Robert Reich's 'rigged economy' post triggers wave of inequality anger online
A one-line Bluesky post from Robert Reich draws thousands of replies blaming decades of policy for concentrated wealth and stagnant wages.
What to know
- A one-line post from Robert Reich calling the economy 'rigged' drew over 6,700 likes and 120+ comments within hours.
- Commenters cite 17 years without a federal minimum wage increase and decades of wealth concentration as evidence.
- The crowd disagrees on cause: some blame Reagan-era policy specifically, others blame both parties or capitalism itself.
- Proposed fixes floated in comments range from taxing the rich to tying executive pay ratios to tax rates.
The dispute Commenters split between framing the rigged economy as a specifically Republican/Reagan-driven outcome versus a bipartisan failure shared by both parties in Congress. · positions read across 155 posts and comments
This is a decades-long structural trend rooted in Reagan-era policy, not a new problem.
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“It started under Reagan and has only gotten worse for working people since 1978.”
muttsylvania.bsky.social · Bluesky ↗
Both parties in Congress share the blame, not just one side.
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“This is what a rigged economy looks like. It looks like Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi. Congress made our economic system. Congress moves our stuff around. Congress did this.”
mr-nobody-01.bsky.social · Bluesky ↗
Capitalism/trickle-down economics itself is fundamentally broken.
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“A trickle-down economy never goes to the people it always goes to the wealthy capitalists.”
tshred.bsky.social · Bluesky ↗
The fix requires concrete policy: raise the minimum wage and tax the wealthy.
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“It's a mob racket controlled by the rich. TAX the rich.”
doug666.bsky.social · Bluesky ↗
Robert Reich Commentator, former U.S. Labor Secretary
How it unfolded 2 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump postscomments
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Bluesky users flood the post with inequality grievances
Over 120 comments accumulated within hours, with commenters citing stagnant minimum wages, corporate bailouts, and wealth concentration as evidence of a rigged system, while disagreeing on the root cause and fix.
“17 years since the federal minimum wage has been increased... COMMIT TO RAISING THE FEDERAL MINIMUM WAGE SO AMERICAN PEOPLE CAN EARN A LIVING WAGE…”
— beachbum7777.bsky.social -
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It started under Reagan and has only gotten worse for working people since 1978.
2 more of the top 3 · 153 posts in this stretch
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Once upon a time the French had a real problem with the 1%… they solved it…
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17 years since the federal minimum wage has been increased 17 years, Democrats and Republicans have had the opportunity to increase the Federal Minimum Wage 🙄 Stop making bullshit promises COMMIT TO RAISING THE FEDERAL MINIMUM WAGE SO AMERICAN PEOPLE CAN EARN A LIVING WAGE FOR GOD'S SAKE
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Robert Reich posts 'rigged economy' claim on Bluesky
Reich (rbreich.bsky.social) posted a brief statement, 'This is what a rigged economy looks like,' which quickly gathered thousands of likes and comments.
“This is what a rigged economy looks like.”
— rbreich.bsky.social -
😂 Keep eating those sh!t sandwiches Americans. The rest of the world is moving on from that toxic swamp you call freedom.
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What people are saying 21 voices from 1 site · best of 155 · verbatim
- How much of corporate profits driving this inequality come from refunded tariffs?
- Sep 23
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Regardless of the blather coming from this administration, Trump inherited an economy that was "the envy of the world":
- Sep 21
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AI will leave millions without a job, add that to the millions who will lose their job to automation. Does anyone really believe these millions will remain quiet? Does anyone really believe those who lose their jobs will just go home?
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I wish more people would read Piketty's books so they too can be bored by this information. Maybe they'll read a graphic novel version.
- Sep 20
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Guarantee a living wage! Tie it to taxes. The top 4 executives compensation, averaged, if that number is 500x lowest wages payed in their company, it pays 50% taxes, 700x, 70%, etc.( calculate part-time to full-time equivalent ) Fine all investors the sum of welfare needed by workers+ # of jobless.
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This is what a “headed to failure” economy looks like. Some 70% of our economy is propped up by consumer spending. When labor fails to have “discretionary spending money” they stop spending. The economy crashes. Our “fossilized in amber” style of capitalism fails if the pump can’t find any cash.
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It’s been decades since corporations saw workers as assets. Workers are liabilities that must be repressed financially, if not eliminated physically.
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"Rigged economy" ? This is what kleptocracy looks like.
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This is what a rigged economy looks like. It looks like Mitch McConnell and Nancy Pelosi. Congress made our economic system. Congress moves our stuff around. Congress did this.
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It didn’t start under Reagan, but he harnessed it and weaponized it Newt Gingrich played a significant part as well, particularly in turning Congress into the WWE
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Today's economy? It's been like this for thirty years. The compounding effect of capital concentrated in the hands of a few has just become shocking in the last decade. I'm just some dumbass engineer and saw this coming in the twenty teens,
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how are all the economists who spent the last 20 years on TV and in government just now bleating about this problem oh right they were in on it and have books to sell and merch to pimp now.
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And the big money propaganda wheel has been spinning the yarn that your job depends on your wages being lower. How often have we heard “the job creators”? How many jobs have the billionaires eliminated?
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You need to strip out excess profits from the defence & oil industries and you should adjust for the construction boom fuelling the data center roll out. Adjust for those “shocks” and the American economy has flat-lined.
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With them greedy f****** , that's probably what it is because really?That's the only way to fix the problem.We have right now too much wealth at the top.It must be redistributed through the whole beCause without labor & consumers.It's all going to collapse but I think they're too blind to see
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Supply side tax policies have failed everyone, including capital. When demand is destroyed by lack of income then the whole thing ends.
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Capitalism only works on paper because the greed of man is uncalculable.
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It's a mob racket controlled by the rich. TAX the rich.
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Tired of bailing out major corporations and not the general public. They can figure out how to survive and should've planned better. They don't need the tax breaks. We do.
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A trickle-down economy never goes to the people it always goes to the wealthy capitalists.
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This is also what the 1920’s looked like.
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AI investments have created a bubble. There will be low Labor growth and many promises won't be kept. Many of the data centers will not be built. We must shift our economy quickly into Real Human based Jobs and growth. We can't maintain an economy on this administrations goals.