Can American Capitalism Survive?: Why Greed Is Not Good, Opportunity Is Not Equal, and Fairness Won't Make Us Poor
Written by Steven Pearlstein
Narrated by Steven Pearlstein and L. J. Ganser
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
Pulitzer Prize-winning economic journalist Steven Pearlstein argues that our thirty year experiment in unfettered markets has undermined core values required to make capitalism and democracy work.
Thirty years ago, “greed is good” and “maximizing shareholder value” became the new mantras woven into the fabric of our business culture, economy, and politics. Although, around the world, free market capitalism has lifted more than a billion people from poverty, in the United States most of the benefits of economic growth have been captured by the richest 10%, along with providing justification for squeezing workers, cheating customers, avoiding taxes, and leaving communities in the lurch. As a result, Americans are losing faith that a free market economy is the best system.
In Can American Capitalism Survive?, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Steven Pearlstein chronicles our descent and challenges the theories being taught in business schools and exercised in boardrooms around the country. We’re missing a key tenet of Adam Smith’s wealth of nations: without trust and social capital, democratic capitalism cannot survive. Further, equality of incomes and opportunity need not come at the expense of economic growth.
Pearlstein lays out bold steps we can take as a country: a guaranteed minimum income paired with universal national service, tax incentives for companies to share profits with workers, ending class segregation in public education, and restoring competition to markets. He provides a path forward that will create the shared prosperity that will sustain capitalism over the long term.
Praise for Can American Capitalism Survive?:
"In the Venn diagram of 'economics' and 'interesting,' Steven Pearlstein occupies the (tiny) overlapping area in the middle." — Malcolm Gladwell
“Americans have begun to lose faith in capitalism, and that has sapped our optimism and poisoned our politics. In this enlightening and important book, Steven Pearlstein explains how our economic system gradually has undermined our sense of community by glorifying greed rather than fairness.” — Walter Isaacson
Steven Pearlstein
Steven Pearlstein is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Washington Post and the Robinson Professor of Public Affairs at George Mason University. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 2008 for columns anticipating and explaining the financial crisis and global economic downturn. In 2006 he won the Gerald R. Loeb Award for business and financial commentary, and five years later the Loeb Award for lifetime achievement. He has appeared frequently as a commentator on television and radio. He is the author of Can American Capitalism Survive? He lives in Washington with his wife, Wendy Gray.
Related to Can American Capitalism Survive?
Related audiobooks
The Price of Inequality: How Today's Divided Society Endangers Our Future Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Monopolized: Life in the Age of Corporate Power Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Thinking Like an Economist: How Efficiency Replaced Equality in U.S. Public Policy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Break 'Em Up: Recovering Our Freedom from Big Ag, Big Tech, and Big Money Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Triumph of Injustice: How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How to Make Them Pay Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Can Democracy Survive Global Capitalism? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Breaking Through Power: It's Easier Than We Think Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Davos Man: How the Billionaires Devoured the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer--and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bigger Than Bernie: How We Go from the Sanders Campaign to Democratic Socialism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5States of Neglect: How Red-State Leaders Have Failed Their Citizens and Undermined America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Monopolies Suck: 7 Ways Big Corporations Rule Your Life and How to Take Back Control Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Going Big: FDR's Legacy, Biden's New Deal, and the Struggle to Save Democracy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Greedy Bastards: Corporate Communists, Banksters, and the Other Vampires Who Suck America Dry Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fragile Middle Class: Americans in Debt Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Rich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A People's Guide to Capitalism: An Introduction to Marxist Economics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs. Private Sector Myths Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5System Error: Where Big Tech Went Wrong and How We Can Reboot Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Land Is Their Land: Reports from a Divided Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Captured Economy: How the Powerful Enrich Themselves, Slow Down Growth, and Increase Inequality Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Engine of Inequality: The Fed and the Future of Wealth in America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good? Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Finance & Money Management For You
I Will Teach You to Be Rich: No Guilt. No Excuses. No B.S. Just a 6-Week Program That Works (Second Edition) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rich Dad Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money - That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Financial Intelligence: How to To Be Smart with Your Money and Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Intelligent Investor Rev Ed. Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Family Trusts: A Guide for Beneficiaries, Trustees, Trust Protectors, and Trust Creators Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Intelligent Investor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The 10 Pillars of Wealth: Mind-Sets of the World's Richest People Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Financial Intelligence: The Ultimate Beginner's Guide to Understanding Your Numbers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The TenX Rule: The Only Difference Between Success and Failure Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Financial Feminist: Overcome the Patriarchy’s Bullsh*t to Master Your Money and Build a Life You Love Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Little Book of Common Sense Investing: The Only Way to Guarantee Your Fair Share of Stock Market Returns Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wolf of Investing: My Insider's Playbook for Making a Fortune on Wall Street Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fool Me Once: Scams, Stories, and Secrets from the Trillion-Dollar Fraud Industry Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Almanack of Naval Ravikant Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Latte Factor: Why You Don't Have to be Rich to Live Rich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Smart Couples Finish Rich: Nine Steps to Creating a Rich Future For You and Your Partner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Healthy State of Panic: Follow Your Fears to Build Wealth, Crush Your Career, and Win at Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Myth of Capitalism: Monopolies and the Death of Competition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nudge (Revised Edition): Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What We Owe Each Other: A New Social Contract for a Better Society Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Can American Capitalism Survive?
4 ratings0 reviews