a professor of public policy at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few, one of the books featured in the Prospect’s High School Essay Contest.
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A New China Deal
The upcoming fight over China trade will test not just the clout of organized labor but, more specifically, the price labor can extract from big business as a condition for accepting the deal. And it seems clear that unless the AFL-CIO goes along with the White House proposal to grant China full trading privileges on […]
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Despite the U.S. Boom, Free Trade Is Off Track
The LA TImes Support for free trade is dropping fast. In a recent poll, 58% of Americans agreed with the statement that foreign trade is “bad for the U.S. economy because cheap imports hurt wages.” Only 32% agreed with the statement that trade is “good for the U.S. economy; it creates foreign demand, economic growth […]
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The Dead Heat
T he election of 2000 will go down as one of the closest and most boring in American history. The conventional Washington explanation: no big issues. Peace and prosperity lured Americans into a smug torpor. So the candidates’ styles, smiles, sighs, smirks, and quirks became determinative. And by these trifling criteria, it was a toss-up. […]
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Of Our Time: My Dinner with Bill
P ersonally, it doesn’t bother me at all that Bill Gates’s net worth ($46 billion) is larger than the combined net worth of the bottom 40 percent of American households ($37.8 billion, excluding their cars). Several years ago I had dinner with Bill Gates and about a dozen other people at a nicely appointed home […]
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The Rebirth of the Democratic Party
Democratic activists are pushing for a midtermconvention next summer. Theparty hasn’t met at midterm for more than two decades. But activists make aconvincing case for rallying the troops next year before the 2002 midtermelections and using the occasion to articulate a new progressivism for America. The stakes in 2002 are huge. If the Democrats don’t […]
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The Clear and Present Danger
It’s the oldest con trick in the world: Divert their attention to something outrageous. Then, while they’re jumping and pointing and yelling, sneak the truly awful thing by their noses without their even noticing. President George W. Bush’s nomination of John Ashcroft as attorney general is outrageous, to be sure. The nominee blatantly distorted the […]
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In Praise of Hypocrisy
T he 2000 presidential campaign may well turn out to be the most hypocritical in modern American history. But that’s okay. Hypocrisy in the cause of progressive ideals is no vice. It may even be a harbinger of reform. The hypocritical roundup: George W. is wrapping himself in the mantle of compassion and tolerance even […]
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A Citizen’s Guide to the Conventions
There are really three conventions each for Democrats and for Republicans. The first is the prime-time convention watched on home TVs. Unfortunately for George W. and for Al Gore, it’s been shrinking for years. This time it’s likely to attract fewer viewers than summer reruns of Washington Week in Review. NBC has decided to trim […]
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Democratic Voters and Democratic Investors
D espite the newly fashionable populist rhetoric of this campaign season–Al Gore hectoring oil companies, HMOs, clothing manufacturers that run sweatshops abroad, and cigarette and gun manufacturers; Joe Lieberman berating media corporations for their moral offensiveness; and yes, even George W. calling on corporations to be “responsible to leave the air and waters clean”–the Democrats’ […]
