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"Too many leaders in business and politics have been willing to do anything to make more money or to gain more power - regardless of the consequences for our society." (Photo: Robert Reich/ Screenshot)
Why the Common Good Disappeared (And How We Get it Back)
The era we are living in offers too many illustrations of greed, narcissism, and hatefulness. But I don’t believe it hopeless.
Feb 23, 2018
In 1963 over 70 percent of Americans trusted government to do the right thing all or most of the time; nowadays only 16 percent do.
There has been a similar decline in trust for corporations. In the late 1970s, 32 percent trusted big business, by 2016, only 18 percent did.
Trust in banks has dropped from 60 percent to 27 percent. Trust in newspapers, from 51 percent to 20 percent. Public trust has also plummeted for nonprofits, universities, charities, and religious institutions.
Why this distrust? As economic inequality has widened, the moneyed interests have spent more and more of their ever-expanding wealth to alter the rules of the game to their own advantage.
Too many leaders in business and politics have been willing to do anything to make more money or to gain more power - regardless of the consequences for our society.
We see this everywhere - in the new tax giveaway to big corporations, in gun manufacturer's use of the NRA to block gun controls, in the Koch Brother's push to roll back environmental regulations, in Donald Trump's profiting off his presidency.
No wonder much of the public no longer believes that America's major institutions are working for the many. Increasingly, they have become vessels for the few.
The question is whether we can restore the common good. Can the system be made to work for the good of all?
Some of you may feel such a quest to be hopeless. The era we are living in offers too many illustrations of greed, narcissism, and hatefulness. But I don't believe it hopeless.
Almost every day I witness or hear of the compassion of ordinary Americans - like the thousands who helped people displaced by the wildfires in California and floods in Louisiana; like the two men in Seattle who gave their lives trying to protect a young Muslim woman from a hate-filled assault; like the coach who lost his life in Parkland, Florida, trying to shield students from a gunman; like the teenagers who are demanding that Florida legislators take action on guns.
The challenge is to turn all this into a new public spiritedness extending to the highest reaches in the land - a public morality that strengthens our democracy, makes our economy work for everyone, and revives trust in the major institutions of America.
We have never been a perfect union; our finest moments have been when we sought to become more perfect than we had been. We can help restore the common good by striving for it and showing others it's worth the effort.
I started my career a half-century ago in the Senate office of Robert F. Kennedy, when the common good was well understood, and I've watched it unravel over the last half-century.
Resurrecting it may take another half century, or more. But as the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr once said, "Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
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Robert Reich
Robert Reich is professor emeritus of public policy at Berkeley and former US secretary of labor. His latest book is the No. 1 New York Times best-seller, "Coming Up Short."
In 1963 over 70 percent of Americans trusted government to do the right thing all or most of the time; nowadays only 16 percent do.
There has been a similar decline in trust for corporations. In the late 1970s, 32 percent trusted big business, by 2016, only 18 percent did.
Trust in banks has dropped from 60 percent to 27 percent. Trust in newspapers, from 51 percent to 20 percent. Public trust has also plummeted for nonprofits, universities, charities, and religious institutions.
Why this distrust? As economic inequality has widened, the moneyed interests have spent more and more of their ever-expanding wealth to alter the rules of the game to their own advantage.
Too many leaders in business and politics have been willing to do anything to make more money or to gain more power - regardless of the consequences for our society.
We see this everywhere - in the new tax giveaway to big corporations, in gun manufacturer's use of the NRA to block gun controls, in the Koch Brother's push to roll back environmental regulations, in Donald Trump's profiting off his presidency.
No wonder much of the public no longer believes that America's major institutions are working for the many. Increasingly, they have become vessels for the few.
The question is whether we can restore the common good. Can the system be made to work for the good of all?
Some of you may feel such a quest to be hopeless. The era we are living in offers too many illustrations of greed, narcissism, and hatefulness. But I don't believe it hopeless.
Almost every day I witness or hear of the compassion of ordinary Americans - like the thousands who helped people displaced by the wildfires in California and floods in Louisiana; like the two men in Seattle who gave their lives trying to protect a young Muslim woman from a hate-filled assault; like the coach who lost his life in Parkland, Florida, trying to shield students from a gunman; like the teenagers who are demanding that Florida legislators take action on guns.
The challenge is to turn all this into a new public spiritedness extending to the highest reaches in the land - a public morality that strengthens our democracy, makes our economy work for everyone, and revives trust in the major institutions of America.
We have never been a perfect union; our finest moments have been when we sought to become more perfect than we had been. We can help restore the common good by striving for it and showing others it's worth the effort.
I started my career a half-century ago in the Senate office of Robert F. Kennedy, when the common good was well understood, and I've watched it unravel over the last half-century.
Resurrecting it may take another half century, or more. But as the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr once said, "Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope."
Robert Reich
Robert Reich is professor emeritus of public policy at Berkeley and former US secretary of labor. His latest book is the No. 1 New York Times best-seller, "Coming Up Short."
In 1963 over 70 percent of Americans trusted government to do the right thing all or most of the time; nowadays only 16 percent do.
There has been a similar decline in trust for corporations. In the late 1970s, 32 percent trusted big business, by 2016, only 18 percent did.
Trust in banks has dropped from 60 percent to 27 percent. Trust in newspapers, from 51 percent to 20 percent. Public trust has also plummeted for nonprofits, universities, charities, and religious institutions.
Why this distrust? As economic inequality has widened, the moneyed interests have spent more and more of their ever-expanding wealth to alter the rules of the game to their own advantage.
Too many leaders in business and politics have been willing to do anything to make more money or to gain more power - regardless of the consequences for our society.
We see this everywhere - in the new tax giveaway to big corporations, in gun manufacturer's use of the NRA to block gun controls, in the Koch Brother's push to roll back environmental regulations, in Donald Trump's profiting off his presidency.
No wonder much of the public no longer believes that America's major institutions are working for the many. Increasingly, they have become vessels for the few.
The question is whether we can restore the common good. Can the system be made to work for the good of all?
Some of you may feel such a quest to be hopeless. The era we are living in offers too many illustrations of greed, narcissism, and hatefulness. But I don't believe it hopeless.
Almost every day I witness or hear of the compassion of ordinary Americans - like the thousands who helped people displaced by the wildfires in California and floods in Louisiana; like the two men in Seattle who gave their lives trying to protect a young Muslim woman from a hate-filled assault; like the coach who lost his life in Parkland, Florida, trying to shield students from a gunman; like the teenagers who are demanding that Florida legislators take action on guns.
The challenge is to turn all this into a new public spiritedness extending to the highest reaches in the land - a public morality that strengthens our democracy, makes our economy work for everyone, and revives trust in the major institutions of America.
We have never been a perfect union; our finest moments have been when we sought to become more perfect than we had been. We can help restore the common good by striving for it and showing others it's worth the effort.
I started my career a half-century ago in the Senate office of Robert F. Kennedy, when the common good was well understood, and I've watched it unravel over the last half-century.
Resurrecting it may take another half century, or more. But as the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr once said, "Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope."
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