Educated: Dartmouth, Yale and Oxford
Profile: Big-thinking small man; close friend of Bill Clinton; author of “The World of Nations” (1991), which warned that America faced deep social divisions; as secretary of Clinton’s Labor Department, tasked with falsifying his own prophecies.
REICH: If we make no changes in our approaches to these issues, then there is little doubt in my mind that we are heading toward a two-tiered society. It will be composed of a smaller group at the top, well educated and well skilled. And a much larger group, continuing to lose ground. For them, technology is a mixed blessing at best, and global markets may threaten some of their livelihood.
It worries me more. In the late ’80s, I predicted that there would be wiser social gaps because of technology and globalization, that immigration would become a flash point. I hoped that none of this would occur. But I see it before my eyes.
But there’s a big difference. Beginning in the ’30s and ’40s, we embarked on a system of mass production which was the backbone of the postwar American middle class. It did not require high skills. It was possible for immigrants or the children of immigrants or those in the great black migrations to get good factory jobs at the equivalent of $18 to $24 an hour.
I think our advantages are several. One, we have a tradition of social mobility. Two, our diversity can work to our advantage. We are potentially able to communicate and understand other cultures. Three, there is in his country a willingness to roll up our sleeves.
Oh, I’m very fearful. I talked four years ago about the “secession of the successful,” and I’m disturbed by how much of that has come to pass. There is more economic and geographic segregation by wealth. We depend on upward mobility and the work ethic as the moral centers of this economy. If we lose our middle class, we invite the worst forms of demagoguery.
