The Betrayal of the American Dream

Sep 18, 2012 Earl rated it 3 of 5 stars

Evils of capitalism unchecked. This is not your American capitalists - the pirate barons, John Jacob Astor, Bill Gates, who build an empire by bulldozing all opponents and become obscenely rich. No, this is the new capitalism - multinational corporations + Wall St. + US Congress, the Unholy Trio (my name for them). Author recounts many horror stories of ruined lives and towns due to outsourcing of American jobs and the creation of a 'ruling class' in the US by tax changes since 1950. He does not...more Evils of capitalism unchecked. This is not your American capitalists - the pirate barons, John Jacob Astor, Bill Gates, who build an empire by bulldozing all opponents and become obscenely rich. No, this is the new capitalism - multinational corporations + Wall St. + US Congress, the Unholy Trio (my name for them). Author recounts many horror stories of ruined lives and towns due to outsourcing of American jobs and the creation of a 'ruling class' in the US by tax changes since 1950. He does not analyze WHY these changes took place in that time span. My belief is that television changed the election process, making it obscenely expensive, our out-spending of the Russian Bear to make capitalist investment safe overseas and the 'close' relationship Nixon formed for us with China. I think those 3 things made the different atmosphere that allows the re-ordering of American economics.
Finally, at the end of the book, the author presents his prescription for stopping this rape of the middle class: he asks us to ask our political candidates 4 questions (page 263) and elect only those who answer them correctly. What a cop-out. The two parties present us the same tribe of sleazeballs every election. BOTH parties have advocated the rape of the middle class and export of American jobs. Should we be lucky enough to get an idealistic political candidate to vote for, Washington will corrupt our new freshman Congressman within a year. Hollywood shows us the stereotype of these 'Honorables' every time it depicts a politician. I think that stereotype is right on the money. In yesterdays paper some politicos wife lamented the public's jaundiced view of 'those who choose to sacrifice' to enter public life - what a crock!

You can't reform corporations or Wall St. Changing Congress is the only thing that's REMOTELY possible. You don't need to elicit their lying campaign promises to get elected (as the book suggests), what Congress needs is a huge dose of selfless American patriots. My only thought on this is a HUGELY popular third political party that would swamp their rigged system. IF we all got mad enough to somehow make this happen we might roll back time and have a middle class again.(less)

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Nov 14, 2012 David Stephens rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: politics

In Betrayal of the American Dream, two-time Pulitzer Prize winning journalists Donald L. Bartlett and James B. Steele contend that the middle class has been, and continues to be, hollowed out by a corporate ruling class that is able to buy politicians. They go as far as to say that "We are no longer the democracy we once were. We have become a plutocracy in which the few enact programs that promote their narrow interest at the expense of the many." To back up these assertions, they go through pl...more In Betrayal of the American Dream, two-time Pulitzer Prize winning journalists Donald L. Bartlett and James B. Steele contend that the middle class has been, and continues to be, hollowed out by a corporate ruling class that is able to buy politicians. They go as far as to say that "We are no longer the democracy we once were. We have become a plutocracy in which the few enact programs that promote their narrow interest at the expense of the many." To back up these assertions, they go through plenty of personal accounts and statistics on the reduction of tax rates on high-income earners, corporate dividends, and capital gains; the dwindling of manufacturing jobs, mostly due to purported free trade policies; the loss of pension funds; and the deregulation of the trucking, airline, and financial industries. And, all one needs to do is see these statistics to know something has gone horribly wrong for the middle class.

In part because I was largely ignorant on this topic, I found the authors' treatment of free trade policies to be the most enlightening portion of the book. They do a good job explaining how policy after policy—under Republican and Democratic Administrations—has only served to deepen the trade deficits since the late 1960s and how America's only remaining export surplus comes from civilian aircraft, which may not last long. They also detail how the U.S. won't respond to the illegal subsidization of exports from China like solar panels because of cries of "protectionism" from free trade purists.

