Until the 1950s, the struggle to feed, clothe, and employ the nation drove most of American political life. From slavery to the New Deal, political parties organized around economic interests and engaged in fervent debate over the best allocation of agonizingly scarce resources. But with the explosion of the nation's economy in the years after World War II, a new set of needs began to emerge--a search for meaning and self-expression on one side, and a quest for stability and a return to traditional values on the other.
In The Age of Abundance, Brink Lindsey offers a bold...
Until the 1950s, the struggle to feed, clothe, and employ the nation drove most of American political life. From slavery to the New Deal, political...
Economists have long taught that there is a tradeoff between efficiency and equity -- that is, between making a bigger pie and dividing it more fairly. This idea is what makes our current predicament so puzzling: today we are faced with both a stagnating economy and sky-high inequality. Both problems have many causes, but Brink Lindsey and Steven M. Teles argue that one cause-state action to entrench privilege by subverting market competition - is common to both. When the state assumes this role, the tradeoff between equity and efficiency no longer holds. Over the past 40 years or so,...
Economists have long taught that there is a tradeoff between efficiency and equity -- that is, between making a bigger pie and dividing it more fairly...
