The system is rigged, and we need to fix it. This is a common sentiment among middle- and lower-class Americans, who make up roughly 81% of the American population (Gallup). So how is it that less than 20% of Americans control nearly all of the influence in our government? This is the question at the heart of Robert B. Reich’s national bestseller The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It. Through its 197 pages, Reich explores the current state of power within the American governing system, with an underwhelming resolution as the finale. His book delivers hard on his first question: who rigged our system? Then, as if he had run out of steam, the book limps over the proverbial finish line when addressing the question: How do we fix this broken, rigged system?
 

I chose to read this book because I am interested in national conversations around actually addressing economic inequality in our society. This may be a bold claim, but I believe that almost all social issues, or culture wars, must first be addressed financially if we ever hope to progress as a nation. When people are under-educated and poor, they look for someone to blame for their predicament. A ruling class often coopts this to seize power. Donald Trump in 2016 promised to build a wall on our southern border, so Mexican immigrants would no longer “steal our jobs”. It wasn’t the fact that people like him paid virtually no income or capital gains taxes, leaving the tax burden on the shoulders of middle- to lower-class individuals. It’s not the fact that our government hasn’t increased the minimum wage since 2009, despite inflation rising by more than 55% since then (CPI Inflation). No, it’s those darn illegal aliens. So when Reich claims to know how we can fix our current predicament, I am interested. Couple that with the clips I have seen and read of his outspoken critique of our current system, I felt like I could really benefit from a deep dive into his mind. I assumed it would focus on elite theory and pivot into how we could start to change our system for the better. I was kind of right.
 

Reich starts by placing Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, directly in his crosshairs. He addresses his past critiques of the CEO, as well as recounting a heated phone call where Dimon allegedly yelled at Reich for his public ridicule of the billionaire. Reich lets the reader know that this book is an in-depth, fleshed-out version of his abbreviated response to Dimon on the phone. I found the use of Dimon a successful tool to build context for his ideas. However, Reich never ventures far from talking about Dimon throughout the whole book. At times, this feels more like a personal vendetta than an attempt at education. Still, Reich does bring up necessary ideas for anyone who hasn’t reflected on U.S. Bureaucracy in the last couple of decades.
 

In the introduction, on page 7, is, in my opinion, one of the most important takeaways from the book. Robert Reich says: “First, forget politics as you’ve come to see it as electoral contests between Democrats and Republicans. Think Power. The underlying contest is between a small minority who have gained power over the system and the vast majority who have little to none.” There it is, the main point of the whole book. He then goes on to what I am calling his ‘Don’ts’ list. Rereading it now feels like listening to a preacher at his lectern, scolding the congregation.
 

I do want to highlight some great points he makes. I do think they are obvious, though I may be biased. Perhaps the target audience is someone who is just now playing around with the idea that Elon Musk has too much power. That maybe lobbyists shouldn’t buy politicians. I know there are people out there who are just starting that process, and that is fair.
 

Chapter one explains the history of oligarchy in America, noting that we have experienced this twice before: “Many of the men who founded our nation were slaveholding white oligarchs” (14). Then in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, robber barons amassed great wealth and corrupted our government for their own interests. Reich then explains how our current oligarchy formed in the early 80s with the rise of Wall Street and an investment economy.  Reich here lays out some useful facts about wealth disparity, equating our new robber barons with Russian oligarchs. He closes out this thought with his first limp call to arms: “The way to overcome oligarchy is for the rest of us to join together and win back America” (18). Sounds a lot like the MAGA chants of old. The next sentences are vague pictures of working-class people peacefully coming together to enact remarkable change using the very system that Reich claims to be rigged. Then he talks about Jamie Dimon again.
 

This is the pattern the book follows for roughly the next 150 pages. There is plenty of discussion of Jamie Dimon’s effect on our nation, but fewer and fewer rousing calls to action. Reich accurately discusses how the elite, like Dimon, propagate hypocrisy around them, so much so that they might actually believe it. He says they claim to be patriots who want to improve America, but their loyalties really lie in fattening their own companies' pockets by any means necessary. Reich details how big banks and the elite actively harm progressive agendas like labor negotiations or climate change (30). This runs counter to the public statements of many people at the Business Roundtable, which is chaired by none other than Jamie Dimon. See the pattern? The meat of this book is laying out progressive agendas and showcasing how Jamie Dimon and his cronies actively lobby against that.
 

This takes us to part three of the book, Overcoming Oligarchy. Unfortunately, we still aren’t quite out of the woods yet, as Reich uses most of the next chapter to talk about why Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 presidential election (156). There is a return to the passionate call-to-action at the end of this chapter, claiming “Democrats can defeat authoritarian populism without an agenda of radical democratic reform…” (163). He says this is accomplished by standing “squarely on the side of democracy against oligarchy." The following chapter reverts to how oligarchies retain power, which he covered at length in the first 150 pages, so let's skip over that for now. Finally, we arrive at what I had hoped to be the most important and informative portion of the book, chapter 14: Why Democracy Will Prevail.
 

One of the most frustrating things to hear when you are struggling is: don’t worry, it’ll get better. That's Reich’s ultimate message: “...as bad as it looks right now, as despairing as you can sometimes feel, the greatest strength of this country is our resilience. We bounce back.  We will again” (182). That’s great, Rob. My house was just foreclosed on, and my car repossessed, but it’s good to know that one day, who knows when, things might be better. He gives plenty of examples of the progress we have made over the years: like the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which was recently gutted in Shelby County v. Holder, 2013, or women’s bodily autonomy (1973), which was recently overturned in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization 2022.  Yet Reich claims that all that is needed is for us to resist: “At some point, those who are bullied gain the courage to fight back” (187). And in case you think he forgot, Reich ends his book with a final chapter titled A Final Word to Mr. Dimon.
 

What I would like to ask Mr Robert B. Reich is: HOW? Specifically how? What’s the legislation that needs to be passed? What do we do about congressional deadlocks, executive overreach, and Supreme Court corruption? How do we FIX THE SYSTEM? He claimed in the subtitle that he would show us how. I assumed, being a politics professor at Berkeley and having served in several Presidential Administrations, including the position of Secretary of Labor for Bill Clinton, that he would have some real guidance for a populace that is fed up with the current state of affairs. You know what happens when you assume things?
 

I think I am so frustrated with this book because I was so hopeful going into it. I respect Robert Reich, still very much so. Being told to keep fighting the good fight by a guy with a net worth of around $4 million is frustrating, to say the least (Celebrity Net Worth). But he doesn’t truly feel the sting of stagnant wages. He doesn't know what it’s like to live in the most affluent country in the world, and yet have to work 80 hours per week to survive. Reich seems to think that we can work within a system he himself claims is rigged. I believe the system needs to be altered, changed for the better, before we can work within it.
 

 This book serves as an insight into what is wrong with our political and economic system. It did not deliver any jaw dropping revelations. It did not deliver any substantive solutions on how we fix a rigged system.

 

                                                                                       References

2009 Dollars in 2020 | inflation calculator. (n.d.). In www.in2013dollars.com. Retrieved August 8, 2026, from https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/2009
 

211. (2026). Finishing off voting rights act, Supreme Court declares racism over — Again. In Brennan Center for Justice. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/finishing-voting-rights-act-supreme-court-declares-racism-over-again
 

Brenan, M. (2024). Steady 54% of Americans Identify as Middle Class. In Gallup.com. https://news.gallup.com/poll/645281/steady-americans-identify-middle-class.aspx
 

Robert Reich Net Worth. (2023). In Celebrity Net Worth. https://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-politicians/democrats/robert-reich-net-worth/