[PDF] The American Dream And The Power Of Wealth eBook

Author : Heather Beth Johnson
Publisher : Taylor & Francis
Page : 248 pages
File Size : 38,87 MB
Release : 2006
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0415952395

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The American Dream and the Power of Wealth investigates the way that wealth (rather than income) structures educational opportunity in the United States. Furthermore, it shows the way that educational opportunity-the bedrock upon which our pervasive ideology of meritocracy or, in Johnson's terms, "the American Dream" is founded-structures the racial class system in the United States. She accomplishes this by analyzing an impressive store of qualitative and quantitative research on three cities: Boston, Los Angeles, and St. Louis. The meritocratic ideology is riddled with contradictions due to the massive and growing wealth disparity between blacks and whites, in particular. Everyone wants the best for their children, but access to assets is what allows wealthy people to either send their children to private school or buy expensive homes in neighborhoods with good public schools. In this equation, income doesn't matter so much, but wealth-which is typically inherited-does. Not surprisingly, black Americans, who on average have far less wealth than white Americans, are often unable to attend the best schools. And since educational attainment is the root of our alleged meritocracy, whites disproportionately dominate it-and families with wealth, even when they recognize the meritocracy as a problem, don't opt out of the system that has successfully reproduced itself for decades. Essentially, the meritocratic ideology of the American Dream continues to cast a powerful spell, and people who stand to benefit will participate in it regardless of the social issues involved.

Author : Noam Chomsky
Publisher : Seven Stories Press
Page : 170 pages
File Size : 26,24 MB
Release : 2017-03-28
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 1609807375

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A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! In his first major book on the subject of income inequality, Noam Chomsky skewers the fundamental tenets of neoliberalism and casts a clear, cold, patient eye on the economic facts of life. What are the ten principles of concentration of wealth and power at work in America today? They're simple enough: reduce democracy, shape ideology, redesign the economy, shift the burden onto the poor and middle classes, attack the solidarity of the people, let special interests run the regulators, engineer election results, use fear and the power of the state to keep the rabble in line, manufacture consent, marginalize the population. In Requiem for the American Dream, Chomsky devotes a chapter to each of these ten principles, and adds readings from some of the core texts that have influenced his thinking to bolster his argument. To create Requiem for the American Dream, Chomsky and his editors, the filmmakers Peter Hutchison, Kelly Nyks, and Jared P. Scott, spent countless hours together over the course of five years, from 2011 to 2016. After the release of the film version, Chomsky and the editors returned to the many hours of tape and transcript and created a document that included three times as much text as was used in the film. The book that has resulted is nonetheless arguably the most succinct and tightly woven of Chomsky's long career, a beautiful vessel--including old-fashioned ligatures in the typeface--in which to carry Chomsky's bold and uncompromising vision, his perspective on the economic reality and its impact on our political and moral well-being as a nation. "During the Great Depression, which I'm old enough to remember, it was bad–much worse subjectively than today. But there was a sense that we'll get out of this somehow, an expectation that things were going to get better . . ." —from Requiem for the American Dream

Author : Hedrick Smith
Publisher : Random House Trade Paperbacks
Page : 626 pages
File Size : 38,89 MB
Release : 2013-08-27
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0812982053

