August 31, 2015
Reich (The Work of Nations), a professor of public policy at UC Berkeley, has written an arresting, thought-provoking treatise on the need to reverse the trend of income inequality in the U.S. One of the book’s central points is that the hot-button debate over whether the free market is more effective than government control is irrelevant, and directed at the wrong issue. In fact, Reich asserts, the “free” market is a myth, and the problem is not how big or small the government is—it’s who the government is there to serve. His solution is an “activist government” that will tax the affluent more, invest heavily in education and opportunities, and support the needy. In readily understandable language, Reich explores private property, bankruptcy, inflated Wall Street salaries, different definitions of freedom, the “rise of the working poor,” and the decline of institutions such as unions that were once able to challenge economic elites. Reich’s powerful final argument is that Americans need to rid themselves of the idea that it’s too late to change their economy; the market is a human creation, not a fact of nature, and only humans can save it from what it’s become. Agent: Rafe Sagalyn, ICM/Sagalyn.