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
Results 1-5 of 61
Page 2
... Social Se- curity and Medicare . But all this was to end . First came the inevitable . In March 2000 , an inflated tech- nology stock market crashed , setting the stage for the onset of a recession a year later . Then came the ...
... Social Se- curity and Medicare . But all this was to end . First came the inevitable . In March 2000 , an inflated tech- nology stock market crashed , setting the stage for the onset of a recession a year later . Then came the ...
Page 4
... Social Security and Medicare loomed on the horizon , to say nothing of a dizzying array of immedi- ate security , defense , and disaster needs ? The answer lay in the doctrine of supply - side economics , which thoroughly permeated the ...
... Social Security and Medicare loomed on the horizon , to say nothing of a dizzying array of immedi- ate security , defense , and disaster needs ? The answer lay in the doctrine of supply - side economics , which thoroughly permeated the ...
Page 7
... social consensus , the purpose of the economy was to provide economic opportunities as well as a measure of economic secu- rity for ordinary workers and their families . Government was understood to have an active role - indeed , a ...
... social consensus , the purpose of the economy was to provide economic opportunities as well as a measure of economic secu- rity for ordinary workers and their families . Government was understood to have an active role - indeed , a ...
Page 13
... social mobility in some sense held the key to the Ameri- can system . It was this combination of factors that defined American democracy's promise and simultaneously underwrote its stability . President Abraham Lincoln came of age in ...
... social mobility in some sense held the key to the Ameri- can system . It was this combination of factors that defined American democracy's promise and simultaneously underwrote its stability . President Abraham Lincoln came of age in ...
Page 14
... social mobility , but rather as an economic mechanism to produce national pros- perity . Lincoln's focus was always on the fate of the ordinary worker . The new vision shifted focus to the extraordinary en- trepreneur , the business ...
... social mobility , but rather as an economic mechanism to produce national pros- perity . Lincoln's focus was always on the fate of the ordinary worker . The new vision shifted focus to the extraordinary en- trepreneur , the business ...
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