But, while the book does a solid job showing the harmful effects the policies of the ruling class have on the American middle class, it spends much less time on the ruling elites themselves. The authors do point out that there is no one established institution directing the country. Instead they describe the corporate elites as more of an amorphous group: "Lacking a civic or moral compass, it's a peer group without a purpose beyond its own perpetuation with no mission except to wall in the money within its ranks."

What I would have liked to hear more about, though, is a more detailed account of how the ruling class gets its policies implemented. I understand they lobby and contribute enormous amounts to political campaigns, and maybe that's all one needs to know about it, but the book makes it sound incredibly easy to enact extreme policies and manipulate the public into favoring them when I imagine there is at least a little more to it than that.

The other area I was disappointed in was the proposed solutions. Like many books of this kind, the authors end with some remedies to restore the middle class. If you've paid much attention to politics or economics or have read a few of these books before, you've most likely heard their solutions: a more progressive tax rate, taxes on Wall Street transactions, raising tariffs on imports from countries who are subsidizing their goods, investing in infrastructure, and reinstating the rule of law. It's not that the solutions are bad either; I agree with them. It's just that I've been hearing them for years, and they don't seem to be going anywhere. So, maybe they serve as nice reminders of what can be done, but I imagine in the future, books like this will continue to have very similar solutions.(less)

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Sep 23, 2012 Debbie Evancic rated it 5 of 5 stars

Reading this book was both inspiring and depressing. It gives example after example of how our government is not on the side of the middle class and that the American Dream is not what it once was in a previous generation.

In reading this book, you come to realize that our parents have it best, having both Social Security and their pensions. Our generation (those born in the 50s), are in danger of having the pension we worked so hard on taken away from us. Our children have possibly a worse fate....more

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Nov 03, 2012 Aaron rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: economics

Absorbing, enraging, clear-eyed, aggressive, eye-opening, tremendous -- everything you want in a book that takes on perhaps the biggest economic catastrophe of our times ... yes, the Great Recession qualifies as that catastrophe, but the systematic evisceration of the American middle class that Barlett and Steele document here was decades in the making and continues apace ... so, frankly, it truly is the long-running (Long Emergency? as JHK might describe it) cataclysmic economic event, with the...more Absorbing, enraging, clear-eyed, aggressive, eye-opening, tremendous -- everything you want in a book that takes on perhaps the biggest economic catastrophe of our times ... yes, the Great Recession qualifies as that catastrophe, but the systematic evisceration of the American middle class that Barlett and Steele document here was decades in the making and continues apace ... so, frankly, it truly is the long-running (Long Emergency? as JHK might describe it) cataclysmic economic event, with the Great Recession only placing a triple-decker shit sandwich on top of it.

And that's the thing: When something is a long time coming - and when so-called economic and policy leaders say trust us, it'll all trickle down, and their cheerleaders in the media yell, "Yeah! Yeah!" - it's damn hard to see exactly what's coming down the pike. That is, until you're watching bankers and hedge fund managers getting bonuses while Corporate America ships your job off to China or India and you end up settling for a lower wage and maybe no health benefits.

I've ready many books about the economy but few as good as this. It's better, dare I say, than David Cay Johnston's "Perfectly Legal," which documented how the political donor class has rigged our tax system to favor the super-rich. It's better because not only does it show what Johnston showed, but it also makes a very strong case that "free trade" as we know it has off-shored scads of middle-class jobs.

It shows how Congress has failed American workers. It shows how media types like Tom Friedman of the NYT have cheer-leaded "free trade" policies that have gutted American industrial manufacturers and wiped out the good-paying jobs that come with them. This book is replete with stuff that will just floor you. It's that good.

