Robert Reich Releases Final UC Berkeley Course on Wealth and Poverty
In a final video course, Robert Reich argues that widening economic inequality since the late 1970s fuels a dangerous cycle where concentrated financial wealth comes with political power.
How Economic Power Buys Political Influence
Concentrated income and wealth at the top translate into political power, creating a vicious cycle. While wealth is not a zero-sum game, political power functions as one, allowing the super-rich to secure changes in laws and rules that define the market, which make them even richer and more powerful. To explore these mechanics, the curriculum assigns academic research including Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page’s September 2014 study “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens” published in Perspectives on Politics.
The syllabus also examines reporting such as Jane Mayer’s August 2, 2021 piece “The Big Money Behind the Big Lie” in The New Yorker. Additional assigned readings include Asher Schechter’s July 2016 interview with Gary Reback titled “Why Argue With the Government When You Can Buy the Government?” and Steven M. Teles’s Fall 2015 essay “The Scourge of Upward Redistribution” in National Affairs.
Curriculum Development and Course Materials
The Wealth and Poverty team, which includes Michael Lahanas-Calderón, Kyle Parker, Dan Davis, and Emmett Tjen, prepared these course materials. Coro Fellows Ammar Ansari and Meagan Turner assisted in preparing the course materials, with administrative coordination overseen by Heather Kinlaw Lofthouse. The video lectures cover public policy debates surrounding inequality and evaluate methods for reversing wealth concentration in the United States.
