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 4
... the income and economic security of the middle class and ordinary wage earners without restricting the ability of successful businessmen to gain wealth.The second vision,based on the Gospel ofWealth, seeks to Introduction.
... the income and economic security of the middle class and ordinary wage earners without restricting the ability of successful businessmen to gain wealth.The second vision,based on the Gospel ofWealth, seeks to Introduction.
Page 6
... ordinary workers and their families was patently unfair, and that unemployment and spreading poverty threatened the very basis of American democracy. After the economy recovered in World War II,Americans were still thinking within this ...
... ordinary workers and their families was patently unfair, and that unemployment and spreading poverty threatened the very basis of American democracy. After the economy recovered in World War II,Americans were still thinking within this ...
Page 7
... ordinary workers in ordinary jobs could expect to better their conditions, own homes and automobiles, send their children to college, and retire in relative security.It was an economy in which the vast majority of citizens had a stake ...
... ordinary workers in ordinary jobs could expect to better their conditions, own homes and automobiles, send their children to college, and retire in relative security.It was an economy in which the vast majority of citizens had a stake ...
Page 10
... ordinary citizens max out their credit cards and borrow against their home equity in a desperate effort to maintain a middle-class standard of living in an economy apparently no longer defined by a commitment to support such a living ...
... ordinary citizens max out their credit cards and borrow against their home equity in a desperate effort to maintain a middle-class standard of living in an economy apparently no longer defined by a commitment to support such a living ...
Page 14
... ordinary worker. The new vision shifted focus to the extraordinary entrepreneur, the business owner, the industrial magnate as the engine of the new industrial prosperity. Lincoln thought government could and should enhance Americans ...
... ordinary worker. The new vision shifted focus to the extraordinary entrepreneur, the business owner, the industrial magnate as the engine of the new industrial prosperity. Lincoln thought government could and should enhance Americans ...
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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Common terms and phrases
administration American Dream argued average bank BEST Bureau Bush business investment called citizens claim consumer consumption created Deal decades deficit demand demand-side Democratic economic growth economic policy economists effect expand federal government first fiscal Gospel of Wealth growing hands HIGHEST historical House important improvements income tax rate increase increasingly individual industrial inflation interest investment issues Kennedy kind labor Lincoln major marginal income tax ment MIDDLE middle-class millions monetary nearly nomic opportunity ordinary percent political President problem Product progress prosperity Reagan reducing reform Republican result risk role Roosevelt Security social society spending strong substantial supply supply-side tax cuts tion top marginal income unemployment Union United vision workers WORST York