How Robert Reich Achieved a Net Worth of $4 Million
Robert Reich is an economist who has been involved inn the political side of things from time to time. On the whole, he has been very influential. Something that is shown by his body of work as well as the recognition that has been offered to him by publications such as Time. His work as a politician of sorts has not gone unnoticed, and his career continues to thrive.
What Is His Current Net Worth?
The exact numbers for Reich’s current net worth are unknown for obvious reasons. However, there seems to be some interest in them. As a result, Celebrity Net Worth has estimated that he has a current net worth of about $4 million, though it isn’t clear how said website came by said number.
How Did He Reach His Current Net Worth?
Reich was born in Scranton, PA. Unfortunately, he was born with Fairbank’s disease. For those who are curious, this is a genetic disorder that affects the process by which bones elongate. As a result, people with Fairbank’s disease can suffer a number of serious symptoms, with an excellent example being their short stature. Due to this, he was bullied as a child, with the result that he sought out the protection of older boys.
This had a huge impact on his life. After all, one of those older boys was Michael Schwerner, who is remembered for being one of the three CORE field workers who were murdered by Ku Klux Klan members on June 21, 1964 because of their efforts In encouraging African Americans to register for the vote as well as other civil rights work. The thinker has stated that said incident inspired him to stand up for those who are without power. Something that has informed his politics ever since. Reich was a member of the generation that could be conscripted to fight in the Vietnam War. He was drafted. However, he didn’t serve for the simple reason that he didn’t clear the minimum height of five feet needed to pass the physical. Instead, he received scholarships to go to Dartmouth College, University College, Oxford, and then Yale Law School. It is interesting to note that the latter meant that the thinker was classmates with a number of very well-known individuals including but not limited to Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, and Clarence Thomas.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, he embarked on a very prestigious career. He spent some time as a law clerk for the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and then some time as an assistant to the U.S. Solicitor General. By 1977, he had gotten further involved in government, seeing as how then President Jimmy Carter had named him director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Policy Planning Staff. However, Reich tends to be better-known because of the time that he spent teaching at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University from 1980 to 1992. This is because this was the period in which he wrote a number of influential works. For example, there was The Next American Frontier, which proposed a program of economic revival for the purpose of promoting more equitable outcomes. Similarly, there was The Work of Nations, which explored the question of how to ensure that all Americans could have a share in the global economy of the 21st century. By 1992, he had become prominent enough to matter on the national stage. Thanks to that, he became the head of Bill Clinton’s economic transition team, which paved the way for his eventual position as the Clinton administration’s Secretary of Labor.
In said position, said individual pushed for programs to help workers adapt to the new conditions of the new global economy, which he believed could be made possible by cutting the assistance for dependent corporations. Indeed, he was the one who popularized the term “corporate welfare” in the popular consciousness. Besides this, he was the one who implemented the Family and Medical Leave Act. Furthermore, he was successful in lobbying for an increase in the minimum wage. After Clinton’s re-election, the thinker left his position so that he could spend more time with his sons. It wasn’t too long before he returned to academia as a professor at Brandeis University, where he proved to be popular with his students. This can be seen in how the latter made up the bulk of his campaign staff when he made a run for the Governorship of Massachusetts in the early 2000s. He didn’t win. However, he has remained active in both economics and politics ever since in a wide range of ways. For example, he has been a contributor to everything from the public radio program Marketplace to the CNBC shows Kudlow & Company and On the Money. Similarly, he backed Barack Obama over Hilary Clinton as well as Bernie Sanders over Hilary Clinton before pushing for Sanders supporters to back the victorious Clinton. On top of this, he has even produced a Netflix Original Documentary while working with others.
Further Considerations
It isn’t exactly clear how the thinker reached his current net worth. However, there isn’t much of a mystery either. After all, he has held a succession of high-profile, high-prestige positions, which have presumably come with corresponding compensation. In fact, it is worth mentioning that he is currently the Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, a position that he has held since January of 2006. Besides this, he has also been involved with a wide range of other projects in a wide range of other roles, which have presumably contributed to his net worth as well. For instance, he is a co-founder of Inequality Media that produces videos, live interviews, and other media that are meant to inform interested individuals about concerning economic trends in the United States, which have translated into hundreds of thousands of subscribers as well as millions of views. Suffice to say that influence often comes hand-in-hand with wealth.
