A sometimes-daunting but essential addition to the discussion of inequality and its remedies.
A searching examination of the decline of democratic ideals in the face of inequality—racial, political, and economic.
“Rising income inequality and slow economic growth have been two of the most striking patterns in rich countries during the last 35 years,” writes Rothwell, the principal economist at Gallup. None of the conventional talking-point explanations, from overpaid pop stars to uncontrolled mass migration or unfair trade practices, accounts for this inequality. Instead, writes the author, the explanation lies in the growing inefficiency of societies in which elites have reserved unto themselves more and more of the pie, including most of the available public services, from education to housing. Combing through data with Pikettian single-mindedness, Rothwell examines the rise of this inequality and the correlated decline in confidence in democratic habits, a decline that has made the world safe for nationalist authoritarianism. The author resists easy characterization: Some of his prescriptions are openly liberal, such as the demand for equal access to social goods such as public education and health care, while others are more qualified, such as his view that mass migration must be regulated “so as to protect native citizens from wild distortions in the labor market.” A perhaps unexpected but intriguing component of Rothwell’s argument is the reform of zoning laws that have effectively destroyed the ability of lower income earners to own homes, a social good of another kind that would “enhance the cognitive ability and lower the crime rate of groups that live in highly segregated high poverty communities." Studded with tables and laced with numbers, the text is dense. It is also striking on many counts, including its fluency in several branches of the social sciences beyond economics. Rothwell has something to say about the allure of both Bono and Beyoncé, the failure of libertarianism, the question of intelligence as a predictor of success (“self-discipline, enthusiasm, and the ability to avoid getting anxious and upset in the face of stress matter about as much”). There’s something to ponder on every page.
A sometimes-daunting but essential addition to the discussion of inequality and its remedies.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-691-18376-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Princeton Univ.
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
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
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.
Known for her often contentious perspectives, New York Times opinion writer Weiss battles societal Jewish intolerance through lucid prose and a linear playbook of remedies.
While she was vividly aware of anti-Semitism throughout her life, the reality of the problem hit home when an active shooter stormed a Pittsburgh synagogue where her family regularly met for morning services and where she became a bat mitzvah years earlier. The massacre that ensued there further spurred her outrage and passionate activism. She writes that European Jews face a three-pronged threat in contemporary society, where physical, moral, and political fears of mounting violence are putting their general safety in jeopardy. She believes that Americans live in an era when “the lunatic fringe has gone mainstream” and Jews have been forced to become “a people apart.” With palpable frustration, she adroitly assesses the origins of anti-Semitism and how its prevalence is increasing through more discreet portals such as internet self-radicalization. Furthermore, the erosion of civility and tolerance and the demonization of minorities continue via the “casual racism” of political figures like Donald Trump. Following densely political discourses on Zionism and radical Islam, the author offers a list of bullet-point solutions focused on using behavioral and personal action items—individual accountability, active involvement, building community, loving neighbors, etc.—to help stem the tide of anti-Semitism. Weiss sounds a clarion call to Jewish readers who share her growing angst as well as non-Jewish Americans who wish to arm themselves with the knowledge and intellectual tools to combat marginalization and defuse and disavow trends of dehumanizing behavior. “Call it out,” she writes. “Especially when it’s hard.” At the core of the text is the author’s concern for the health and safety of American citizens, and she encourages anyone “who loves freedom and seeks to protect it” to join with her in vigorous activism.
A forceful, necessarily provocative call to action for the preservation and protection of American Jewish freedom.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-593-13605-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2019
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