The Price of Civilization

Starred review from August 29, 2011
Best known for advising postcommunist and impoverished countries on development strategies, economist Sachs (Common Wealth) takes on the cesspool of debt, backwardness, and corruption that is the United States in this hard-hitting brief for a humane economy. Sachs surveys an America where the rich get richer and the rest grow poorer, less secure, and less prepared for a modern economy; where a fixation by both parties on cutting taxes and coddling corporate donorsâSachs issues stinging rebukes of Obama's policiesâcreates insupportable federal deficits and stymies critical reforms and spending programs; and where an electorate stupefied by mass media and advertising ignores its better instincts and pursues a mindless consumerism. The author's straightforward exposition, buttressed by a wealth of revealing tables and charts, sharply rebuts reigning free market orthodoxies and makes a compelling case for an activist state that redistributes wealth and makes life fairer and more productive for everyone. Sachs's remedies are less focused than his critique, and his pinning of all hope on the 15- to 29-year-old "Millennial Generation," aka "the children of the Internet," feels naïve and ageist. Still, his stimulating, staunchly progressive take on America's dysfunctions is a must-read for every concerned citizen.

August 15, 2011

A noted economist argues that deep reforms are needed to bring renewed prosperity to the United States—a nation "dangerously out of balance," where a tiny elite holds wealth and power without regard for their fellow citizens.

Known for his studies of economies in Latin America, Asia, and elsewhere, Sachs (Healthy Policy and Management/Columbia Univ.; Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet, 2008, etc.) weighs in for the first time on America's economic ills. Drawing on diverse studies and surveys, he characterizes the U.S. as a competitive market society in which "the rich and powerful fail to behave with respect, honesty, and compassion toward the rest of society and toward the world." From the New Deal through the 1960s, the federal government steered the national economy for the public good. But in the '80s, power shifted to special interests, whose concern was private advantage, leaving the U.S. economy vulnerable to the 2008 collapse. To restore prosperity, writes Sachs, America must once again have an activist government that works within the market system to create a more balanced economy and a society based on social trust, honesty and compassion. The author writes that most Americans support such reforms, but are misrepresented in Congress, where both parties enact policies "to the right of the public's true values" to please wealthy contributors. Sachs considers the effects of such forces as globalization, social change and media saturation, and shows how national consensus dissipated as a result of the civil-rights movement, the upsurge in Hispanic immigration the rise of the Sun Belt and suburbanization. Like social scientist Raj Patel (The Value of Nothing, 2010), Sachs writes that we must abandon the craving for wealth and create a more mindful society. A lucid writer, the author is refreshingly direct—tax cuts for the wealthy are "immoral and counterproductive"; stimulus funding and budget cutting are "gimmicks"—and he offers recommendations for serious reform.

An important assessment of what ails America, and a must-read for policymakers.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

October 1, 2011
How did we get into this messand how can we get out? Sachs, an international macroeconomist and director of Columbia University's Earth Institute, has some ideas. For 30 years, Sachs has multitasked in academia (Harvard, Columbia, short-term appointments around the world); in consulting (South America, the former Warsaw Pact states, sub-Saharan Africa, various United Nations entities); and in writing papers and books; his last two solo effortsThe End of Poverty (2005) and Common Wealth (2008)were New York Times best-sellers. In his new one, he explores the economic, political, social, and psychological roots of the U.S.'s 30-year journey from decades of consensus and high achievement to an era of deep division and growing crisis. He indicts America's elites for abandoning social responsibility, politicians for giving up on solving problems, the media for distraction and hyper-commercialization, and citizens for surrendering to that distraction. He urges mindfulness, clear goals for political reform, and significant tax changes, and he suggests that the millennial generation will lead the way to a restoration of the nation's highest aspirations.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)