Created Unequal: The Crisis in American Pay: James Galbraith
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Economists of every ideological stripe acknowledge that wages have grown increasingly unequal since 1970 in the U.S. Galbraith (Balancing Act), a professor of economics at the University of Texas and a former Executive Director of the Congressional Joint Economic Committee, considers that widening gap?between the very rich and the middle and working classes?dangerous to our democratic ideals, and he is passionate in his quest to identify the culprits. The popular explanation for the trend, he notes, is that high-tech workers garner the majority of wage gains (due to superior productivity in companies fulfilling strong market demand) while workers subject to less felicitous market forces lose ground. Spotting anomalies in that argument, Galbraith dives into U.S. Department of Commerce data and, using ingenious analysis, finds six factors responsible for the trend: unemployment, the exchange rate, inflation, economic growth, the interest rate and the minimum wage. Since all six are candidates for artful manipulation (whether by Congress, the Executive or the Federal Reserve), why, Galbraith asks, have we been passive for 25 years in the face of rising wage inequality? He then unveils an action plan that will cause heated debates in corporate board rooms and in Washington, if not in the media. The data crunching that shores up Galbraith’s position may prove daunting to some who gave up on Econ 101, but the numbers, charts and graphs are moderated with rousing tributes to Adam Smith, Joseph Schumpeter and John Maynard Keynes, economists who were revolutionary social critics as well as shrewd bean counters.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
A University of Texas economics professor and son of John Kenneth Galbraith, Galbraith sees the growing inequality of pay in America as the cause of the struggle over welfare reform, affirmative action, healthcare, and other issues. His mild polemic seeks to challenge the current economic orthodoxy that such inequality is caused by job displacement owing to high technology and lack of educational attainment rather than government policies stipulating tight money, low tariffs, and high unemployment. He proposes that since government is the cause of this inequality, government can be the solution by returning to policies of seeking full employment, a higher minimum wage, a more competitive value of the dollar, and price stability. Although these proposals are close to Democratic Party positions, Galbraith criticizes the fiscal irresponsibility of both parties. Galbraith supports his interesting though not entirely convincing contentions with almost 60 pages of notes, appendixes, and bibliography. He overstates the problem, given the current strength of the U.S. economy. This might have been a best seller during the last recession. As such, it is a useful addition to upper-division undergraduate and graduate academic libraries serving economists.APatrick J. Brunet, Western Wisconsin Technical Coll. Lib., La Crosse
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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