THE RICH KEEP GETTING RICHER

Essay by PDSACCollege, UndergraduateB+, January 2003

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The Rich Keep Getting Richer

Robert B. Reich was born in 1946 and is a Professor, activist, politician, and an author. He graduated from Yale Law School, John F. Kennedy Government School, and was a Rhodes scholar studying at Oxford University. Reich served as secretary of labor in the first Clinton administration and has a reputation of being a "conciliator, who can see opposite sides" to every question and solve them (Jacobus, 287). He has written many books, such as the Next American Frontier, Work of Nations, and The Wealth of Nations.

Robert B. Reich wrote, "Why the Rich are getting Richer and the Poor, Poorer" to categorize American workers. He divided all jobs into three boats: routine producers, in person servers, and symbolic analyst. Reich continues to explain each job and how they are affecting the economic wave. In his essay, Reich use of deductive reasoning and argument proves valid in the sense that the vessels are preventing change among the social order in today's society.

The first sinking vessel, routine producers, is the fastest sinking boats because they face competition from around the globe and from computer robots. Big companies like AT&T used routine producers in the US in the 1980's till they found that in Singapore routine producers would do the same job for a fraction of the price (Reich, 291). They fired the US workers and used Singaporeans untill AT&T could find another country willing to pay less.

Reich's use of evidence is apparent in the example of AT&T. The evidence pertains to wages and shows that routine producers are easily replaced and adds to Reich's opinions of the boats. Reich also states that Singaporean replaced U.S. AT&T workers for a fraction of the cost and will eventually will be replaced by less costly...