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The Age of Austerity: How Scarcity Will Remake American Politics
One of our most prescient political observers provides a sobering account of how pitched battles over scarce resources will increasingly define American politics in the coming years—and how we might avoid, or at least mitigate, the damage from these ideological and economic battles.
In a matter of just three years, a bitter struggle over limited resources has enveloped political discourse at every level in the United States. Fights between haves and have-nots over health care, unemployment benefits, funding for mortgage write-downs, economic stimulus legislation—and, at the local level, over cuts in police protection, garbage collection, and in the number of teachers—have dominated the debate. Elected officials are being forced to make zero-sum choices—or worse, choices with no winners.
Resource competition between Democrats and Republicans has left each side determined to protect what it has at the expense of the other. The major issues of the next few years—long-term deficit reduction; entitlement reform, notably of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid; major cuts in defense spending; and difficulty in financing a continuation of American international involvement—suggest that your-gain-is-my-loss politics will inevitably intensify.
In a matter of just three years, a bitter struggle over limited resources has enveloped political discourse at every level in the United States. Fights between haves and have-nots over health care, unemployment benefits, funding for mortgage write-downs, economic stimulus legislation—and, at the local level, over cuts in police protection, garbage collection, and in the number of teachers—have dominated the debate. Elected officials are being forced to make zero-sum choices—or worse, choices with no winners.
Resource competition between Democrats and Republicans has left each side determined to protect what it has at the expense of the other. The major issues of the next few years—long-term deficit reduction; entitlement reform, notably of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid; major cuts in defense spending; and difficulty in financing a continuation of American international involvement—suggest that your-gain-is-my-loss politics will inevitably intensify.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
February 28, 2012
This is one disturbing book. It discusses, with alarming accuracy, the callous, even grotesque behavior politicians and citizens will engage in during the battle for our limited and diminishing resources. The chapter entitled Race, which details the frighteningly racist behavior Americans have re-embraced in the economic downturn, is particularly heartbreaking.
While I disagree with some of the author's conclusions, specifically his contention that massive cuts to Social Security and Medicare will be 'necessary' to survive the long recession, I admire and respect his otherwise adroit assessment of the nastiness we're in for.
It will take Herculean efforts in the next decade to avoid severely damaging what is left of society. I no longer believe this country has what it takes to choose to avoid such brutality.
While I disagree with some of the author's conclusions, specifically his contention that massive cuts to Social Security and Medicare will be 'necessary' to survive the long recession, I admire and respect his otherwise adroit assessment of the nastiness we're in for.
It will take Herculean efforts in the next decade to avoid severely damaging what is left of society. I no longer believe this country has what it takes to choose to avoid such brutality.
March 2, 2012
Despite the subject matter I quite enjoyed the thoroughness of Edsall's approach. While he doesn't make concrete predictions about the future of American politics he does paint a bleak picture well supported by statistics and research.
July 21, 2012
Did you recoil from the ugliness over the battle to pass Obama's healthcare law? Were you taken aback by the Republican class of 2010's intensity and how polarized things have become in the Occupy v. Tea Party age? Thomas Byrne Edsall would suggest you ain't seen nothing yet. The Age of Austerity is flawed only by it shortness (you can't help but wished he'd flesh more of these ideas out). As a snapshot of where we are and where the country is headed, this is seriously chilling material. Edsall contends that America is headed toward a time of merciless austerity and that politics here will continue to fragment and organize along those lines. He makes some intriguing points about political psychology. Conservatives, he argues with polling data to back it up, believe in force and violence to achieve their objectives in a way that liberals don't. Yet I found the most salient points by far to be about race: the local Tea Parties and their fierce hostility to civil rights, Obama's healthcare law as racialized redistributionism in diverting funds from Medicare-relied on by a largely white, Republican population-to younger, browner Americans. Edsall argues that the reason conservative politicians are so militant and bellicose about slashing government is they know their days are numbered and this could be their last chance. The growing voting blocs are all Democratic (single women, Hispanics, Asians, etc). Republicans thus want to remove as much of the financial liability for future recipients of the federal entitlement programs before the demographics change. That's also why, he writes, you always hear Republicans and their pundits talk about keeping Medicare and Social Security as they are now for people over 60. It's less principle and more politics. It also, I would add, makes little sense: if entitlements are the biggest drivers of debt and we currently have around ten thousand retirees a day registering for those benefits, surely we would have to start to make some cuts now even for current recipients, right? Edsall does not paint a sanguine picture. How could he? The next decade should find things getting even uglier as we come knives out to divide a shrinking pie.