But it will only get worse, Barlett and Steele show, as there is seemingly no political will to change course. To their immense credit, the authors end the book with proposed solutions. If only our "leaders" would listen and act. (less)

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Mar 09, 2013 Todd Janko rated it 4 of 5 stars

This gives quite the depressing and realistic view of the state of the American economy and the current workforce. Face it people, we are all f&&krd, as the continual decline of what use to make up the true meat and potatoes of this country-the middle class turns into the poor class. Eventually, if this continues, there are two things that can or will happen 1) do nothing about and watch the greedy one percent rule the earth as the government puts continual sanctions on are individual ri...more

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Nov 03, 2012 Katidid rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is another one that makes for better speech or pamphlet/sound-bite material than a full book for me. It just doesn't have the in-depth analysis that I desire from deciding to read a whole book on a political topic. In hindsight, I feel like I should have realized what to expect, especially given that it has no real bibliographic resources, just a short end chapter about sources. Now, I am not accusing the authors of misrepresenting their facts. There are sections addressing items I've recen...more

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Mar 09, 2013 Chuck Thomas rated it 4 of 5 stars

Barlett and Steele offer a detailed examination of American politics of the last 40 years as it relates to the ever growing gap in wealth between the elite and the middle class. The authors dive into multiple areas that they deem the most influential in the weakening of the middle class and the rise of the ultra rich. Those areas are: U.S. trade imbalance, tax policies favoring the wealthy, and the investment in corporations that outsource American jobs to cheap labor areas around the world. At...more

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Nov 29, 2012 Meepspeeps rated it 1 of 5 stars

This was a mostly depressing and shallow book. Given the stature of the authors, I was surprised. One graph could often have substituted for their words, which would have allowed the words to provide analysis and perhaps address why peeps often act against their own best interests. For example, if there were popular support for infrastructure investment, there would be many, many more jobs right now. The last chapter offered either political nonstarters or anecdotes to "restore the American drea...more

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Sep 19, 2012 Dave Kalach rated it 5 of 5 stars

I thought this book gave a good solid explanation of what has been going on in the economy for the last 30 years. The destruction of manufacturing in this country over that time is appalling. Both political parties contributed to the demise. It seems large multinational corporations call the shots in this country. They have been steadfast in promoting free trade. The authors show who has suffered from free trade policies and who has benefited. Millions of jobs have left the U.S.A. to China, Indi...more

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Jan 25, 2013 Jeremiah rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book made me both extremely angry and quite sad (like my ex-wife). It's an easy read, it isn't very complex or even organized that well, but let me briefly summarize. Multinational corporations and the 99% own America. You don't think so Mr. Smartypants? Well, in 1955 the effective tax rate for the top 400 families was 51.2%. In 2007 it was a jaw dropping 16.6%. Isn't it funny how someone making $400,000 dollars can pay the same tax as someone making $40 million dollars? And isn't it funny...more This book made me both extremely angry and quite sad (like my ex-wife). It's an easy read, it isn't very complex or even organized that well, but let me briefly summarize. Multinational corporations and the 99% own America. You don't think so Mr. Smartypants? Well, in 1955 the effective tax rate for the top 400 families was 51.2%. In 2007 it was a jaw dropping 16.6%. Isn't it funny how someone making $400,000 dollars can pay the same tax as someone making $40 million dollars? And isn't it funny how someone who makes $400,000 or 40,000,000 million only pays 14.6% more than someone who makes, say, I dunno... $35,351? I mean, that makes sense and seems pretty reasonable, right?

Nevertheless, our trade policies have wiped out millions of jobs (all outsourced by American multinational companies) and created a staggering trade deficit--the world's largest. Our main trading partners all run trade surpluses (money that goes back into their country's economies) while in 2010 we spent $510 billion more on other people's goods than what they bought from us (for some reason they won't let us import very much into their countries without us paying high tariffs. What silly thinking! I mean who wants to protect their country THAT way?!? Psshhha, like whateva!). Let's have a big hurrah for how great Free Trade is mishandled by our concerned politicians! Oh, and don't forget the 510 billion dollars spent EACH YEAR by us that never comes back into our country! Wait, some of it does... but only as profit into the hands of the 99% who own the multinational companies (Hi, Apple! Luving yr map app on my new iphone! Turn left off of the wharf. Got it, thx Siri! :).

