The State of Working America
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
From reviews of previous editions—
"The State of Working America remains unrivaled as the most-trusted source for a comprehensive understanding of how working Americans and their families are faring in today's economy."—Robert B. Reich
"It is the inequality of wealth, argue the authors, rather than new technology (as some would have it), that is responsible for the failure of America's workplace to keep pace with the country's economic growth. The State of Working America is a well-written, soundly argued, and important reference book."—Library Journal
"An indispensable work on family income, wages, taxes, employment, and the distribution of wealth."—New York Review of Books
Since 1988, The State of Working America has provided a comprehensive answer to a question newly in vogue in this age of Occupy Wall Street: To what extent has overall economic growth translated into rising living standards for the vast majority of American workers and their families? In the 12th edition, Lawrence Mishel, Josh Bivens, Elise Gould, and Heidi Shierholz analyze a trove of data on income, jobs, mobility, poverty, wages, and wealth to demonstrate that rising economic inequality over the past three decades has decoupled overall economic growth from growth in the living standards of the vast majority.
The new edition of The State of Working America also expands on this analysis of American living standards, most notably by placing the Great Recession in historical context. The severe economic downturn that began in December 2007 came on the heels of a historically weak recovery following the 2001 recession, a recovery that saw many measures of living standards stagnate. The authors view the past decade as "lost" in terms of living standards growth, and warn that millions of American households face another decade of lost opportunity.
Especially troubling, the authors stress, is that while overall economic performance in the decades before the Great Recession was more than sufficient to broadly raise living standards, broad-based growth was blocked by rising inequality driven largely by policy choices. A determinedly data-driven narrative, The State of Working America remains the most comprehensive resource about the economic experience of working Americans.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In their biennial report, the Economic Policy Institute is sparing in its comments about specific leaders in government and their impact on employment. Instead, the think tank focuses on the long-term business cycle, which takes shape under the influence of successive administrations. Few lay readers are likely to wade through the book's multitude of graphs and charts, but the data found here will undoubtedly inform reports in the media, academic studies and policy development at the highest levels. Examining the five dimensions of the national economic situation (family income, wages, jobs, wealth and poverty), the authors analyze trends in the nation's levels of inequality and unemployment and make acute regional and international comparisons. What they find is not pretty: they conclude that income inequality in America is now much higher than in other periods, and that the economic mobility of the American dream is largely just that, a dream. One political point they do make is an important one for a book that examines economic history "from the perspective of working families": the "recent regressive tax cuts," they say, have worsened this inequality. Overall, the authors join the chorus that sings the praises of the 1990's boom while lamenting the current weak recovery, and they provide ample statistical evidence to support their assertions and give journalists, professors and lobbyists plenty of ammunition.
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