By
Robert Reich
EDITOR’S
NOTE: in a letter to the Providence Journal, Charlestown curmudgeon Jim Mageau
made a lot of the same arguments that Reich’s coffee mate made. That’s Trump is
a “successful business” man, “honest,” etc. So Reich’s counterpoint, below, might
just as well have been made to Mageau.
I
finally found a Trump supporter – this morning when I went to buy coffee. (I
noticed a Trump bumper sticker on his car.)
“Hi,”
I said. “Noticed your Trump bumper sticker.”
“Yup,”
he said, a bit defensively.
“I
hope you don’t mind my asking, but I’m curious. Why are you supporting him?”
“I
know he’s a little bit much,” said the Trump supporter. “But he’s a successful
businessman. And we need a successful businessman as president.”
“How
do you know he’s a successful businessman?” I asked.
“Because
he’s made a fortune.”
“Has
he really?” I asked.
“Of
course. Forbes magazine says he’s worth four and a half billion.”
“That
doesn’t mean he’s been a success,” I said.
“In
my book it does,” said the Trump supporter.
“You
know, in 1976, when Trump was just starting his career, he said he was worth
about $200 million,” I said. “Most of that was from his father.”
“That
just proves my point,” said the Trump supporter. “He turned that $200 million
into four and a half billion. Brilliant man.“
“But if he had just put that $200
million into an index fund and reinvested the dividends, he’d be worth twelve
billion today,”
I said.
The
Trump supporter went silent.
"And he got about $850 million in
tax subsidies, just in New York alone,” I said.
More
silence.
“He’s
not a businessman,” I said. “He’s a con man. "Hope you enjoy your coffee.”
ROBERT
B. REICH is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of
California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing
Economies. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, for
which Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries
of the twentieth century. He has written fourteen books, including the best
sellers "Aftershock", "The Work of Nations," and "Beyond
Outrage," and, his most recent, "Saving Capitalism." He is also
a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause,
a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the
award-winning documentary, INEQUALITY FOR ALL.