And I bet you don't think buying so many foreign products will hurt the U.S. in the long run? You ever wonder why the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner is having all these problems? Well, over 80% of is made in China (Thanks Boeing! America was getting soooo overcrowded with factories). Good thing we still have all those manufacturing jobs here in America-- Oh wait, in the 1950's manufacturing jobs made up 30% of the workforce, and now in 2000 that number has dropped to 11%. (Thank God our unemployment numbers are holding steady at 7.8% of the 313,000,000 million living here. They say that's only 12 million people out of work! But we all know tons of people who no longer get unemployment insurance and are therefore no longer counted. Hi, Drunkle! -->My drunk uncle.).

And that pesky tax code that all the politicians say we need to simplify? Really? Doesn't everyone use TurboTax? Wait, doesn't 48% of the people not even pay taxes according to Mitt? Why would they need to simplify it? Oh, right... to lower the EXTREMELY HIGH TAXES ON THE RICH even more than they currently are. Got it, my bad! In the 1940's tax on corporate income as a percentage of GDP was at 4.3%. In the 2000's the GDP corporate tax average was 1.9%. Is it fair the Exxon, Boeing, GE and Carnival Cruise Lines (pays a HUGE 1.4% tax) and the 99% (Romney paid a HUGE 13.9%) pay less on their taxes than you and I? Seven out of 10 big corporations operating in America under foreign ownership paid no taxes. As for large corporations owned by U.S. citizens, an astonishing 55 percent reported that they owed no federal income tax. The Cayman Islands, used as tax shelters by corporations, has a population of 53,000 people. Guess how many companies exist there? Yup, only 93,000 companies. Whaaa?? And Bank of America has 59 of them.

The middle class is being sucked dry by multinational corporations and the 99%. You might ask, Why? Because of greed. What about, how? Because they own our government. The late U.S. Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis once said, "We can have concentrated wealth in the hands of a few or we can have democracy. But we cannot have both.". So true.(less)

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Oct 27, 2012 Sheryl Sorrentino rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was one of the most depressing books I have read in a long time. Even if only half of what Barlett and Steele have to say is true, we are seriously screwed.

Being 50 years old, I have seen firsthand what has been happening to the middle class in this country. Barlett and Steele lay out the myriad reasons for this: Tax inequity, job outsourcing, trade imbalances, deregulation, and failure to enforce the laws against the very wealthy and the multinational corporations they control. Rather than...more This was one of the most depressing books I have read in a long time. Even if only half of what Barlett and Steele have to say is true, we are seriously screwed.

Being 50 years old, I have seen firsthand what has been happening to the middle class in this country. Barlett and Steele lay out the myriad reasons for this: Tax inequity, job outsourcing, trade imbalances, deregulation, and failure to enforce the laws against the very wealthy and the multinational corporations they control. Rather than living in a flourishing Democracy, we now find ourselves in a country whose wealth gap is widening as the middle class sinks ever deeper into the abyss, and all the while lobbyists and power brokers spin their self-serving policies in such a way as to make them seem good for the country and its working classes!

I found this book a bit taxing to read, not so much because of the sobering subject matter as the authors' reliance on statistics and studies in addition to the many personal vignettes. While this lends a measure of credibility to their assertions, I am generally suspicious of statistics, as they don't tell the complete story and can be skewed to serve one's purposes. For example, the authors speak of the trillions of dollars in home equity obliterated by the recent real estate meltdown. But putting this into perspective, perhaps three-quarters of that so-called "equity" was illusory in the first place, as it was fueled not by any real increase in home values, but by bloated appraisals and "liar loans." Those of us smart enough to realize this (or, should I say, not so greedy or desperate as to jump on the bandwagon of signing onto loans that we knew we could not afford) have been largely spared the worst of this crash. Those less sophisticated and more short-sighted have borne the brunt of it.

