دانلود کتاب America Is Self-Destructing: Wealth, Greed, and Ideology Trump Common Cause and Social Justice

Contents
Preface : Disappearance of American Exceptionalism
The Narrative: America Is Self-Destructing
• Evolutionary Patterns of Social Orders and Human Behavior
• Unequal, Inequitable, and Shameless Distribution of National Wealth
• Loss of Middle Class Purchasing Power and a Stagnant Economy
• Lessons Not Learned from History: Wise Investments of National Wealth
• Trickle-Up or Trickle-Down Economics?
• Dwindling Professional Ethics and Integrity
• Missing in Action: Social Cohesion, the Work Ethic, and Altruism
• America’s Self-Destructive Journey: One Chapter of Western Civilization
• Truth as Defined by the Prevailing Cultural Mentality
• Polarization of American Politics and Human Values
Chapter I . America’s Corrupt, Dysfunctional Society: Loss of Cultural
Values, Ethics, and Integrity
• America’s Post-1970s Theme: Greed Is Good
• Shifting Cultural Values and the Pursuit of Wealth
• Irrational Priorities and Failed Governance
• US Health Care: Partisan Politics, Bad Economics, and Anti-Altruistic
Values• Health Care’s “Outrageous Pricing and Egregious Profits”
• Environmental Policy in an Era of Excessive Greed
• Big Money Financing Politics: A Gift Economy of Influence
II . Political and Economic Exploitation of the Middle Class: Demeaning the
Principles of Social Justice and the Public Good
• Political Economics and Philosophy of New Republicanism: Anti-Altruism
• Excessive Income Inequality: Statutory vs. Effective Tax Rates
• Creative Tax Schemes and Loopholes
• Money, Privilege, and the Power of Politics
• Knowledge Deposed by “Infotainment” and Anti-Intellectualism
• The Politics of Obstructionism
• American Democracy on the Ropes
III . America’s Socio-Economic Stagnation: Debilitating Complexity and
Misuse of National Wealth
• Struggling with the Forces of Cultural Complexity
• Complexity and Lack of Resources: Contributors to Economic Stagnation
• Realities and Costs of Creeping Societal Complexity
• The Price of Civilization and Achieving the Public Good
• Resource Challenges and Political Liabilities
• Great Deformations of a Crippled National Economy
• Excessive Wealth Inequality: What is Wrong With Public Policy?
IV . Demise of the Middle Class Economy: Conflicting Economic Theories
and Political Agendas
• Middle Class Journey: Great Depression to Great Recession and Beyond
• Decline of the Middle Class and Corporate Citizenship
• Degradation of the US Wage, Salary, and Benefit Structure
• Poverty in America “There is hay in the barn but we’re not feeding the
horses.”
•(k) Retirement Plans: “This Monster Is Out of Control”
• Failed Public Education
• Federal Taxes Too High? But, Relative to What?
• The Pathway to Self-Destruction
V . Equitably Sharing Productivity within a Capitalist Democracy:
Fundamental to Common Cause, Social Justice, and Economic Growth
• Fluctuations of Cultural Values and Income Inequality
• America’s Two Gilded Ages and The Global Economy
• The Fallacy of Self-Correcting Free Markets
• Individualism: Rights and Freedoms vs. Responsibilities to Social Justice
• Inequality and Social Cohesion, Trust, and Status
VI . Narcissistic Individualism and Darwinian Economics: The Role of Social
Capital and Human Behavior
• Uncoupling and Disengaging from Community Involvement
• Declining Religious, Social, and Professional Involvement
• Mysterious Social Disengagement: Pursuit of the Good Life
• Human Nature, Values, and Behavior: Variables of Social Change
• Values and Morality Affecting Economic Behavior
• Individual Motivations, Aspirations, and Responsibilities
• Darwinian Economics
• The Influence of Spiritual Expectations on Economic Advancement
VII . Post-1980s New Republicanism: The Culture of the Old South Collides
with the Rights and Freedom Revolution
• The South’s Great White Switch: Culture Solidarity and Civil Rights
• Post-1950s Reorientation of Southern Politics
• Foundations of New Post-1980s Republicanism
• Newt Gingrich: Architect and Catalyst for a New Republican Culture
• Shifting Voter Values and Priorities
• The Political Partisan Divide
• Summary of Major Pew National Findings: Partisan Polarization
• New Republicanism and America’s Human Rights Revolution• The Rights Revolution Wins Big in 2012 Elections
VIII . Big Money’s Grand Scheme and the Great Recession: Seizing
Economic and Political Power (1970s-present)
• Origins and Mechanisms of Big Money’s Grand Scheme
• Consolidation and Solidarity via the Influence of Wealth
• Washington’s Post-1970s Political Culture
• Dismissing the Bretton-Woods Agreement and Glass-Steagall Legislation
• Post-Glass-Steagall Legislation Era (2000-2008)
• Goldman Sachs and the “Big Short”
• The Role of Credit Rating Agencies
• Aftermath of the Great Recession
IX . Keynesian Economics to the Rescue... Again! From Roosevelt to Obama
• Rebounding from the Great Depression
• Post-1970s Abandonment of Keynesian Economics
• The Return to Keynesian Economics: The Bush-Obama Era
• Bush and Obama Address the Nation’s Financial and Economic Crisis
X . Shifting Philosophical Currents of Thought: Self-Interest Defines Truth
and Knowledge
• The Politics of Global Warming
• Shifting Human Values: Fabricating Truth and Altering Political Culture
• Formulation of Political Thought, Judgment, and Choice
• Identifying Variables of Truth: Relationships to Cultural Dynamics
• Defining Truth and Wisdom as Influenced by Adopted Values
• Western Civilization’s Six Philosophical Currents of Thought
• Cultural Roots of American Society’s Philosophical Basis of Truth
XI . Comprehending America’s Cultural Dysfunction: The Science of
Complex Systems and Chaos Theory
• The Nature and Complexity of Societal Functional Systems
• The Elements and Science of Complex Systems• The Origin and Mismanagement of Human Complex Systems
• The Great Recession: Mild Randomness of Economics Becomes Chaos
Notes