The very rich have gotten a lot richer these past few decades, even during the current economic crisis, hile most Americans have not. How have they managed to restructure the economy to reap the lion's share, tearing new holes in the safety net and saddling all of us with increased debt and risk? In this book the authors trace the rise of the winner-take-all economy back to a major transformation of American politics in the late 1970s, under a Democratic president and a Democratic Congress. With big business and conservative ideologues organizing themselves to undo the regulations and progressive tax policies that had helped ensure a fair distribution of economic rewards, deregulation got under way, taxes were cut for the wealthiest, and business decisively defeated labor in Washington. And this transformation continued under Reagan and the Bushes as well as Clinton, with both parties caterin to the interests of those at the very top. Here the authors show how a political system that traditionally has been responsive to the middle class has been hijacked by the super rich. In doing so, it not only changes how we view American politics, but also points the way to rebuilding a democracy that serves the interests of the many rather than just those of the wealthy few.
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