{"product_id":"inequality-by-design-how-a-rigged-economy-fractures-america-and-what-we-can-do-about-it-1","title":"Inequality by Design: How a Rigged Economy Fractures America and What We Can Do About It","description":"\u003cp\u003eMany politicians say that \"if you work hard and play by the rules,\" then even low-income citizens can move up the economic ladder. But what if the rules are designed to only benefit the wealthiest Americans? What if America's economic rules suppress the dreams of average citizens? In other words, what if the economy is rigged?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEconomist Ryan Mattson and coauthor Ben Johnson argue against the insidious myth of American meritocracy, which they say has become a weapon of propaganda directed at Americans living on the knife's edge. This message wrongly exonerates policymakers from accountability. It also implies that hard-working Americans are moral failures.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe reality, as Mattson and Johnson demonstrate, is that more than four decades of policy changes have cemented economic rules that condemn all people, except in top income brackets, to repetitive cycles of downward mobility. The growing economic inequality corrodes communities, jobs, schools, and civic cohesion.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBasing their arguments on robust data, Mattson and Johnson show that inequality is not a problem limited to the poor or marginal classes. Every American below the top 1 percent—especially younger generations of middle- and upper-class families—is affected by the slow-moving, tectonic shifts in America's economy since the early 1980s.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePersistent and worsening inequality could fuel dire societal divisions. In the past, disastrous economic inequality drove both the immiseration of the Great Depression and the slaughter of the Civil War. It's not too late to make changes. Mattson and Johnson provide optimistic ideas for how to avoid the disastrous dead-end toward which America is heading.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eInequality by Design\u003c\/i\u003e offers hopeful and practical solutions to help readers make sense of our reality. The book calls on voters, associations, unions, business leaders, civic organizations, churches, policymakers, and local and national politicians to work together to change the rules and create a better future for all Americans.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe chapters in this important book address the following topics, among others:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli data-rte-preserve-empty=\"true\"\u003eMeasuring our economic malaise\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli data-rte-preserve-empty=\"true\"\u003eWhy home ownership is such a struggle for American\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli data-rte-preserve-empty=\"true\"\u003eHow our economic policies hinder the economic futures of even middle-class Americans\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli data-rte-preserve-empty=\"true\"\u003eWhy education is becoming less of a solution for gaining wealth\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli data-rte-preserve-empty=\"true\"\u003eHow new technologies could lead to greater inequality\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli data-rte-preserve-empty=\"true\"\u003eExamples of better business models for workers\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli data-rte-preserve-empty=\"true\"\u003eWhat we can learn from the history of severe inequality around the world\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Upriver Press","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":68019297222973,"sku":"9798990623644","price":24.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0477\/8731\/1254\/files\/9798990623644ita_e335c75b-04ca-48c8-abbf-23637487a0a8.jpg?v=1794339837","url":"https:\/\/itascabooks.com\/products\/inequality-by-design-how-a-rigged-economy-fractures-america-and-what-we-can-do-about-it-1","provider":"Itasca Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}