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 44
Page 1
... Unemployment , at 4.2 percent , was well below the postwar average . Inflation was minimal . Yearly growth in business investment was at levels not seen since the 1960s . Indeed , to find a similar run of robust economic growth , low ...
... Unemployment , at 4.2 percent , was well below the postwar average . Inflation was minimal . Yearly growth in business investment was at levels not seen since the 1960s . Indeed , to find a similar run of robust economic growth , low ...
Page 5
... unemployment rose to catastrophic levels , eventually as high as 25 percent . Some of the steps the government took , including a tax increase in 1932 , actually made conditions worse . Perhaps most gallingly , the otherwise ...
... unemployment rose to catastrophic levels , eventually as high as 25 percent . Some of the steps the government took , including a tax increase in 1932 , actually made conditions worse . Perhaps most gallingly , the otherwise ...
Page 6
... unemployment could be like in the absence of any federal unemployment insurance pro- gram . Millions of Americans were literally homeless and starv- ing . Men rode the rails from town to town in vain search of employment . Hundreds of ...
... unemployment could be like in the absence of any federal unemployment insurance pro- gram . Millions of Americans were literally homeless and starv- ing . Men rode the rails from town to town in vain search of employment . Hundreds of ...
Page 7
... unemployment - but preventing unemployment was the central goal of demand - side econom- ics . By the 1970s , the economy began to experience “ stagflation ” high inflation together with high unemployment . For middle- class Americans ...
... unemployment - but preventing unemployment was the central goal of demand - side econom- ics . By the 1970s , the economy began to experience “ stagflation ” high inflation together with high unemployment . For middle- class Americans ...
Page 19
... unemployment insurance and Social Security . Indeed , President Bush proposed such cuts in government programs at the beginning of his second term . Interestingly , Buffett , one of the country's richest men , wrote an op - ed piece for ...
... unemployment insurance and Social Security . Indeed , President Bush proposed such cuts in government programs at the beginning of his second term . Interestingly , Buffett , one of the country's richest men , wrote an op - ed piece for ...
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