June 24, 2012
I was captivated by Edsell's chronology and dynamic of the current political situation. I think for both left and right readers, by the middle of thr book, you will get a sinking feeling. The same sinking feel one would get if one were to walk down a dark tunnel, turn back and realize how far you've descended.
I am a cynic and look at political economy as a "Machiavel" and this book reinforces my view that there is no chance of reconciliation between parties anytime soon. While readers may no doubt express anger at Republicans or Democrats, I merely look at them as chesspieces that act according to certain parameters. Based on my projection, it doesn't look good for the Democrats in the long term.
State budgets in crisis, Medicare spinning out of control and playing chicken with the debt ceiling will erode confidence in US sovereign debt. The Democrats are pinning their hopes on eliminating the electoral college, taxing the affluent and the declining birthrates of whites to achieve their long term goals. There is NO leverage that the Left has, none that I forsee in the near future. They are simply depending on their voters to out-breed the Republican base. I don't think there will even be a unified country left by that time.
The dynamic that Edsell models is not some machination from some underground Koch Brothers command bunker but a Tea Party franchise that "fits" every state where illegal immigration competes with US citizens for public goods like hospital beds and classrooms. Every single argument the Left makes singing the praises of immigrant's contribution is wiped away when one sees someone take out that food stamp card on the supermarket checkout line.
The day a US state defaults on its debt is the day Democrats will have to choose between saving the pensions of their constituents or continuing the current path for the 11 million undocumented persons. What Democrats don't realize is that Republicans do not have to engage in the cost vs. benefits argument because they can get what they want anyway by waiting out the nearly bankrupt states.
I am a cynic and look at political economy as a "Machiavel" and this book reinforces my view that there is no chance of reconciliation between parties anytime soon. While readers may no doubt express anger at Republicans or Democrats, I merely look at them as chesspieces that act according to certain parameters. Based on my projection, it doesn't look good for the Democrats in the long term.
State budgets in crisis, Medicare spinning out of control and playing chicken with the debt ceiling will erode confidence in US sovereign debt. The Democrats are pinning their hopes on eliminating the electoral college, taxing the affluent and the declining birthrates of whites to achieve their long term goals. There is NO leverage that the Left has, none that I forsee in the near future. They are simply depending on their voters to out-breed the Republican base. I don't think there will even be a unified country left by that time.
The dynamic that Edsell models is not some machination from some underground Koch Brothers command bunker but a Tea Party franchise that "fits" every state where illegal immigration competes with US citizens for public goods like hospital beds and classrooms. Every single argument the Left makes singing the praises of immigrant's contribution is wiped away when one sees someone take out that food stamp card on the supermarket checkout line.
The day a US state defaults on its debt is the day Democrats will have to choose between saving the pensions of their constituents or continuing the current path for the 11 million undocumented persons. What Democrats don't realize is that Republicans do not have to engage in the cost vs. benefits argument because they can get what they want anyway by waiting out the nearly bankrupt states.
August 28, 2012
Like gridlock and partisan politics? Then you'll love what this book has to say, because Washington Post reporter Thomas Edsall predicts plenty more to come. The rest of us should be worried, because Edsall makes a strong case that the left and right wings have good reason to fight like cats and dogs.
Edsall's main thesis is that for most of the post-World-War-II era, politicians have been able to avoid zero-sum political games. Rising productivity and an expanding economy has made it possible for liberal and conservative leaders to cooperate in deals that benefited both sides. That abundance is running out, though, which means the left and right are now playing a zero-sum or negative-sum game. There are not enough resources to go around, and that means somebody has to go short.
Edsall argues that the right wing has an edge in zero-sum games, since conservative political philosphy aligns individual effort and morality with prosperity. Its constituents are "haves" who seek to keep what they may or may not have earned. The left wing has built its philosophy on compassion and redistribution; it's the party of "have nots" and those who are sympathetic to society's underdogs. The classic swing voter in the center is willing to be generous in good times, but tries a lot harder to protect his own holdings in bad times. That means that for the last several years, conservatives have been playing at home and defining the conversation.
