The American Dream vs. The Gospel of Wealth: The Fight for a Productive Middle-Class EconomyNorton Garfinkle paints a disquieting picture of America today: a nation increasingly divided between economic winners and losers, a nation in which the middle-class American Dream seems more and more elusive. Recent government policies reflect a commitment to a new supply-side winner-take-all Gospel of Wealth. Garfinkle warns that this supply-side economic vision favors the privileged few over the majority of American citizens striving to better their economic condition.Garfinkle employs historical insight and data-based economic analysis to demonstrate compellingly the sharp departure of the supply-side Gospel of Wealth from an American ideal that dates back to Abraham Lincoln—the vision of America as a society in which ordinary, hard-working individuals can get ahead and attain a middle-class living, and in which government plays an active role in expanding opportunities and ensuring against economic exploitation. Supply-side economic policies increase economic disparities and, Garfinkle insists, they fail on technical, factual, moral, and political grounds. He outlines a fresh economic vision, consonant with the great American tradition of ensuring strong economic growth, while preserving the middle-class American Dream. |
From inside the book
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Page 14
... bank to stabilize the currency . As president , he presided over the vast federally underwritten expansion of the national rail- road system and provided the first major federal funding for education with the creation of the land grant ...
... bank to stabilize the currency . As president , he presided over the vast federally underwritten expansion of the national rail- road system and provided the first major federal funding for education with the creation of the land grant ...
Page 30
... of major partisan political struggles over tariffs , “ internal improvements , " a national bank , and ultimately the issue of the expansion of slavery in the territories . These struggles 30 The Origins of the American Dream.
... of major partisan political struggles over tariffs , “ internal improvements , " a national bank , and ultimately the issue of the expansion of slavery in the territories . These struggles 30 The Origins of the American Dream.
Page 34
... bank . I am in favor of the internal improvement system and a high protective tariff . ” 13 Lincoln's quip summarized the three key is- sues that divided the nation , and the political parties , in the decades leading up to the Civil ...
... bank . I am in favor of the internal improvement system and a high protective tariff . ” 13 Lincoln's quip summarized the three key is- sues that divided the nation , and the political parties , in the decades leading up to the Civil ...
Page 39
... Bank of the United States . Jackson's suspicion of the bank carried with it an element of sectionalism . He thought the bank dispropor- tionately benefited northern financial interests . The bank had had its share of problems , but on ...
... Bank of the United States . Jackson's suspicion of the bank carried with it an element of sectionalism . He thought the bank dispropor- tionately benefited northern financial interests . The bank had had its share of problems , but on ...
Page 41
... bank were important in their own right . But they were also surrogates for an emerging moral struggle that would explode in the mid - 1850s . In the North the abolitionist movement was growing . Abolitionists flooded Congress with ...
... bank were important in their own right . But they were also surrogates for an emerging moral struggle that would explode in the mid - 1850s . In the North the abolitionist movement was growing . Abolitionists flooded Congress with ...
Contents
1 | |
12 | |
27 | |
47 | |
4 The Age of Reform | 69 |
5 The Business of America Is Business | 88 |
6 The Renewal of the American Dream | 107 |
7 The New Gospel of Wealth | 144 |
SupplySide vs DemandSide Economics | 163 |
9 The Way Forward | 189 |
GDP Consumption Investment Employment Unemployment and Marginal Tax Rates 19512004 | 201 |
Notes | 205 |
Index | 221 |
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administration aggregate demand Ameri American Dream bank BEST Budget Bureau of Economic Bush tax cuts business investment business owners citizens clear the path consumer decades deficit spending demand-side democracy Democratic economic growth economic policy economists effect Engen and Skinner federal government Federal Reserve fiscal policy G.I. Bill GDP growth Gilded Age Gospel of Wealth Historical Statistics Ibid Income and Product income tax rate increase increasingly industrial inflation Kennedy Keynes Keynesian laissez-faire Lincoln low top marginal major marginal income tax marginal tax rates ment MIDDLE middle-class millions monetary policy National Income neo-Keynesian economics nomic personal consumption political President progress progressive tax prosperity Reagan real growth recession reducing reform Republican role Roosevelt Social Darwinism society stagflation supply-side economics supply-side tax cuts tariffs tax cuts Tax Policy taxpayers tion top marginal income top marginal rate U.S. Department U.S. economy unemployment Union United vision workers WORST York