Be that as it may, no thinking person can deny that the high unemployment numbers, the squeezing of wages and benefits for those lucky enough to have jobs, the lack of opportunity for recent college graduates, and the push to correct the national deficit at the expense of Medicare and Medicaid, Social Security and unemployment benefits--the only safety nets available to the elderly and those at the bottom rungs of our economic machine--bespeak an alarming attack on the middle class that is showing no signs of relenting. The Betrayal of the American Dream is a brave--if justifiably alarmist--assessment of the sad state of our country and its rigged economic systems. I consider this book required reading if you care anything about the collective future of the "99 percent." (less)

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Oct 18, 2012 Joanna rated it 5 of 5 stars

It took me a long time to finish this book, because every time I picked it up I became so depressed I had to put it down again. A simple and easy-to-read overview of what we all know to be true: wages stagnated, good jobs evaporated, and the financial crisis was initiated by the actions of the mega rich, whether they be corporate raiders like our current presidential candidate, unscrupulous hedge fund managers or multinational corporations with their collective eyes only on the bottom line.

Aidi...more It took me a long time to finish this book, because every time I picked it up I became so depressed I had to put it down again. A simple and easy-to-read overview of what we all know to be true: wages stagnated, good jobs evaporated, and the financial crisis was initiated by the actions of the mega rich, whether they be corporate raiders like our current presidential candidate, unscrupulous hedge fund managers or multinational corporations with their collective eyes only on the bottom line.

Aiding and abetting the rise of the few at the expense of the many were our duly elected representatives of both parties. A combination of friendly tax policies and helpful deregulation has resulted in a free market that allows huge companies and wealthy individuals to makes millions in profits while paying a fraction of the taxes they actually owe. Members of Congress, Senators and cabinet secretaries use a revolving door to set up shop as lobbyists or highly compensated corporate executives after they leave office. Senator Phil Gramm (R-Texas), the architect of the bill that repealed Glass-Steagall and allowed Wall Street to run unregulated, took a job with UBS, the Swiss banking giant, at the end of his tenure. President Bill Clinton (D) signed the law. The result of deregulation was the boom in the sub-prime market and the rise of independent mortgage brokers who routinely sold loans to the unqualified, stole homes from the elderly and ultimately robbed the American people of 14 trillion dollars in equity.

Perhaps the most disheartening part of this book is the illustration of the shell game US companies are playing with China. Boeing, one of the last major manufacturers in this country, decided to set up shop in China, seeing it as a win-win because of cheap labor costs, nonexistent environmental laws and the fact that China has been an ever-expanding market for commercial aircraft. After Boeing shared technology and R&D that took generations to build with Chinese engineers, the country established a state-owned aircraft company that now produces planes comparable to the 737, with other, larger models planned. Needless to say, the Chinese won't be buying any Boeing aircraft any time soon, and many good jobs were lost or created elsewhere.

Both informative and frightening, this book is a must-read for anyone who wants to better understand the current state of the US economy.(less)

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Sep 30, 2012 Jeffrey rated it 4 of 5 stars

Strident and not a little angry, some of the examples in this scathing screed by Barlett and Steele - multiple Pulitzer Prize winning reporters - feel a bit cherry picked, but its thrust is poignant and - for many of us - entirely congruent with our own experiences. It's saved from being a polemic by the final section "Restoring the American Dream", which offers reasonable, clear and pragmatic recommendations to counter the malaise so painfully described throughout the rest of the book.

