Adrift: America in 100 Charts

by Scott Galloway

Overview

From bestselling author, CNN+ host of No Mercy, No Malice, and NYU business school professor Scott Galloway comes an urgent examination of the future of our nation – and how we got here.

We are only just beginning to reckon with our post-pandemic future. As political extremism intensifies, the great resignation affects businesses everywhere, and supply chain issues crush bottom lines, we’re faced with daunting questions – is our democracy under threat? How will Big Tech change our lives? What does job security look like for me? America is on the brink of massive change – change that will disrupt the workings of our economy and drastically impact the financial backbone of our nation: the middle class.
 
In Adrift, Galloway looks to the past – from 1945 to present day – to explain just how America arrived at this precipice. Telling the story of our nation through 100 charts, Galloway demonstrates how crises such as Jim Crow, World War II, and the Stock Market Crash of 2008, as well as the escalating power of technology, an entrenched white patriarchy, and the socio-economic effects of the pandemic, created today’s perfect storm. Adrift attempts to make sense of it all, and offers Galloway’s unique take on where we’re headed and who we’ll become, touching on topics as wide-ranging as online dating to minimum wage to the American dream.
 
Just as in 1945 and 1980, America is once again a nation at a crossroads. This time, what will it take for our nation to keep up with the fast and violent changes to our new world?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593542415
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	09/27/2022
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	21 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Scott Galloway is Professor of Marketing at NYU Stern School of Business and a serial entrepreneur. He is the bestselling author of Post Corona, The Four, and The Algebra of Happiness and has served on the boards of directors of the New York Times Company, Urban Outfitters, and Berkeley's Haas School of Business. His Prof G and Pivot podcasts, No Mercy No Malice blog, and Prof G YouTube channel reach millions. In 2019, Scott founded Section4, an online education platform for working professionals where he teaches business strategy: section4.com.

