Illusions of Prosperity: America's Working Families in an Age of Economic Insecurity

by Joel Blau and Joel M. Blau

Book Overview

Faith in the free market--the idea that profit seeking, managed care companies will improve the health care delivery system--has become a hot topic in the public policy debate. But, as Joel Blau demonstrates in this splendid work, so-called "free market" programs have been a dismal failure. Here, he launches a far-reaching assault on the idea that "the market" knows best. He looks at recent reforms in NAFTA, education, job training, welfare, and much...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195146069
• ISBN13: 9780195146066
• Release Date: May 2001
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.9" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

DEMOCRATIC LEFT, SPRING 1999

Blau argues that our veneration of markets has lowered the living standards of most Americans, and made us more vulnerable to the next economic crisis.... In an age of an 11,000 Dow index, and wide celebration of general prosperity, Blau exposes the truly bifurcated nature of the U.S. economy at the millenium: The richest one percent of Americans now have 39 percent of the net national wealth. Blau reminds us that his level is exceeded only by the period immediately prior to the Great Depression..... ILLUSIONS OF PROSPERITY reminds one of the sort of comprehensive, but eminently readable social policy analyses Michael Harrington wrote in past decades. Joel Blau, as in his previous book, THE VISIBLE POOR: Homelessness in the United States, is clearly carrying on the tradition.

Advance Praise for ILLUSIONS OF PROSPERITY

"Joel Blau has written a thoughtful and cogent analysis of the state of American society today, the impact of the market system on working families, and the consequences likely to flow from weakening the safety net further. The "Next Deal" solutions he proposes -- full employment policies, living wages, protection of the right to organize, stepped up infrastructure investments and meaningful social and welfare protections -- are cornerstones of any economic and political democracy, which lawmakers would do well to keep in mind as they shape policy for the 21st century." -- JOHN SWEENEY, PRESIDENT, AFL-CIO"Blau has compiled a powerful brief against the neo-laissez faire doctrines that have dominated American economic and social welfare policy for three decades." -- RICHARD CLOWARD AND FRANCES FOX PIVEN"Clearly written, closely argued, and carefully documented, ILLUSIONS OF PROSPERITY is an indispensable guide to public policy in these uncertain times. Blau not only charts how the American governement's embrace of laissez-faire ideology has wrecked havoc he tells us what can be done to undo the damage. Must reading for anyone who cares about what's happening to the average American." -- CHARLES NOBLE, author of WELFARE AS WE KNEW IT