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Pulitzer Prize winner Hedrick Smith’s new book is an extraordinary achievement, an eye-opening account of how, over the past four decades, the American Dream has been dismantled and we became two Americas. In his bestselling The Russians, Smith took millions of readers inside the Soviet Union. In The Power Game, he took us inside Washington’s corridors of power. Now Smith takes us across America to show how seismic changes, sparked by a sequence of landmark political and economic decisions, have transformed America. As only a veteran reporter can, Smith fits the puzzle together, starting with Lewis Powell’s provocative memo that triggered a political rebellion that dramatically altered the landscape of power from then until today. This is a book full of surprises and revelations—the accidental beginnings of the 401(k) plan, with disastrous economic consequences for many; the major policy changes that began under Jimmy Carter; how the New Economy disrupted America’s engine of shared prosperity, the “virtuous circle” of growth, and how America lost the title of “Land of Opportunity.” Smith documents the transfer of $6 trillion in middle-class wealth from homeowners to banks even before the housing boom went bust, and how the U.S. policy tilt favoring the rich is stunting America’s economic growth. This book is essential reading for all of us who want to understand America today, or why average Americans are struggling to keep afloat. Smith reveals how pivotal laws and policies were altered while the public wasn’t looking, how Congress often ignores public opinion, why moderate politicians got shoved to the sidelines, and how Wall Street often wins politically by hiring over 1,400 former government officials as lobbyists. Smith talks to a wide range of people, telling the stories of Americans high and low. From political leaders such as Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich, and Martin Luther King, Jr., to CEOs such as Al Dunlap, Bob Galvin, and Andy Grove, to heartland Middle Americans such as airline mechanic Pat O’Neill, software systems manager Kristine Serrano, small businessman John Terboss, and subcontractor Eliseo Guardado, Smith puts a human face on how middle-class America and the American Dream have been undermined. This magnificent work of history and reportage is filled with the penetrating insights, provocative discoveries, and the great empathy of a master journalist. Finally, Smith offers ideas for restoring America’s great promise and reclaiming the American Dream. Praise for Who Stole the American Dream? “[A] sweeping, authoritative examination of the last four decades of the American economic experience.”—The Huffington Post “Some fine work has been done in explaining the mess we’re in. . . . But no book goes to the headwaters with the precision, detail and accessibility of Smith.”—The Seattle Times “Sweeping in scope . . . [Smith] posits some steps that could alleviate the problems of the United States.”—USA Today “Brilliant . . . [a] remarkably comprehensive and coherent analysis of and prescriptions for America’s contemporary economic malaise.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “Smith enlivens his narrative with portraits of the people caught up in events, humanizing complex subjects often rendered sterile in economic analysis. . . . The human face of the story is inseparable from the history.”—Reuters

Author : Heather Beth Johnson
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 264 pages
File Size : 20,83 MB
Release : 2014-11-20
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 131774408X

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Despite the overwhelming evidence against them, many people still believe they can overcome the economic and racial constraints placed upon them at birth. In the first edition, Heather Beth Johnson explored this belief in the American Dream with over 200 in-depth interviews with black and white families, highlighting the ever-increasing racial wealth gap and the actual inequality in opportunities. This second edition has been updated to make it fully relevant to today’s reader, with new data and illustrative examples, including twenty new interviews. Johnson asks not just what parents are thinking about inequality and the American Dream, but to what extent children believe in the American Dream and how they explain, justify, and understand the stratification of American society. This book is an ideal addition to courses on race and inequality.

Author : R. Christopher Whalen
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 416 pages
File Size : 14,52 MB
Release : 2010-12-07
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0470875143

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Americans as a whole view themselves as reasonably prudent and sober people when it comes to matters of money, reflecting the puritan roots of the earliest European settlers. Yet as a community, we also seem to believe that we are entitled to a lifestyle that is well-beyond our current income, a tendency that goes back to the earliest days of the United States and particularly to get rich quick experiences ranging from the Gold Rush of the 1840s to the real estate bubble of the early 21st Century. Inflated examines this apparent conflict and makes the argument that such a world view is so ingrained in us that to expect the United States to live in a "deflated" world is simply unrealistic. It skillfully seeks to tell the story of, money inflation and public debt as enduring (and perhaps endearing) features of American life, rather than something we can one day overcome as our policy makers constantly promise. Features interviews with today's top financial industry leaders and insiders. Offer a glimpse into the future of the Federal Reserve and the role it will play in the coming years Examines what the future may hold for the value of the U.S. dollar and the real incomes of future generations of Americans The gradual result of the situation we find ourselves in will inevitably lead to inflation, loss of economic opportunity, and a decline in the value of the dollar. This book will show you why, and reveal how we might be able to deal with it.

