Robert Reich: "Why the Rich Are Getting Richer and the Poor, Poorer"

(1) If Reich's analysis is correct, which gender or social groups are likely to be most harmed by modern economic circumstances in America? (2) Which are most likely to become wealthy? (3) Why?

Reich uses the metaphor of boats rising and falling with the tide to explain the differences between the rich and the poor. Reich established some history of the economics in America by talking about how originally everyone basically received the same wages. He said, "All Americans used to be in roughly the same economic boat" (290). He also described large company's habits of moving overseas to lower production costs to increase their profit margin. With modern economic circumstances in America, the uneducated people will suffer most in modern day America, while the educated will prosper.

Reich analyzed reasons for the economies of the past and their influence on the present. Reich started off saying, "Routine producers in the United States, then, are in direct competition with millions of routine producers in other nations" (291). Routine work acts as the dominant means of production, as he described. Large companies hire workers over seas because they accept lower wages and thus a business can profit more. These routine jobs, provided in developing countries, assist their economy and its people because they can make some money. When routine companies give away routine jobs in foreign lands, Americans lose their jobs. He then spoke of the increased jobs in the U.S. and the fall of unions - agreements between coworkers (a club). As production became more efficient and profit driven, machines have taken over people's jobs. However, only skilled operators can make a good wage for maintaining those machines. Only the educated people know how to work the machines.

The educated people will have a better chance to prosper because they can fill more sophisticated jobs. Uneducated people, including high school dropouts, will have a harder time getting great jobs due to their lack of skills and lack of knowledge. Educated people have a better chance at getting a good wage job because they have more knowledge, and their knowledge serves as power. Only the knowledgeable people know how to work sophisticated machinery and such. Reich said, "The productivity and resulting wages of American workers who run such robotic machinery may be relatively high, but there may not be many such jobs to go around" (295). Not only in working machinery can educated people get good paying jobs, but also in science and electronic fields. Uneducated people may or may not even know how to read, which will further keep them in a low paying job. They have a clear disadvantage to those of education.

Companies will become extremely technologically advanced and will thus have no use for human laborers. However, Reich said, "Human beings, it seems, have an almost insatiable desire for personal attention," which means no matter how far advanced a company becomes, they will always need human workers to interact with customers (297). Reich predicts immigrants, Hispanics, and Blacks will compose a vast majority of the labor force in the near future. These groups of people all boil down to the educated and uneducated. An immigrant, who comes to the U.S. for a job and has a good background, will have more opportunity than an uneducated person to get a high paying job.

Reich spoke of a wide range of people including men, women, immigrants, Blacks, and Hispanics. He also described a company's role in society and what a company does to make a profit - by cutting wages and increasing efficiency in production. Ultimately Reich meant the educated people would become wealthy and the uneducated would stay poor. The gap between the rich and poor, as his title describes, widens daily. A well-educated person will know what employers want, while an uneducated person will not. Having an education is a major advantage in the work force.
Work Cited

Reich, Robert B. "Why the Rich Are Getting Richer and the Poor, Poorer." A World of Ideas: EssentialReadings for CollegeWriters. 6th ed. Ed. Lee A. Jacobus. Boston: Bedford, 2002. 290-303.