America has experienced “the worst, most anemic economic recovery on record” because all the money that used to go to the middle class has now been sucked up by the wealthy, former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich said in Seattle on Saturday night, Joel Connelly reports on Seattle PI.
“The rich are not job creators . . . The job creators are not people at the top, but those at the middle and below, ” Reich told a full house at Seattle Town Hall. Connely reports Reich as saying, “I love Seattle, ” after getting a standing ovation when he was introduced.
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Connely suggests Reich has formed a pact with two Seattle figures: entrepreneur Nick Hanauer and Service Employees International Union leader David Rolf. Together, the three of them have been on a tear against “trickle down” economics. They say it ain’t trickling.
“American corporations are now sitting on over $2 trillion in cash that they don’t know what to do with, ” Reich told the Seattle crowd, and quickly clarified: “I am not a class warrior, I am a class worrier.”
He is worried that the American household’s buying power continues to dwindle, while the economy expands. The money just doesn’t reach below the top couple of percents.
Reich loves Seattle, according to Connely, because of the city’s decision $15-an-hour minimum wage, and its paid sick leave ordinance.
Seattle is “setting a beacon light for the rest of the country, ” Reich said, telling his adoring audience: “The amazing thing is why other cities and other places have not done it.”
The love was totally mutual.
