If we could snap our fingers and have one thing changed in order to begin to fix the problems of our country and the world, high on most lists would be income inequality. So much of our country’s ills are systemically mired in the inordinate amount of power and control wielded by our wealthiest citizens and companies. A great example of the worthlessness of the billionaires in our country is former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz. Schultz is really thinking strongly about running for president of the United States, if you haven’t heard. Of course you’ve heard, because even his complete lack of ideas, his useless “I am being honest,” and his attacks on Democrats for not being “realistic” have found popularity on CNN. No, most polls, including CNN’s own polling, show that Americans don’t like Howard Schultz and his brand of diagnosing all the problems we already agree we have while having ZERO answers or coherent plans to fix those problems.
On Tuesday, CNN gave Schultz an hourlong “town hall”-style program, on which he answered questions from concerned Americans. If you didn’t watch it or hear about it, Schultz really articulated his qualifications for being a leader. Some of those articulations included:
- The wealthy in our country should probably pay higher taxes than their record-low taxes, but how much and what that tax plan would look like, and what that tax plan would do … he doesn’t know.
- Our healthcare system is problematic, and costs for services and drugs are too high. His plan? Maybe figure out a way to make it better?
- Climate change is a big problem facing the earth. The “Green New Deal” is “unrealistic,” so we should probably not do anything, since he doesn’t actually have any ideas on the matter.
Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, like many of us, wondered what warranted CNN giving Schultz the air time.
He did ask and answer his own question. But I suspect professor Reich knew the answer already.