I recently completed reading the book. It was written by Anand Giridharadas.
The essential argument of his book is that the elites in the United States have completely abandoned any support for government action to address the many problems and issues of the modern world to instead support "market solutions" to those problems.
The author indicates that many of the entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and other members of the business elite in the United States realize that there are serious problems in the country and in other parts of the world. That includes massive inequality of incomes and wealth distribution. The author points out that in the last 30 years productivity in the US has more than doubled but instead of ordinary people enjoying the benefits of that, which all Economics texts books say should be the outcome of that situation, only a very small elite have actually benefited from it. Ordinary people were left behind. The author also points out that many of that very same elite sees the problems and the negative impacts of them (Donald Trump and Brexit to name two) but they are unwilling to do what really needs to be done to address them, which is to strengthen and reinvigorate the role of government in society and the economy.
Instead these elites are resorting to market solutions to fix the problems. The author uses the phrase "doing good by doing well" which just means that these entrepreneurs and market types are trying to find ways to fix problems while making money doing it. The author then spends a significant amount of the book describing some of these "fixes". There were quite a few but the one that stood out for me was the lady who developed a telephone app to help people with low incomes to better manage their money. For an annual fee of about US$200 the app would provide advice to the user on how to spend and save money each month to meet all of their financial obligations. The tone deafness of this solution and the person who developed and marketed it is beyond astounding. Instead of trying to find a way to help people increase their income this person developed a way for people stretch what they earn a little farther.
There is also a rather in depth discussion of those who really "did well" and are now "giving back" through philanthropy. The author specifically mentions Michael Bloomberg and Bill Gates, among others, in this discussion. Men who made billions and who are giving alot of it away to worthy causes.
The author acknowledges the contributions of these philanthropists but he also points out that the problems that they are throwing money at are problems they contributed to creating in the first place. As well, the author points out that these very same people are against any of the traditional solutions to the problems that now beset US society, namely, higher taxes for the wealthy, government redistribution and strengthening labour organizations. This would very much explain why Bill Gates recently mused about supporting Donald Trump if the likes of Elizabeth Warren or some one like her wins the Democratic Presidential nomination. It also explains why Michael Bloomberg entered the race and why, mark my words, he will run as an independent if he does not win the nomination. He will run against Donald Trump but he will also siphon off enough votes from the Democratic nominee to hand Donald Trump four more years and Mr. Bloomberg will be fine with that.
It should come as no surprise that Mr. Giridharadas is very critical of the market solutions proposed to resolve the many deep problems now faced by the US. He is very much in support of the more "radical" approaches proposed by the Elizabeth Warrens and the Bernie Sanders of the world. He believes that if their solutions do not come to pass revolution will probably be the result.
I happen to agree with him about the solution to the problems. It should be noted that when the West was enjoying its best economic years, during the first 30 years after the Second World War, profound inequality existed. The rich managed to maintain their wealth and became even wealthier. However, ordinary people also become wealthier at the same time. Not on the same scale as the "postwar elites" but at such a rate as to create a virtuous circle that allowed the Western World to become the leader of the planet and to dictate the politics and the economics of the world for almost 60 years.
Going back to that model would probably have the same outcome. As well, the current elites should be supportive of such an approach because the current situation is unsustainable in the medium to long-term. There will come a time when the pressures building in the world, climate change and automation being the big two, will reach a breaking point and there is no telling what will happen then. Revolution? Who knows, but it is a possibility and with the current civilization being a global civilization such a revolution will probably be global in scope as well. In the past if a revolution happened in one country the elites could move themselves and their wealth to another stable country. That may not be an option during the next big revolution. There may be no place for the elites to hide from the rage of ordinary people. Considering history has shown the revolutions can cost elites everything, including their heads, it would be a good idea for the current elites to try to prevent one from happening. Of course, that would take forethought and humility, which elites are incapable of having. The greatest quality of any elites, and the current ones are no different, is the inability to see what impact their actions are having on the broader society in which they live and the hubris to believe that even if things do go sideways they will be able to avoid any negative consequences.
The author ends the book by noting that there is some hope. He points out that there are some very influential people who are seeing the problems and who are more supportive of increasing government involvement in resolving them. They still seem to be voices in the wilderness but they also seem to be persistent in pushing their arguments. Perhaps their voices will be heard enough to bring about the changes that are needed to address the current and future challenges faced by Western society.
I highly recommend the book although I will warn you that if you believe the current profound inequality is a big problem some of the arguments of some of the people who the author interviews will probably raise your blood pressure just a little bit.
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