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(More customer reviews)The book attempts to create a paradigm shift from the optimistic traditional American dream of hard work and reward, to the more pessimistic global reality of being displaced by big business as the social classes polarize. Greider takes on an immense task as he presents a macroeconomic view of the global economy, which he states has caused a decline in the standard of living for the average worker since 1974. His main argument is that the free running of global capitalism has recreated the conditions that preceded the Great Depression -- excess supplies of goods and labor, an expanding inequality of wealth, and social exploitation in the name of free market economics, which threatens global economic crisis and social revolution. As multinational firms fiercely complete for global market shares, they abandon the national interests of their home country and disregard any social obligation that does not promote short-term profits, including displacing or exploiting workers. Without multilateral intervention that would regulate global commerce and protect the rights of workers everywhere, a world economic and social crisis is inevitable.
Greider successfully illustrates the struggle between labor and capital: Organized labor's power to control wages and working conditions, which has traditionally been grounded in its ability to limit the supply of workers, has been decimated by the mobility of capital. In a global market, there will always be workers willing to accept a lower wage as opposed to no wage. As this Awage arbitrage@ forces earnings down, the middle class with disposable income will slowly disappear. Grader's argument of the economic model looks carefully at the demand side of the equation and asks -- who will buy the surplus if there is no middle class with disposable income? Capital driven by profits and quick returns at all costs are ignoring the fundamental relationship. Labor needs capital for income, and capital needs labor's income for profits and growth.
Greider also illustrates a breakdown in American democracy: A government no longer run by the people, but by big business, which makes government the broker of deals that only serves to further breakdown our domestic economy in the interest of the free-market.
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