Dour perspectives on the post-Reagan state of the union. As a practical matter, Galbraith (Balancing Acts, 1989, etc.) charges, America has become the land of the fat, dumb, and happy. Drawing largely on anecdotal evidence, he asserts that a bipartisan majority of the prosperous and complacent now rules the nation ``under the rick cloak of...a democracy in which the less fortunate do not participate,'' mainly because they do not vote. For all their apparent heterogeneity, the author argues, the affluent share certain self-serving sentiments and penchants—including a belief that financial success is invariably the reward of merit, a preference for short-run serenity, a selective view of the state's role in the expenditure of public monies, and a remarkable tolerance for great disparities in income distribution. According to Galbraith, the consequences of these convictions are varied and lamentable. He contends, for example, that the federal government accommodates the affluent with tax cuts, plus sizable outlays for Social Security, Medicare, farm-price supports, deposit insurance, and military programs—all at the expense of a desperately impoverished underclass as well as a crumbling infrastructure. Nor does Galbraith put much stock in trickle-down theory, noting at one point that, if a horse is amply fed with oats, some will pass through to the road for sparrows. He warns that Washington's indulgent acceptance of anti-intervention and laissez-faire doctrine has given free rein to the self-destructive tendencies of modern capitalism—and whether the ensuant declines can be arrested, much less reversed, remains an open question in his mind. At a minimum, though, Galbraith insists that, if the US is ever again to commit itself to human needs within the framework of an equitable and dynamic society, political leaders must take vigorous fiscal, legislative, and regulatory action. Thought-provoking points of view from an elder eminence who can still abash not only stick-in-the-mud conservatives but also limousine liberals.
Pub Date: April 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-395-57228-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1992
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
PERSPECTIVES
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
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