Narrator: In the spring of 2018, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, received an unexpected phone call. On the other end of the line was Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase and arguably one of the most powerful men in global finance. Dimon was not happy. He had seen the professor's public criticisms of him and the system he represented, and he called to complain. For several minutes, the CEO defended his position, his patriotism, and the fundamental soundness of the American economy. The professor listened patiently before laying out the core arguments that would form a devastating critique of the very system Dimon championed.

This tense exchange between a powerful insider and a determined critic sets the stage for Robert B. Reich's book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It. Reich argues that the phone call wasn't just a disagreement between two men; it was a symptom of a much larger problem. It revealed the profound disconnect between those at the top, who believe the system works, and the vast majority of Americans who feel it is fundamentally rigged against them.

Narrator: Reich argues that the traditional political labels of "left" and "right" are now obsolete. They distract from the true conflict shaping modern America: the struggle between democracy, where power rests with the many, and oligarchy, where it is concentrated in the hands of a wealthy few. This oligarchy isn't a secret conspiracy; it's a system where economic and political power have become dangerously intertwined.

The career of Jamie Dimon serves as a perfect illustration. Born into a family with deep roots in finance, Dimon's path was paved with privilege and connections. His partnership with his mentor, Sanford Weill, saw him rise through the ranks of American Express and Citicorp. After a falling out, he took the helm of Bank One, turning it around so successfully that it was acquired by JPMorgan Chase in 2004. By 2006, Dimon was CEO of the financial behemoth. Under his leadership, JPMorgan became a colossus with trillions in assets, and Dimon himself became a billionaire. His power extends beyond the bank; as chair of the Business Roundtable, he influences national policy. Dimon embodies the American oligarchy—an elite class that uses its immense wealth to shape the rules of the game, ensuring those rules continue to benefit them.

Narrator: The modern oligarch often presents a benevolent face. Jamie Dimon, for instance, publicly acknowledges societal problems like income inequality and failing schools. He claims to be a "patriot before I’m the CEO of JPMorgan." His bank invests in programs for affordable housing and worker training, and in 2019, his Business Roundtable famously issued a statement pledging to serve all stakeholders—not just shareholders.

Reich dismantles this public relations effort, revealing it as a hollow gesture. He points to a congressional hearing in 2019 where Representative Katie Porter confronted Dimon with the budget of one of his own bank tellers in California. The teller's full-time salary left her $567 short of covering basic living expenses each month. Porter asked Dimon for advice on how she should close that gap. The CEO, whose compensation was $31 million that year, had no answer. He could only say he'd have to "think about it." This moment exposed the hypocrisy at the heart of corporate social responsibility. While Dimon expresses concern for the working poor, his company pays wages that perpetuate that poverty. Furthermore, these philanthropic efforts are dwarfed by the bank's lobbying for corporate tax cuts and deregulation, policies that directly harm the very people they claim to help.

Narrator: When confronted with proposals for social safety nets or higher taxes, the oligarchy often warns of the dangers of "socialism." Reich counters that America already has socialism, but it's reserved exclusively for the rich.

The 2008 financial crisis is the starkest example. When the reckless bets of Wall Street banks, including JPMorgan, brought the global economy to its knees, the government didn't let them fail. Instead, it bailed them out with hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars. JPMorgan received $25 billion. While the banks were saved, 10 million Americans lost their homes to foreclosure and 8.7 million lost their jobs. No major bank executive went to jail. This is socialism for the rich: they reap the profits from their risks, while the public socializes their losses. For everyone else, it's harsh capitalism. When a homeowner can't pay their mortgage or a worker loses their job, there is no bailout, only the unforgiving logic of the market.

Narrator: Many Americans feel the system is corrupt, and Reich argues they are correct. However, this corruption isn't always about illegal bribes in smoke-filled rooms. It's a systemic corruption that has been made legal. A landmark 2014 study by professors Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page analyzed nearly 1,800 policy issues and came to a shocking conclusion: the preferences of the average American have a "near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy." Lawmakers, they found, respond almost exclusively to the demands of wealthy individuals and big business.

This happens because countervailing powers, like strong labor unions, have been systematically dismantled over the last 40 years. In their place, corporations have built a massive influence-peddling machine. JPMorgan, for example, treats "government relations" as one of its core business lines. In the 2015-16 election cycle, business interests outspent labor and public interest groups by a ratio of 34 to 1. This isn't just about getting access; it's about getting a return on investment. Corporations successfully lobby for tax loopholes, deregulation, and subsidies that are worth billions, making political spending one of their most profitable activities.

Narrator: For much of the 20th century, American corporations operated under a model of "stakeholder capitalism." Leaders believed they had a duty not just to shareholders, but also to their employees, customers, and the communities they operated in. In 1981, the Business Roundtable itself stated that corporations must balance the claims of all these groups.

That all changed in the 1980s with the rise of "shareholder capitalism," a philosophy championed by corporate raiders like Carl Icahn. The sole purpose of the corporation, they argued, was to maximize share price. Icahn's hostile takeover of Trans World Airlines (TWA) in 1985 became a blueprint for this new era. He loaded the company with debt, stripped its most valuable assets for his own profit, and drove the airline into bankruptcy, all while pocketing nearly half a billion dollars. This ruthless, short-term focus became the norm. CEOs like Jack Welch at GE were celebrated for firing tens of thousands of workers to boost the stock price. The result was a massive transfer of wealth from workers' wages to corporate profits and executive pay.

Narrator: How does an oligarchy survive in a democracy? Reich explains that it uses three classic tools: promoting a belief system that justifies its existence, bribing a "palace guard" to protect it, and manufacturing threats to divide the public.

The belief system is "market fundamentalism"—the idea that the market is a natural force and that the wealthy deserve their riches. The palace guard is the army of lawyers, lobbyists, and consultants who are paid exorbitant sums to defend the oligarchy's interests. But the most insidious tool is the creation of scapegoats. By stoking fears about immigrants, minorities, and cultural issues, the oligarchy diverts the public's anger away from the real source of their economic pain: the concentration of wealth and power at the very top. As Martin Luther King Jr. observed of the old South, the aristocracy gave the poor white man a "psychological bird" of racial superiority to eat, so he wouldn't notice his empty stomach. Today's oligarchy uses the same playbook.

Narrator: Ultimately, Robert B. Reich's The System delivers a powerful and unsettling diagnosis: the economic and political dysfunctions plaguing America are not accidents. They are the predictable results of a system that has been deliberately rewired over four decades to benefit a powerful few at the expense of the many. The core problem is not economic, but political. It is a failure of democracy.

The book's most challenging idea is that we cannot fix the system by tinkering around the edges with policy tweaks. The only way forward is to reclaim democracy itself. This requires a fundamental shift in our understanding of the political landscape—to see the fight not as Democrat versus Republican, but as a broad-based movement for democracy against a powerful and entrenched oligarchy. The question it leaves us with is not whether we can win that fight, but whether we are willing to wage it.