The 4 Biggest Conservative Lies About Inequality - by Robert Reich

Found here. My comments in bold.

----------------

Dr. Reich pretends to be a truth-teller, which is ironic considering he can't even accurately represent conservatives.

Indeed, he isn't even able to tell the difference between an opinion and a true/false statement. All of the below are opinions about how things should work, not factual statements.

-----------------

Even though we’re heading toward levels of inequality not seen since the days of the 19th century robber barons, (A trend which has been going on for more than thirty years. Interestingly, it is leftists who controlled government for most of that time.)

conservatives keep lying about what’s happening and what to do about it. Here are their four biggest lies about inequality, followed by the truth.

1. The rich and CEOs are America’s job creators, so we dare not tax them.

The truth is the middle class and poor are the job-creators through their purchases of goods and services. (This is a chicken/egg debate. It is also an expression of an opinion based on a world view, as opposed to a statement of fact.

Dr. Reich, being a Leftist, also has a world view, filtered through the bourgeois/proletariat template. 

It takes employers doing what they do, employees doing what they do, and consumers doing what they do, in order to have a functioning economy. It's called capitalism, a proven and sure structure that has been in operation since man first decided to trade one thing for another.

Further, no one is suggesting that "we dare not tax them." This is what I mean by Dr. Reich not accurately representing conservatives. He is most certainly unable to name a single conservative of note that has advocated for no corporate taxation.  If we can't trust Dr. Reich on this detail, we cannot trust him on the remaining three points. Indeed, this will prove itself as we continue.)

If they don’t have enough purchasing power because they’re not paid enough, companies won’t create more jobs and the economy won’t grow. The giant Trump-Republican tax cut for corporations and the rich hasn’t trickled down to ordinary Americans. It’s just made the rich even richer. (Aaand, the rich got richer with higher taxes as well. That's what rich people do, make money. Government does not have a role in who should be rich or not rich. Every time it meddles, the market shifts, and the people with resources get more resources.)

2. People are paid what they’re worth in the market, so we shouldn’t tamper with pay.

Wrong. (No, not wrong, it's just an opinion.)

Four decades ago, CEOs of big companies got 30 times the pay of typical workers. Now they get 361 times their workers’ pay. It’s not because they’ve done such a great job, but because they control the compensation committees of their boards. (An opinion, undocumented.)

They’re using corporate profits to buy back even more shares of stock so their total compensation rises even more. (Undocumented assertion.)

And, they’re monopolizing the economy at the same time. (All of them? Who? Name names, Dr. Reich.)

Meanwhile, most American workers earn nearly the same today as they did forty years ago, adjusted for inflation. (Which entity causes inflation? If you guessed government, go to the head of the class.)

That’s not because they’re working less hard now, but because they don’t have strong unions bargaining for them, as they did then. (No, it's a productivity equation. Many jobs require few skills, and people are paid commensurate to the value they bring to their jobs. And also, government meddling creates scenarios where workers become too much of a financial burden to the business due to regulation, mandated job benefits, and so on. 

And, the employment contract is a voluntary. No one has to work for a lower wage if they don't want to. If they really have a skillset that makes them valuable, then employers will pay them what they are worth.)

3. Any child can make it in America with enough guts, gumption, and intelligence, so we don’t need to do anything for poor and working-class kids. 

(This of course is another opinion, not a lie. And notice yet again notice the false conclusion derived from it that no conservative has said. No conservative has said we should not do anything for the poor.)

The truth is we already do next to nothing for poor and working class kids. (This is a flat-out lie from the truth teller. We've spent trillions on anti-poverty programs. Food stamps, welfare, college grants, the GI bill, tax credits, free cell phones, the list goes on and on.)

Their schools don’t have enough teachers or staff, their textbooks are outdated, they lack science labs, their school buildings are falling apart. (Considering the trillions we've spent on public education, we might better ask, where has all the money gone? The average school spends $12,000 per year per student. That is a princely sum, but apparently the school can't spend $50 of it for a textbook.)

We don’t help with costs of child care. We don’t invest in early childhood education. We spend less educating poor kids than we do educating kids from wealthy families. (Sounds like a government problem.)

4. Increasing the minimum wage will result in fewer jobs, so we shouldn’t raise it. (Again, an opinion, not a statement of fact.)

In fact, studies show that in states where the minimum wage has been increased, the number of jobs increases. That’s because minimum-wage workers have more money to spend – resulting in more jobs, and also saving employers money on employee turnover. (Dr. Reich engages in an Inductive Generalization Fallacy. He takes an isolated aspect [the minimum wage] and applies it to a large system [the economy], as if it was the only factor in operation.)

America’s lurch toward widening inequality can be reversed. But doing so will require bold political steps. And the American public must know the facts.

So don’t listen to the right-wing lies about inequality. Know the truth, and act on it.