Public Libraries of Suffolk County, New York

American amnesia, how the war on government led us to forget what made America prosper, Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 357-434) and index

index present

non fiction

American amnesia

bibliography

Jacob S. Hacker and Paul Pierson

how the war on government led us to forget what made America prosper

"America's prosperity has long rested on robust capitalist enterprise supported, supplemented, and regulated by government. This "mixed economy" channeled the powerful but volatile engine of capitalism into broad-based growth and healthy social development. In this bargain, government and business were as much partners as rivals. Public investments in education, science, transportation, and technology laid the foundation for prosperity. Public rules kept private markets from going awry and market players from distorting or capturing government. The mixed economy was the most important innovation of the twentieth century. It enabled steep increases in income, wealth, education, health, longevity, opportunity, and security. And yet, increasingly, it is anathema to America's most influential economic and political elites. And as the advocates of antigovernment market fundamentalism gain power, they are hell-bent on scrapping the instrument of nearly a century of unprecedented economic and social progress. In American Amnesia, Hacker and Pierson explain how this war on government has led us to forget the fundamental lessons of our history--and why it must be stopped."--Dust jacket

adult

How the war on government led us to forget what made America prosper