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Aug 17, 2012 Gordon Gauss rated it 4 of 5 stars

Before you read this book try to put your politics aside. Republican or Democrat it doesn't really matter who you tend to side with. The truth that comes out in this book is that it is Washington that is our biggest problem. Both parties are guilty of steering our country in the wrong direction. I had to agree with one of the people affected by what's happening now. She said, "The last time something like this was happening there was a revolution." Read it and draw your own opinions.

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Feb 15, 2013 Melvin Pedersen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: finished-reading

A wonderful book with an opinionated, but honest.
I'm reading "Al Gore, The Future, Six Drivers of Global Change".
Al Gore seems to takes things like, the outsourcing of jobs to other countries, a little more in stride, like a transition into a different way, that's going to be transitioned again.
The author, Donald L. Barlett, certainly opens up a political can of worms.
Any one interested in what's going on in Washington would like this book.

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Aug 16, 2012 David rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-and-reviewed

There is something about books in the genre of political activism that stirs the deepest part of our beings. It does not matter if it comes from the extreme right or far left or from a more moderate position, some of us feel compelled to read them. Donald Barlett and James Steele’s newest entry, The Betrayal of the American Dream, is one of those must-read books.

Read the entire review at http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/revie...

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Sep 04, 2012 Diane S. rated it 4 of 5 stars

I don't read many books dealing with politics as a subject, but feel that since this election is an important one I need to be better informed. I also believe that when dealing with any such subject the truth usually lies somewhere in the middle. Found this book to be very informative and even if it is only half true it is still very frightening to the growth and strength of our country.

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Aug 19, 2012 Irus rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

This is one of the most depressing books I have ever read. Truly the "dream," which existed for our grandparents ended with our parents, and only now are we realizing we have been sold a bill of goods. The path the US is on is not sustainable. Eventually the country will collapse upon itself. The president claims the entire world envies us. Really? I'm looking for a way out.

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Feb 27, 2013 Georgianne Potts rated it 4 of 5 stars

Regardless of political preferences, this should be mandatory reading for every American. It does a great job of explaining the events that have eaten away at the middle class for the last 30 plus years! And it's not going to get any better unless policies are changed!!

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Mar 24, 2013 Jessica rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

This was a book group selection for me, so I wouldn't have picked this book up on my own. It is written very matter of factly and is relentlessly depressing. If you keep up to date with economic news through other media sources, this book will likely prove redundant.

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Mar 28, 2013 Cristóbal Delozier rated it 4 of 5 stars

I had thoughts of throwing the book against the wall a few times as I read about the new-age robber-barons. But, since it was a book from the library, I didn't. I wouldn't be able to afford the fine.

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Feb 14, 2013 Kristen rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book was an eye-opener for me and after reading it, I am enraged by the lack of leadership in Congress. The author makes his case wekk and gave me a lot to consider in regards to the direction of the U.S.

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Dec 28, 2012 Bijan Fallahi rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book provides a very sobering look at the widening US trade deficit over the past thirty years and the accompanying negative effects on the economy. I learned a lot.

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Feb 04, 2013 Ellis Chuan rated it 4 of 5 stars

A book that describes how the "American Dream" has been undermined by policies enacted in Washington by the government. Explicitly described and candidly honest.

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Mar 05, 2013 Tom Moose rated it 5 of 5 stars

Floored. This book is a perfect guide to why it is hard to get ahead in America, whose at fault, and what we can do about it.

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Aug 07, 2012 Erin marked it as to-read

Heard authors interviewed on NPR's Morning Edition. Sounds like an interesting read.

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Sep 08, 2012 Janet rated it 4 of 5 stars

This well-researched book should be required reading for all U.S. voters.

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Sep 11, 2012 Juan Vitali rated it 5 of 5 stars

Authoritative step by step recounting of what has caused the erosion of Middle class. Daring, and incise. One of few to confront Friedman and his Flat World lunacy.

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Apr 17, 2013 Tim is currently reading it

Scary so far...

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Feb 27, 2013 Tanya rated it 3 of 5 stars

We're screwed.

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