President Barack Obama describes the current economy as frozen. He expresses that credit is not flowing as easily as it should. He addresses the issue of the rich getting richer and poorer getting poorer in this quote "an economy where the incomes of the top 1% have skyrocketed while the typical working household has seen their income decline by nearly $2,000." He proposes a the solution to stimulate the job market is to create energy efficient homes that will be built by Americans. As soon as these workers earn enough money, they can take advantage of the historically low mortgage rates. I like Obama's plan because its designed to help the economy, the middle class, and the environment. He also reiterates what the Reich's argument that our educational system does not prepare young Americans for the modern economy, just as the routine workers are not prepared to work as anything but, and wind up competing with the in person service workers. Obama also describes that we are sending too many of our experts overseas to work instead of working here and stimulating our economy, just as Reich gives all those examples of the third boat workers. Obama also addresses globalization stating that securities that were traded over seas were weak, and made those countries buy less American goods, furthering the recession in the States.

Why the rich are getting richer and poor getting poorer

Reich first addresses why the poor are getting poorer. He explains that the major reasons that middle and lower class wages are going down is simply because the national system of working has now become global one. One where its astonishingly easy to find people to work for much less than what you would pay an American worker. He states that the world population increases by 12,000 every hour, this quote appealed to his argument very well. He continues to explain that if the American worker does not have enough money to buy the goods that they produced, or used to produce, then the economy cannot flourish. He blames the lowering of the cost of transportation and communication that pretty much lead to the outsourcing of low wage jobs like the factory worker. Reich provides a wealth of examples to support his argument, many of these involve corporations that we deal with everyday which furthers the appeal of his argument. Because these corporations can find such cheaper labor, the American unions have lost all their bargaining power. He goes on to explain that although some foreign companies have been lured into building their factories in the US through promises of "tax abatements", these factories will not heal the unemployment because they are so highly automated, literally machines have taken Americans jobs. Similarly the in-person services are also being taken over by machines, the author lists "Automated tellers, computerized cashiers, auto car washes, vending machines...". I found this part of the argument quite convincing for I never bought something from a vending machine thinking that it had stolen someones job. Although he counters this point saying that in service jobs can never deplete for its human nature to want to engage other human beings. The authors "third boat" is American symbolic analysts, this one is not sinking it is steadily rising. This is where Americans find themselves with plenty of opportunities to work for foreign countries. Reich gives examples of Europe, Latin America, and the middle east. He says American energy consultants are in high demand in Arab countries. Basically the only thing that America is producing anymore that is worth something is this global economy is brilliant minds. This concept further screws the middle and lower class who used to be able to live a nice standard of living without a college diploma.