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The PoliticsGirl Podcast

Rigged: A Conversation with Robert Reich

The PoliticsGirl Podcast

MeidasTouch Network, Leigh McGowan

News Commentary, Politics, News

4.93.3K Ratings

🗓️ 5 December 2023

⏱️ 58 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As Supreme Court Justice, Louis Brandeis said, “America has a choice. We can either have great wealth in the hands of a few, or we can have democracy, but we can’t have both.” There’s a shift happening in the American consciousness right now. Where the idea we all bought into, that idea that if we just work hard enough we’ll make it, is starting to feel like a bit of a scam. This concept of “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” is beginning to look like a cruel joke and the conceit that the struggles so many Americans face just to make ends meet is somehow a result of our own actions or shortcomings, rather than acknowledging we’re actually living in an oppressive system rigged against us is really starting to chafe. Join me and the illustrious Robert Reich as we discuss the economy, the American dream, and what we, the American public, can do to make it. As always, if you enjoy what we do, please consider SUBSCRIBING to PoliticsGirl Premium. You’ll get this podcast ad free, along with a bunch of other perks, including the knowledge that you’re allowing us to keep bringing you the best content possible. If that interests you, please go to https://www.politicsgirl.com/premium and subscribe today!! Thanks so much! xoPG Guest social: https://robertreich.org/ Substack: http://robertreich.substack.com Inequality Media LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/inequalitymedia Twitter: @RBReich @InequalityMedia MERCH STORE NOW OPEN: Check it out at: https://www.politicsgirl.com/store As always, please RATE and SUBSCRIBE so we can grow the show, open the dialogue, and inspire change moving forward! All show links here!: https://linktr.ee/politicsgirl This episode is sponsored by… http://aeropress.com/politicsgirl https://trymiracle.com/politicsgirl Code: PoliticsGirl http://reelpaper.com/politicsgirl Code: PoliticsGirl http://rocketmoney.com/politicsgirl http://honeylove.com/politicsgirl

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

They want us all to give up. Give up hope, give up the idea that we can change anything,

0:04.9

so they can take over everything. Hello and welcome to the Politics Girl podcast. I'm your host Le McGowan. Let's get into it.

0:22.2

There's a shift happening in the American consciousness right now,

0:25.8

where the idea that we all bought into

0:27.8

that if we just work hard enough we will make it

0:30.0

is starting to feel like a bit of a scam.

0:32.2

This concept of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps

0:35.2

is beginning to feel like a cruel joke,

0:37.2

especially if you're working a minimum wage job or in the gig economy

0:40.5

or dealing with medical or student debt or trying to buy a house or

0:43.2

afford child care. This idea that the trials we as Americans face, the

0:47.9

struggle so many of us have to deal with just to make ends meet, is somehow the

0:51.8

result of our own actions or shortcomings, rather than acknowledging

0:55.5

we're actually living in an oppressive system that's been rigged against most of us for the past

0:59.5

40 years is really starting to chafe. This is of course not to say that people aren't

1:04.4

personally responsible for their actions, they are, but we also need to come to

1:08.2

terms with the fact that we used to live in a country where one person could

1:11.8

sustain a family of four, where housing was accessible,

1:15.2

where public education was good and higher education was affordable, if not free.

1:19.9

There was a time in the not so distant American past that we had both a thriving middle class

1:24.8

and a booming economy where people had pensions and benefits and Social Security was something

1:29.7

you could live on rather than just one more thing for Republicans to get rid of.

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