The book was published in '90 and helped Bill Clinton win the '92 presidential election. I'll quote from this review to give you an idea of what it's about.
The Politics of Rich and Poor is a well-written, extensively documented, and easily understood portrayal of fundamental changes in the internal financial make-up and external standing of the United States due to political decisions made during the Reagan years. Phillips has provided both hard data and anecdotal evidence to confirm what many may not know or have perhaps only suspected. Internally, wealth has become more and more concentrated at the upper end of the economic spectrum, especially for the wealthiest one percent or so of U.S. taxpayers, while middle and lower income Americans now hold a much smaller share of the nation's total wealth. Externally, the United States has become a net debtor nation for the first time since World War I and has first mortgaged, then sold large amounts of the nation's assets to foreign investors. The net effect is that for most measures of wealth from the individual level (say, the number of billionaires per capita relative to total population) to the international level (like international bank assets) the United States has surrendered its position of economic leadership while decreasing the economic opportunities of most of its own citizens.And wealth has continued to concentrate up until today, where levels of income inequality are now estimated by economist Emmanuel Saez to be greater than at anytime in the history of the nation.
4 comments:
"The book was published in '91 and helped Bill Clinton win the '92 presidential election. ....And wealth has continued to concentrate up until today, where levels of income inequality"
And Clinton's policies didn't do squat to reverse the trend, and in fact accelerated the process. Don't go soft on Democrats.
I've been recommending this book to people for years. What I found fascinating was his economic history of US depressions, and their causes.
I always warn that, while Phillips' style of writing can be deathly dull, the content makes this book a real page-turner.
As for the previous comment on Bill Clinton and other Dems, it's obvious we have the best one-party system corporate and personal wealth can buy -- which is precisely what Phillips laments in The Politics of Rich and Poor.
Hope you find it as enlightening as I did.
Kat
Newshoggers.com
"And Clinton's policies didn't do squat to reverse the trend, and in fact accelerated the process. Don't go soft on Democrats."
I know. That's why I said it continued through today.
Kat:
I've been recommending Phillips' Arrogant Capitol (1994) and Boiling Points (1992) to people, myself.
If more people were familiar with these works or the ideas in them, the mythology of The Market peddled by supply-side plutocrats would stand less a chance of creating Bizarro revolutionaries like the Tea Party protesters who are ready to take to the streets and demand more power to the British crown and the East India company.
Post a Comment