The case for big government [electronic resource] / Jeff Madrick.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Madrick, Jeff, 1947-

Series:

Public square (Princeton, N.J.)

The public square book series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Organizational effectiveness.

United States--Politics and government.

United States.

United States--Economic policy--2001-2009.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (216 p.)

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Political conservatives have long believed that the best government is a small government. But if this were true, noted economist Jeff Madrick argues, the nation would not be experiencing stagnant wages, rising health care costs, increasing unemployment, and concentrations of wealth for a narrow elite. In this perceptive and eye-opening book, Madrick proves that an engaged government--a big government of high taxes and wise regulations--is necessary for the social and economic answers that Americans desperately need in changing times. He shows that the big governments of past eras fostered

Contents:

Government and change in America. The danger of an ideology ; The evidence ; Looking-back narratives from the right and left ; The myth of laissez-faire ; The many uses of government in the 1800s ; Government as an agent of change in the 1900s ; The economic benefits of government ; Resisting a pragmatic government

How much we have changed. The history of change ; The new challenge to the standard of living ; The broad threat to the American promise ; It's not just inequality ; When knowledge also changes ; The purpose of government ; Forsaking pragmatism for ideology

What to do. Pessimism in America ; The failure of conventional wisdom ; America has the money ; An agenda.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [177]-194) and index.

ISBN:

1-282-15876-7

9786612158766

1-4008-2878-3

OCLC:

439826022