The basic structure of politics-as-resource-battle makes a lot of sense. I do think Edsall oversimplifies a little, and despite trying to remain objective he lets the Left off a little too easy. But what's truly galling isn't anything Edsall wrote -- it's the idea that we really don't have to be this way. Our wealth is the envy of the rest of the planet, and we're fighting like starved dogs over scraps? There's something fundamentally wrong with that, and I'd like to see Edsall or someone else propose a viewpoint that gets us all talking instead of shouting at each other.
Edsall's main thesis is that for most of the post-World-War-II era, politicians have been able to avoid zero-sum political games. Rising productivity and an expanding economy has made it possible for liberal and conservative leaders to cooperate in deals that benefited both sides. That abundance is running out, though, which means the left and right are now playing a zero-sum or negative-sum game. There are not enough resources to go around, and that means somebody has to go short.
Edsall argues that the right wing has an edge in zero-sum games, since conservative political philosphy aligns individual effort and morality with prosperity. Its constituents are "haves" who seek to keep what they may or may not have earned. The left wing has built its philosophy on compassion and redistribution; it's the party of "have nots" and those who are sympathetic to society's underdogs. The classic swing voter in the center is willing to be generous in good times, but tries a lot harder to protect his own holdings in bad times. That means that for the last several years, conservatives have been playing at home and defining the conversation.
The basic structure of politics-as-resource-battle makes a lot of sense. I do think Edsall oversimplifies a little, and despite trying to remain objective he lets the Left off a little too easy. But what's truly galling isn't anything Edsall wrote -- it's the idea that we really don't have to be this way. Our wealth is the envy of the rest of the planet, and we're fighting like starved dogs over scraps? There's something fundamentally wrong with that, and I'd like to see Edsall or someone else propose a viewpoint that gets us all talking instead of shouting at each other.
November 3, 2014
Written in 2012, the work is now outdated in the fall 2014. I picked the book off the library shelf because of the subtitle. The book dwells on the looming crisis in the U.S. over the unsustainable debt and discussion of the increasing polarization of the electorate and the government that is unlikely to deal with and solve the debt crisis. My disappointment with the book is the author does not deal with the question "how scarcity will remake American politics." Perhaps an editor added the subtitle to promote people like me to read the book.
The author simply makes the obvious point that the split is between the "haves" and the "have-nots."
He documents the fact that the "have-nots" are increasing rapidly in number but most fail to vote.
Obviously something must happen, but the writer doesn't tell us what that might be.
I have been pursuing books recently that deal with the U.S. debt crisis and still cannot find a good analysis of what will follow the Federal bankruptcy which is coming in the next 5 or so years.
One author I read recently thinks the U.S. will become like Sweden's welfare state but I don't think that will work here with our incredibly diverse population, soon to become majority Hispanic.
Perhaps the best guess is we become the world's largest of all banana republics.
The author simply makes the obvious point that the split is between the "haves" and the "have-nots."
He documents the fact that the "have-nots" are increasing rapidly in number but most fail to vote.
Obviously something must happen, but the writer doesn't tell us what that might be.
I have been pursuing books recently that deal with the U.S. debt crisis and still cannot find a good analysis of what will follow the Federal bankruptcy which is coming in the next 5 or so years.
One author I read recently thinks the U.S. will become like Sweden's welfare state but I don't think that will work here with our incredibly diverse population, soon to become majority Hispanic.
Perhaps the best guess is we become the world's largest of all banana republics.
July 19, 2012
My central argument with Edsall's book is that it conflates austerity and scarcity. They are not the same thing. His treatment of the politics of austerity is astute and based, as often with his books, on a longer historical perspective than most books about contemporary politics. But he oversteps when he argues that austerity is necessarily a result of scarcity. It isn't. Of course, he may be presuming that scarcity has been successfully framed by conservatives as austerity, but that isn't the same thing. This concern with his analysis narrows his argument too much. That said, much of the guts of the book - how various policies and, at times, economic necessity are pitting people against one another, and creating a more polarized politics - provides a compelling summary of our political moment.
