America: Who Stole The Dream?
By Donald Bartlett and James B. Steele
Andrews McMeel, October 1996 - 227 pages

America: Who Stole the Dream, was a WONDERFUL READ. I find myself leaning more to the right, from a political perspective, but the authors arguments are EXCELLENT at times and they definitely bring up some great points.

This book is the most well argued book I have read about the current demise of the middle class in the U.S. After reading it I would definitely have to say that I have more concern about political decisions being made in Washington as the authors illustrate that consistently the politicians don't do the right thing for the country.

The authors bring up several concerns

1. Middle class demise via outsourcing of manufacturing to lower cost areas 2. Growing disparity of wealth (the rich own more in % terms) 3. The outsourcing of the 'HIGH TECH JOBS' that are to be the savior of the country. 4. Commentary about various social programs set up and how ineffective they are.

In conclusion I would say this book was extremely well researched and I therefore give KUDOS to the authors. While I don't agree with everything they wrote I believe they have put forth an excellent piece of work.

My main contention with the book is that it focuses on the demise of manufacturing and low-end jobs, along with some high tech. The U.S. is expensive from a labor perspective. As we have outsourced much of our manufacturing we have been able to purchase products at cheaper prices in the U.S.. Imagine what some products would cost if we were paying for labor that was, in some cases, 10x higher than current wages in developing countries? NOWHERE in the book do the authors mention the BENEFIT to our standard of living because we can buy more with our dollars than we would be able to do so otherwise. In general, this book is WAY to the left so reader beware.

 

About the Author: Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele are one of the most widely acclaimed investigative reporting teams in American journalism.  They have worked together for three decades, first at The Philadelphia Inquirer, (1971-1997), and, since February 1997, as editors at-large for Time Inc. Their specialty is researching, analyzing and writing about the complex issues and institutions that profoundly affect American life. Their work has earned them dozens of national awards. They are the only reporting team in history to have received two Pulitzer Prizes for newspaper reporting and a National Magazine Award for magazine work. Over the years, Barlett and Steele have tackled a succession of wide-ranging subjects, including the Internal Revenue Service, American foreign aid, the criminal court system, federal housing programs, the energy crisis, nuclear waste, private tax breaks enacted secretly by members of Congress for favored constituents and friends, the winners and losers under the existing campaign finance system and corporate welfare. The latter, a four-part series in TIME in 1998 that documented multi-billion-dollar-a-year government handouts to some of America's largest corporations, was the first multi-part series in the 75-year history of the magazine. What Barlett and Steele do was best described by Leonard Downie Jr., in his book, The New Muckrakers: An Inside Look at America's Investigative Reporters. Downie wrote that the journalism of Barlett and Steele "represents a significant step beyond traditional muckraking...instead of just reporting still unproven accusations and focusing on individual corruption, (they reveal) with expert analysis and thorough documentation what has systematically gone wrong with the powerful, complex institutions that affect so much of life today." Their work has taken them to more than 30 states and a dozen foreign countries. Their investigations have led to indictments and convictions in federal courts, to changes in national policy, and to the opening of once-secret government records. They have pioneered in the use of reporting methods that are now standard in the profession. In 1972, they used a computer to analyze more than 1,000 cases of violent crime in Philadelphia. Crime and Injustice was the largest computer-assisted project of its time and was widely replicated by other journalists for years afterward. The Newseum, the Arlington, Va., museum that traces journalism's history, has an exhibit focusing on their 1972 ground-breaking experiment. Barlett and Steele have received virtually every major national journalism award, from the 1975 Overseas Press Club of America Award for Best Daily Newspaper or Wire Service Interpretation of Foreign Affairs to the 1999 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting from the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government. The University of Missouri in 1983 presented Barlett and Steele with its Honor Award for Distinguished Service in Journalism, citing them for "their standard-setting development of investigative techniques and documentation, including their pioneer use of computers...their ability to unearth the complete story, far beyond what most journalists typically would call complete, and their fairness and accuracy, and unusual ability to unravel complex issues in ways readers can understand." The National Council of Teachers of English honored Barlett and Steele in 1988 for having decoded, deciphered and turned into everyday English the deliberately obfuscatory language of Congress' tax-writing committees--language that concealed who was getting specialized tax breaks. The prize: The George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contributions to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language. In 1992, they received a second George Orwell Award, this time for their book, America: What Went Wrong?