NEWS
By Robert B. Reich | April 2, 2014
America is not yet an oligarchy, but that's where Charles and David Koch and a few other billionaires are taking us. American democracy used to depend on political parties that more or less represented most of us. Political scientists of the 1950s and 1960s marveled at American "pluralism," by which they meant the capacities of parties and other membership groups to reflect the preferences of the vast majority of citizens. Then around a quarter century ago, as income and wealth began concentrating at the top, the Republican and Democratic parties started to morph into mechanisms for extracting money, mostly from wealthy people.
NEWS
By Robert B. Reich | March 12, 2014
Do you recall a time in America when the income of a single schoolteacher or baker or salesman or mechanic was enough to buy a home, have two cars and raise a family? I remember. My father (who just celebrated his 100th birthday) earned enough for the rest of us to live comfortably. We weren't rich but never felt poor, and our standard of living rose steadily through the 1950s and 1960s. That used to be the norm. For three decades after World War II, America created the largest middle class the world had ever seen.
NEWS
January 1, 2014
The launch of regular Saturday and Sunday commuter train service between Baltimore and Washington on the MARC rail line in December may be one of the best things that's happened to Charm City in decades. It will make it easier for Baltimore's harbor attractions, sports stadiums, museums and theaters to attract visitors from the Washington area and give Baltimore residents comparably easy access to weekend amenities there. Perhaps more importantly, it helps make Baltimore more appealing to Washington-area workers as a lower-cost alternative for city living and could spur a new influx of residents into the city again.
NEWS
By Robert B. Reich | December 30, 2013
It's the season to show concern for the less fortunate among us. We should also be concerned about the widening gap between the most fortunate and everyone else. Although it's still possible to win the lottery (your chance of winning $648 million in the recent Mega Millions sweepstakes was one in 259 million), the biggest lottery of all is what family we're born into. Our chances in life are now determined to an unprecedented degree by the wealth of our parents. That's not always been the case.
NEWS
By Scott Calvert and Jamie Smith Hopkins, The Baltimore Sun | August 24, 2013
In 1982, Mayor William Donald Schaefer persuaded state lawmakers to try a different approach to urban revitalization. To lure companies to poorer parts of Baltimore and elsewhere in Maryland, the government would dangle a 10-year property tax discount and hiring rebates. Baltimore's first so-called Enterprise Zone was carved from a depressed section of Lower Park Heights called Park Circle, where a sausage plant and other businesses opened their doors. Thirty years later, Baltimore has greatly expanded its program, offering multimillion-dollar tax breaks to developers in many of the city's most desirable neighborhoods.
NEWS
May 15, 2013
I was filled with admiration after reading about Kevin Plank's dedication to staying in his home state of Maryland ("Under Armour founder Kevin Plank sees himself as the underdog," May 9). I have no doubt that he will achieve his goal of growing Under Armour into a Fortune 500 company. Minutes later, I read Constance Kihm's letter bidding farewell to Maryland because of the laws passed by our (democratically elected) leaders ("Farewell, my Maryland, farewell to taxes, farewell to extreme liberalism," May 10)