Author : John Ehrenreich
Publisher : Cornell University Press
Page : 257 pages
File Size : 13,73 MB
Release : 2016-04-05
Category : History
ISBN : 1501703595

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In Third Wave Capitalism, John Ehrenreich documents the emergence of a new stage in the history of American capitalism. Just as the industrial capitalism of the nineteenth century gave way to corporate capitalism in the twentieth, recent decades have witnessed corporate capitalism evolving into a new phase, which Ehrenreich calls "Third Wave Capitalism." Third Wave Capitalism is marked by apparent contradictions: Rapid growth in productivity and lagging wages; fabulous wealth for the 1 percent and the persistence of high levels of poverty; increases in the standard of living and increases in mental illness, personal misery, and political rage; the apotheosis of the individual and the deterioration of democracy; increases in life expectancy and out-of-control medical costs; an African American president and the incarceration of a large percentage of the black population. Ehrenreich asserts that these phenomena are evidence that a virulent, individualist, winner-take-all ideology and a virtual fusion of government and business have subverted the American dream. Greed and economic inequality reinforce the sense that each of us is "on our own." The result is widespread lack of faith in collective responses to our common problems. The collapse of any organized opposition to business demands makes political solutions ever more difficult to imagine. Ehrenreich traces the impact of these changes on American health care, school reform, income distribution, racial inequities, and personal emotional distress. Not simply a lament, Ehrenreich’s book seeks clues for breaking out of our current stalemate and proposes a strategy to create a new narrative in which change becomes possible.

Author : Kevin J. Palmer
Publisher : Balboa Press
Page : 226 pages
File Size : 40,30 MB
Release : 2015-05-06
Category : Self-Help
ISBN : 1504326644

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Finally, a book about how average folks do above average things in order to achieve financial freedom. More than a “how-to” book, this is an “I can” book that illustrates how connecting behaviors that naturally exist within one’s personality makes it easier for anyone to unleash success. In this book, the author disrupts covetous schemes to instead reveal morally principled stories about what truly makes America great and how those understandings can equalize wealth injustices and improve the human condition! After years of drilling down to what truly makes people successful, Wall Streeter, Behavioral Finance Researcher and Champion of Financial Justice, Kevin J. Palmer, has unlocked how a distinctive group of individuals he calls “The Quiet Rich” used a spiritual connection to their personalities to make cognitive decisions that created wealth. Palmer uncovers victorious interpretations from hundreds of study subjects whose activities translated into wealth, from a hitchhiker turned serial entrepreneur to a grandmother who made her fortune wisely investing cookie jar money. His less traveled path of underlying research has blended powerful lessons by correlating Secret Success Standards of The Quiet Rich into common personality types that fit all people. What makes this book unique is that, until now, wealth techniques have come from instructors declaring what they think will work for others. Here, one self-discovers personal achievement practices by synthesizing the experiences of ordinary people who became successful through interpreting spiritual-self and then applying actions that uniquely fit the personality. This is not a one-man mandate that tests how to get rich. Instead, it is a collective voice of many achievers who took individualized paths to attain wealth that intuitively leads others on their own exclusive journey so that it is genuinely effective. This book shines with applied wisdom, courage, and the confidence to build meaningful, fruitful lives while amassing wealth based on virtues learned from these quiet and rich Americans that no one has known until now!

Author : Sarah Churchwell
Publisher : Basic Books
Page : 368 pages
File Size : 31,61 MB
Release : 2018-10-09
Category : History
ISBN : 1541673425

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A Smithsonian Magazine Best History Book of 2018 The unknown history of two ideas crucial to the struggle over what America stands for In Behold, America, Sarah Churchwell offers a surprising account of twentieth-century Americans' fierce battle for the nation's soul. It follows the stories of two phrases--the "American dream" and "America First"--that once embodied opposing visions for America. Starting as a Republican motto before becoming a hugely influential isolationist slogan during World War I, America First was always closely linked with authoritarianism and white supremacy. The American dream, meanwhile, initially represented a broad vision of democratic and economic equality. Churchwell traces these notions through the 1920s boom, the Depression, and the rise of fascism at home and abroad, laying bare the persistent appeal of demagoguery in America and showing us how it was resisted. At a time when many ask what America's future holds, Behold, America is a revelatory, unvarnished portrait of where we have been.

Author : Mark R. Rank
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 234 pages
File Size : 28,84 MB
Release : 2014-05
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 0195377915

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In this book the authors show that the risk of economic vulnerability has been increasing substantially over the past four decades, and argue that while not unattainable, the American Dream - as we currently define it - is becoming harder to reach and harder still to keep.

Author : James Truslow Adams
Publisher : Simon Publications
Page : 433 pages
File Size : 26,41 MB
Release : 2001-10-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9781931541336

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A beautifully written story of America's historical heritage, by one of the country's greatest historians.