The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It
by Robert B. Reich
View on GoodreadsFormer Labor Secretary Robert Reich's compact argument that American political economy has been deliberately rigged for plutocratic capture, and the broad reform program required to unrig it.
Core ideas
- The "system is rigged" claim is operationalized into specific mechanisms: corporate political spending, regulatory capture, weakened antitrust, monopolized labor markets, financialization — each measurable and addressable.
- The bipartisan complicity is the book's harder argument: both parties have participated in the rigging, with the differences mostly in vocabulary and constituency rather than structural outcome.
- The reform agenda — campaign finance, antitrust revival, labor-power restoration, progressive taxation — is treated as an integrated program; piecemeal reform won't reverse the dynamics.
Published2020
Pages224
ISBN9780525659044
ReadAug 2024
