The Great Risk Shift: The New Economic Insecurity and the Decline of the American Dream

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		The Great Risk Shift: The New Economic Insecurity and the Decline of the American Dream
		The Great Risk Shift: The New Economic Insecurity and the Decline of the American Dream

America's leaders say the economy is strong and getting stronger. But the safety net that once protected us is fast unraveling. With retirement plans in growing jeopardy while health coverage erodes, more and more economic risk is shifting from government and business onto the fragile shoulders of the American family.
In The Great Risk Shift , Jacob S. Hacker lays bare this unsettling new economic climate, showing how it has come about, what it is doing to our families, and how we can fight back. Behind this shift, he contends, is the Personal Responsibility Crusade, eagerly embraced by corporate leaders and Republican politicians who speak of a nirvana of economic empowerment, an "ownership society" in which Americans are free to choose. But as Hacker reveals, the result has been quite different: a harsh new world of economic insecurity, in which far too many Americans are free to lose.
The book documents how two great pillars of economic security―the family and the workplace―guarantee far less financial stability than they once did. The final leg of economic support―the public and private benefits that workers and families get when economic disaster strikes―has dangerously eroded as political leaders and corporations increasingly cut back protections of our health care, our income security, and our retirement pensions.
Blending powerful human stories, big-picture analysis, and compelling ideas for reform, this remarkable volume will hit a nerve, serving as a rallying point in the vital struggle for economic security in an increasingly uncertain world.

媒体推荐

Hacker has already written one debate-defining tract, The Great Risk Shift which described how individuals were getting stuck with health care and retirement risks long borne by institutions. (Justin Fox, The Harvard Business Review)

作者简介

Jacob S. Hacker is Professor of Political Science at Yale University and Fellow at the New America Foundation. He is author of The Divided Welfare State and The Road to Nowhere and, and most recently, co-author of Off Center: The Republican Revolution and the Erosion of American Democracy. A frequent commentator on NPR, PBS, and CNN, Hacker has written for The New Republic, The Nation, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, and other publications.

网友对The Great Risk Shift: The New Economic Insecurity and the Decline of the American Dream的评论

This is not the easiest book to read, but the subject should hit home for a number of Americans and it's well-done.

Hacker shows how over time, government and corporate actions have led us to a point where just about every risk imaginable is being borne by individuals. Once upon a time, the government and corporations shared in the risk, but we're getting towards a point where that is not the case. With the stories he shares and the points he makes, one can see that it's no accident that stories abound of people who have lost just about everything - be it their retirement funds, their homes and any other savings they have. Oftentimes, something as simple as job loss due to a layoff or an injury/illness (not necessarily to the person, either, as a sick or injured child can do this as well) is what triggers it, and Hacker spends a good deal of time talking about health care since that's about as broken as anything in America.

None of this, of course, has been talked about as much as the "prosperity" of the past few years in the American economy, one that was a house of cards and is now in loads of trouble that anyone with common sense could have foreseen.

At the end, Hacker shares some ideas well worth considering. Cynic that I am, I don't expect our elected leaders to do that, especially as they've been bought by corporations left and right.

The book is not always easy to follow, as Hacker makes extensive use of statistics and at times puts several together, and it at times has the feel of an academic paper being presented at a conference of some sort. But that's a relatively small knock, and it's a book every politician needs to read and probably won't (or they will just dismiss it because they're out of touch and don't have to live the lives ordinary Americans do).

Must read.

I used for a class and was fine :)

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