Notices by Robert Reich (rbreich@masto.ai), page 2

Peter Thiel, 2009: “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”

Presumably he was referring to the freedom of oligarchs like himself to be unconstrained by taxes and regulations.

In this narrow sense, he’s correct: Oligarchy is incompatible with democracy.

Moderna is planning to charge $130 for its COVID vaccine, but the vaccine only costs ~$3 to make.

Meanwhile, over the last two years, the company made over $19 billion in profits off the vaccine.

Textbook corporate greed.

"No one wants to work anymore."
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RT @jamieson
This is demented https://www.wsj.com/articles/that-plum-job-listing-may-just-be-a-ghost-3aafc794?mod=mhp
https://twitter.com/jamieson/status/1637817227410825225

Let’s be very clear: if you support forced births but don’t support universal health care, then you’re not pro-life.

Reminder: Prior to 1982, stock buybacks were considered stock manipulation. It was Reagan's SEC that opened the floodgates to their abuse.

Stock buybacks don’t create more jobs. They don't increase wages. They don’t grow the economy.

They make corporate execs richer. Hello?

The upward redistribution of wealth over the past 40 years has shifted $50 trillion from the bottom 90% to the top 1%. That’s $50 trillion that would have gone into the paychecks of working Americans.

The greatest trick of all is trickle-down economics.

What I always hear: “We can’t afford to pay our workers $15 an hour.”

What I never hear: “We can’t afford to pay our CEO millions of dollars a year.”

Funny how that works, huh?

The typical CEO of a company listed on the S&P 500 earned $18.8 million last year — up roughly 21% from 2021.

Meanwhile, people working full-time minimum wage jobs can’t afford a two-bedroom apartment anywhere in the United States.

Folks, this is what oligarchy looks like.

Instead of: no one wants to work anymore. Try: no one wants to be exploited anymore.

So the most dangerous traitor in recent American history gets back his giant megaphone because a corporate behemoth decided it’s time to have him back?

Billionaires lost $1.9 trillion in 2022.

Elon Musk lost $115 billion.

Jeff Bezos lost $80 billion.

Mark Zuckerberg lost $78 billion.

None of this has any real consequence on their daily lives.

Hoarding wealth like this is grotesque.

Moderna is planning to charge $130 for its COVID vaccine, but the vaccine only costs $2.85 to make.

Meanwhile, over the last two years, the company made over $19 billion in profits off the vaccine.

Folks, this is what corporate greed looks like.

It's almost as though oligarchs having unilateral control over our most vital means of communication is not such a great thing after all…

A handful of billionaires now have unprecedented control over banking, the food we eat, the health care we can access and, now, the information we receive.

This is what oligarchy looks like.