{"id":27742,"date":"2013-11-08T15:29:06","date_gmt":"2013-11-08T22:29:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stage.headlessnauedu-b6hgdzckfdgxgzhe.westus-01.azurewebsites.net\/?p=27742"},"modified":"2013-11-08T16:31:40","modified_gmt":"2013-11-08T23:31:40","slug":"reich-adds-value-view-middle-class-can-share-economic-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/reich-adds-value-view-middle-class-can-share-economic-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Reich adds value to view that middle class can share in economic growth"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Reich
NAU President John Haeger, right, visits with former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich during this week’s Economic Outlook Conference at NAU.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On a morning front-loaded with data and forecasts, Robert B. Reich stepped aside from slide presentations and peered behind the veil of business cycle theory to deliver a message about a different set of fundamentals.<\/p>\n

America is a practical nation and has always found a way to expand prosperity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m optimistic because of American history,\u201d Reich said after his keynote presentation at the Economic Outlook Conference at Northern Arizona University on Thursday. \u201cWe continue to reform capitalism when the excesses of capitalism threaten the system. We\u2019ve done it at least three times in the last 100 years, and we\u2019ll do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former Secretary of Labor didn\u2019t scrimp on detail to support his views during a well-received talk to an audience that had just heard two hours of outlooks ranging from bleak to mildly optimistic.<\/p>\n

Reich, Chancellor\u2019s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, engagingly wove fact and persuasion into an argument that stagnant wages for the middle class, and an unprecedented concentration of wealth, explain much of the economy\u2019s slow growth. The themes are familiar from his books, blogs and interviews, and more recently in the documentary Inequality for All<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Local gains amid slow growth<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Seeing Flagstaff as the \u201cgreen grass in the snow\u201d and Arizona \u201cmaking it back\u201d in a national economic landscape that is anemic, and possibly troubling, three economic experts offered divergent views Thursday to an audience of more than 400 at the High Country Conference Center.<\/p>\n

The Economic Outlook Conference, presented by the Alliance Bank Business Outreach Center of the W. A. Franke College of Business, featured insights by NAU faculty members Ron Gunderson <\/strong>and Dennis Foster<\/strong>, as well as Elliott Pollack, CEO of an Arizona real estate and economic firm.<\/p>\n

Gunderson pointed to the prospects of lower GDP growth for 20 years, yet said he was optimistic for the next year or two about Flagstaff and northern Arizona. He credited recent years of enrollment growth at NAU as being a major reason for sales revenue increases in Flagstaff.<\/p>\n

Foster identified low inflation as a lone piece of good news on the national scene but expressed his concern that it remains a looming danger that would activate if the economy roared to life.<\/p>\n

Pollack said current national conditions, while reflecting a sluggish recovery, are \u201cnot a bad picture\u201d for consumers and that no immediate dangers are present. He also offered data to show that job growth and the housing market are both recovering in the state.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u201cMedian household incomes continue to drop, but the economy is twice as large as it was in the 1970s,\u201d Reich said. \u201cWhere did all that money go?\u201d He quickly followed the rhetorical question by acknowledging that some see his views as class warfare. \u201cI\u2019m not a class warrior,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m a class worrier. When the middle class is stressed, it\u2019s an economic problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

In discussing the effects of globalization and technological change, Reich pointed out \u201cif you have the right skills, globalization and technology can be your friends.\u201d He labeled as fallacy a common argument about low wages, saying that the issue is not simply what workers are being paid in other countries. \u201cWage isn\u2019t the only determinant in where things are made,\u201d he said, using the example of his artificial hips, which were precision manufactured in Germany, to emphasize the concept of value added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe choice in the U.S. is whether we have jobs adding value or lousy jobs,\u201d Reich said.<\/p>\n

To vocal approval, Reich pressed a call for more investment in higher education, saying a skilled American workforce that can add value is a key component in wage growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to lead the conversation that higher education is not a private investment but a public good,\u201d Reich said in response to an audience question, after having earlier said the community colleges were the \u201cunsung heroes\u201d in education today. \u201cOver the next 30 years, the gains will go to those who have the right education, skills and connections.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reich identified education as one of the pillars of public investment in the 1950s, along with infrastructure, that accompanied a booming economy. Looking ahead, he said \u201cwe will do fine to the extent that we continue to invest wisely in education\u201d from preschool to college. \u201cThen we will have a workforce capable of generating higher and higher value.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turning to demographics, Reich said another factor in that period of growth now looms as a liability. The first wave of the Baby Boomer generation is \u201chitting the shores of retirement, and there\u2019s no way they can afford it,\u201d he said. And as 77 million bodies corrode, \u201crepair work will be demanded and expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Setting aside budget deficits and Social Security solvency as threats, calling the latter \u201ca problem, but not that big of a problem,\u201d Reich pointed to Medicare as \u201cthe big bear of a problem.\u201d The solution is finding a way to switch from fee for service to fee for healthy outcomes, he said.<\/p>\n

Many of the points Reich made at the conference reinforce the feature-length line of reasoning in his documentary, which is showing in theaters around the country. Reich said he has been \u201cblown away\u201d by the reception, and that he has a \u201csteadily growing pile of requests\u201d from universities and high schools to view it. The film is even drawing audiences in so-called Red States.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the big surprise,\u201d Reich said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know there was much eagerness to understand what was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet Reich said increased public awareness must be part of any large-scale change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why I made the film, and write and teach,\u201d Reich said. \u201cIf the public doesn\u2019t understand what\u2019s happening and why, then how can we expect the public to make wise decisions when it comes time to vote?\u201d Even in a time of political polarization, he said a \u201croll up our sleeves\u201d attitude would eventually prevail. \u201cWe don\u2019t dwell in ideology when we understand the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

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On a morning front-loaded with data and forecasts, Robert B. Reich stepped aside from slide presentations and peered behind the veil of business cycle theory to deliver a message about a different set of fundamentals. America is a practical nation and has always found a way to expand prosperity. \u201cI\u2019m optimistic because of American history,\u201d…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":27783,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,15],"tags":[522,520,523,526,524,38,24,470,521,471,525],"class_list":["post-27742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community","category-editors","tag-dennis-foster","tag-economic-outlook-conference","tag-elliott-pollack","tag-income-inequality","tag-inequality-for-all","tag-nau","tag-northern-arizona-university","tag-robert-reich","tag-ron-gunderson","tag-w-a-franke-college-of-business","tag-wage-stagnation"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}