April 14, 2012
The author does a good job connecting the dots between austerity and its political ramifications in America especially towards immigration and race. Although there are signs the American political system is finally starting to resemble two definitive choices, his attempt to describe the Democrats and Republicans as polar opposites is weak. In America, all politics are local and party discipline is minimal and austerity politics ends in a deadlock over which district will suffer. Party and ideological loyalty are usually forgotten quickly if one's district is rewarded or punished. In the end, he makes his point that immigration and race are hot button issues in times of austerity but that is not a remake of American politics that's business as usual.
October 3, 2012
Here’s a book I wish I could memorize, so as to spout from its many cited studies and authoritative sources when I get in arguments or need to convince somebody that we really are in trouble.
I skimmed a little. Had read Chapter Two, “The Moral Underpinnings of the Partisan Conflict,” in the form of an article online. It does a pretty good job of defining the differences between Republicans and Democrats. It allowed a glimpse of understanding of the other side, but the sharp division is there. The crux of Edsall’s thesis is that as resources and wealth become scarcer, as they clearly are, people are less willing to soften their positions and compromise, and move even deeper into the ranks of their ideology.
I skimmed a little. Had read Chapter Two, “The Moral Underpinnings of the Partisan Conflict,” in the form of an article online. It does a pretty good job of defining the differences between Republicans and Democrats. It allowed a glimpse of understanding of the other side, but the sharp division is there. The crux of Edsall’s thesis is that as resources and wealth become scarcer, as they clearly are, people are less willing to soften their positions and compromise, and move even deeper into the ranks of their ideology.
February 19, 2016
Reading Edsall's book in light of the partial U. S. Gov't shutdown and the stalled debate over raising the debt ceiling places these calamitous events in context for me. Edsall's views provide a context and deepened my understanding of the subtle coding that occurs during Tea Party activist's doublespeak, those who have derailed the functioning government in an effort to undo New Deal and the Rights Revolutions of the 60s and 70s (Civil Rights, Women's Rights, Gay Rights, etc.).
I highly recommend reading Edsall's book for contextual understanding of recent political events. He has accumulated a great degree of information and his analysis is trenchant but needed.
I highly recommend reading Edsall's book for contextual understanding of recent political events. He has accumulated a great degree of information and his analysis is trenchant but needed.
March 29, 2012
This book is relatively slim and has over 50 pages of acknowledgements at the back - which leaves about 150 +/- pages for the actual book. And, although I thought that the title reflected the authors desire to educate about where politics were headed, in actuality, he just regurgitated what was currently happening in politics today - which you could learn yourself from CNN.com...
I was hoping to have found an enlightening and useful book to make politics interesting to me but what I found was a book that was the equivalent of a "Meet the Press" re-run.
I was hoping to have found an enlightening and useful book to make politics interesting to me but what I found was a book that was the equivalent of a "Meet the Press" re-run.
January 4, 2014
Why did moderates shift right Simple explanations Respect for social norms. Antithapy for Free riders War peace violence and empathy with the world Crime and punishment authority and morals Redistribution and fairness Morals hedonism Roots in 60's Civil rights Women's rights Reproductive rights
Gay rights Welfare rights Mental ill rights Non Christian rights Those were no longer willing to accept losses GOP Skilled in economic combat Control more resources Access to corporate power
Gay rights Welfare rights Mental ill rights Non Christian rights Those were no longer willing to accept losses GOP Skilled in economic combat Control more resources Access to corporate power
April 19, 2012
This is an informative read with numerous charts and graphs to detail our current political discourse. He made some valid points about the issues, the reasons for the "great recession", and what may happen in the future if politicians continue their non-compromising ways. I would have given the book 4 stars, but I have to admit the book was a very deep read, so it took me awhile to wade through the information.
January 25, 2012
Somewhat uneven, but a good overall review of what's happening in the near recent. ( I'm worried about the ' exogenous shock ' too ~ )
March 5, 2012
An excellent book about what our country could face with the political brinksmanship being played by politicians today.
March 21, 2012
Well, that wasn't depressing at all!
March 9, 2012
A brilliant and necessary book. Edsall analyzes the polarization and gridlock that has overcome Washington in definitive terms.
May 6, 2012
Good read. If you don't have to time to follow all the political or economic news. This is an easy straight unbiased book.
June 4, 2012
I don't think the author quite got around to why we have the age of austerity or scarcity, but he made it clear Republicans suck when faced with scarcity.
Want to read
November 13, 2016NewsHour 1/27/12: ties left v right psych to austerity fight
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews