Have you wondered why the stock market keeps hitting all-time highs but consumer confidence is at a record low? The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index (a national survey conducted since 1952) dropped to 44.8 in May. That is lower than during the recession in the early 1980s caused by stagflation and the OPEC oil crisis, or during the Great Recession of 2008–2009, or during the recent COVID pandemic. Maybe this seeming paradox has something to do with the fact that 93 percent of corporate stock is owned by the wealthiest 10 percent of Americans. The rich are doing fine, thank you, but the overall economy is not working very well for the other 90 percent of us. And the gap keeps widening.
Just over 30 years ago,
Berrett-Koehler Publishers of San Francisco published my book Economic
Insanity: How Growth-Driven Capitalism Is Devouring the American Dream. The
book made a small splash in certain circles and was even used for several years
as a textbook. I wrote that book after spending nine years on the faculty of BYU’s
Marriott School of Management, where I became interested in both organizational
values and broader economic questions. A few years later, I took a career turn
that eventually landed me in the position of editorial director at BYU
Studies, a scholarly Mormon studies journal published at BYU. Although I
have continued writing about economic matters—on this blog, in periodicals, and in newspaper
editorials—I have
not published a follow-up to Economic Insanity. Until now.
I retired a couple of years ago,
and seeing that the world had changed in many ways and yet was suffering from
even worse economic problems than in 1995, I decided it was time to follow up
my argument in Economic Insanity with a new book, titled Saving America from the Wealthy: Creating an Economy That Works for Everyone. I have
learned a good deal in the past 30 years, and although I probably still agree
with about 75 percent of what I wrote in my earlier book, Saving America
from the Wealthy includes new and different insights into our unique economic
mess.
Because I want this new book to
reach as many concerned Americans as possible, I have decided to release it as
an ebook. I would make it free if I could, but Kindle Direct Publishing (Amazon)
has set a minimum sales price of 99 cents, so that is where I have priced it. I
obviously don’t care about royalties. All I care about is having as many readers
as possible become informed about some crucial issues for our country and consider
a different path for the American economy.
So, if you are interested, please
forego a candy bar and download the ebook. It’s less harmful to your health
than a Snickers bar and certainly more informative. And if you find the
arguments at all compelling, please spread the word through your social media
contacts. Thanks for your time and courtesy in reading this little piece of
self-promotion.
