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04 March 2007
What's REALLY Wrong With America
I bought this book both for personal use and to evaluate it for possible use in the classes I teach. On both counts the book was quite good.
The book defends a position that is off the table in virtually all public discussions of the problems of the U.S. economic system and polity. Yet the author's is a position that deserves a hearing and should be put forward in a style that is both rigorous and accessible to the reasonably well educated person. In fact, given the author's purposes, the book should be accessible to the typical poorly educated high school graduate. In my opinion the book succeeds mightily in these respects.
According to the author, the U.S. is a class system, in which the interests of a wealthy propertied class guide both private large-scale economic decision making and the kinds of political choices whose scope determines a framework within which the range of possible policy decisions is severely constrained. The key constraining factor is that which is consistent with the interests of the elite.
If this is indeed the case, we should expect certain continuities of policy throughout the history of American capitalism, from the Spanish-American War to the present. And this we do indeed find. Republican or Democrat, presidents and Congresses have initiated a series of interventions in the internal affairs of other coutries not only when they directly threaten capitalist interests, but also when European-style social democratic regimes come to power. E.g., the overthrows of Mossadeq, Arbenz and others. (Stephen Kinzer's book Overthrow details a large number of these aggressions and subversions in great empirical detail)
In domestic policy, the U.S, provides far fewer social benefits to its citizens than any other developed country. I am regularly astonished to find that a majority of my student do not know that while Americans typically get 2 weeks annually of vacation time, Europeans 5 or 6 paid weeks, plus universal medical care. And the lists of benefits goes on.
Many readers are now thinking 'socialism', 'communism' or 'Marxism' as correct descriptors of this books approach. And of course these words are "red flag words", and might incline many to dismiss this book. That inclination should be resisted, I think. The book is really about why our country is not fully democratic in any meaningful sense of the word, and this because of who wields predominant political and economic power, and toward which ends that power is wielded. The author argues that a result of the foregoing is that we are much worse off than we should be.
The book is replete with relevant data, is clearly written in a tone that is not shrill, and is entirely accessible to the "layperson". I recommend it highly.
Alan Nasser