Table of Contents

Preface: Ballast 1

1 Rise of the Shareholder Class 11

1 Trickle-Down Tax Plan 14

2 Changing Sentiments 16

3 Declining Infrastructure 18

4 Healthcare Cutbacks 20

5 Labor Loses Its Voice 22

6 The LBO Boom 24

7 Productivity Soars, Compensation Stagnates 26

8 Income Inequality 28

9 An Overwhelmed IRS 30

10 The Offshoring Explosion 32

11 Stock Market Participation 34

2 The World We Made 37

12 Productivity Revolution 40

13 Billions of People Work Their Way Out of Poverty 42

14 Health Is Wealth 44

15 A New World Order 46

16 Freedom of Movement 48

17 The Red Blood Cells of the Consumer Economy 50

18 The Digital Age 52

19 Accelerating Technological Advancement 54

20 U.S. Institutions = Genius Factories 56

21 Assisting Humanity 58

3 Idolatry of Innovators 61

22 Turning Away From Community Organizations 64

23 Water Safety in the Richest Country in the World 66

24 Privatized R&D = Privatized Progress 68

25 College Has Become the Entry Requirement to the Middle Class 70

26 The Gross Idolatry of Innovators … by Innovators 72

27 Power Games 74

28 The Entrenchment of Wealth 76

29 It's Never Been Easier to Be a Trillion-Dollar Company 78

30 The MDMA Dealer of Capitalism Is the Corporate Communications Exec 80

31 D.C. = HQ2 82

32 Perspective 84

4 Hunger Games 87

33 The Great Divergence 90

34 It's Wealthy at the Top 92

35 From Lopsided to Dystopian 94

36 Invasive Species 96

37 The Minimum Wage Is Decades Behind 98

38 What Are Our Priorities? 100

39 Financialization and Asset Inflation 102

40 Asset Inflation Comes Home 104

41 An Assault on America's Prosperity 106

42 Another Covid Crime 108

43 The U.S. Healthcare System Is Embarrassingly Inefficient 110

44 Waking Up From the American Dream 112

5 The Attention Economy 115

45 We're All Addicted to Our Phones 118

46 Digital Billboards 120

47 Decline of the News 122

48 Triggered 124

49 Liar, Liar 126

50 "Political" Censorship 128

51 Fake News 130

52 Media Fuels Misunderstanding About Crime 132

53 Relationship Status 134

6 House of Cards 137

54 Marriage Rates Are at Record Lows 140

55 Women Value Earning Potential in Male Partners 142

56 Men's Share of College Enrollment at Record Lows 144

57 Online Dating Apps Are More Inequitable Than Almost Anywhere on Earth 146

58 Political Divides Become Social Divides 148

59 Failure to Leave 150

60 Population Growth Is Slowing to Great Depression Levels 152

61 Created Equal 154

62 Mass Murder Is a Uniquely Male Crime 156

63 The Long-Term Erosion of Trust in the Federal Government 158

64 Old Money, Old Problems 160

65 Those Funding the Future Reflect the Past 162

7 Threats 165

66 The United States Retains the Title 168

67 The Dominance of the U.S. Dollar 170

68 China Has Replaced the U.S. as the Most Popular Trading Partner 172

69 The U.S. Gets Less for Its Military Dollar 174

70 Military Spending Doesn't Always Equate to Effectiveness 176

71 Chinese Leadership in Military Drones 178

72 Does Our Budget Allocation Align With Our Threats? 180

73 Erosion of the World's Most Important Brand 182

74 The U.S. Is No Longer the World's Laboratory 184

75 Clean Energy's Silk Road Runs Through China 186

76 The Spawning Ground for Capitalism's Apex Predators 188

8 The Bright Side of Instability 191

77 Crises Trigger Growth 194

78 Resetting Expectations 196

79 Surging Startups 198

80 Immigrants Are the Original Entrepreneurs 200

81 Seeking Refuge 202

82 Getting Banked 204

9 Possible Futures 207

83 Printing Our Way to Prosperity 210

84 Drowning in Cash 212

85 Investment in the Social Safety Net 214

86 Smothered by the Safety Net 216

87 Metadystopia 218

88 Fast Future 220

89 Space Is Lonely Without Friends 222

10 What We Must Do 225

90 Simplify the Tax Code 228

91 Rebuild the Regulatory System 230

92 Restore the Algebra of Deterrence 232

93 Reform Section 230 234

94 Rethink the Land of the Free Incarcerated 236

95 Enact a One-Time Wealth Tax 238

96 Rebrand Nuclear 240

97 Support Children and Family Formation 242

98 Reform Higher Ed 244

99 Enable Other Pathways for Upward Mobility 246

100 Invest in National Service 248

Conclusion 250

Acknowledgments 254

Notes 256

Editorial Reviews

2022-06-16
We have captains aplenty and loads of technology—and yet, writes entrepreneur and NYU marketing professor Galloway, the ship of state is lost at sea.

A little of the “adrift” metaphor goes a long way, but the author makes good points. For example, we all have powerful computers in our pockets, yet we fail to forge connections that advance the interests of the commonwealth. Moreover, although Galloway is intent on proving his thesis with meaningful numbers, we don’t seem to be capable of fixing major problems: the fact, for instance, that in 1966, “the U.S. committed 2.5% of its potential GDP to infrastructure development,” whereas today the number is 1.3%. Furthermore, “about 1 in every 5 U.S. roads is in poor condition. Forty-five percent of Americans do not have access to public transit. A water main break occurs every two minutes.” Meanwhile, the number of workers in the financial sector who populate the ranks of the ultrawealthy has doubled in the past four decades, and most of them know how to skirt tax laws. Corporate profits are more than double the percentage of employee compensation, while Jeff Bezos’ and Elon Musk’s space adventures occupy far more eyeballs on the TV news than the far more significant climate crisis. Everywhere the reader turns in Galloway’s book, there’s frightening news that promises to grow worse. In a supremely timely turn, for instance, he links mass murder—“a uniquely male crime” committed by “bored young men without any pathway to economic security”—to the general hopelessness of the era. Marriage rates are down, education for minority citizens lags far behind that for Whites, inequality grows, and wages continue to fall. All the points made by the author’s tables and graphs—“visuals that strike a chord and inspire action”—point to a maddeningly visible but unacted-on dissolution of the republic.

A dispiriting though deeply meaningful tour of bad-news numbers that mark a frightful national decline.

Kirkus Reviews