Hollowed Out: Why the Economy Doesn't Work without a Strong Middle Class

by David Madland

Overview

For the past several decades, politicians and economists thought that high levels of inequality were good for the economy. But because America’s middle class is now so weak, the US economy suffers from the kinds of problems that plague less-developed countries. As Hollowed Out explains, to have strong, sustainable growth, the economy needs to work for everyone and expand from the middle out. This new thinking has the potential to supplant trickle-down economics—the theory that was so wrong about inequality and our economy—and shape economic policymaking for generations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520286528
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	06/24/2015
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	792,572
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

David Madland, Ph.D., is Managing Director for Economic Policy at the Center for American Progress.

Table of Contents

Illustrations

1. Middle Out vs. Trickle Down
2. Trust
3. Good Governance
4. Stable Consumer Demand
5. Human Capital
6. Creating a Middle-Class Society

Acknowledgments
Notes
Index

Editorial Reviews

"A provocative and thoughtful analysis. . . . . at the core of his position are important ideas worthy of nuanced debate and further research by all sides."

Washington Independent Review of Books - Russell MacMullan

Madland doesn’t pull his punches. . . . This is perfect late-summer reading—if you’ve spent the summer somewhere where there’s still a functioning middle class. Come back to the UK, or the more inequitable of US states, and you can read about how it could be summertime all the time. If only we stopped hollowing out.

Times Higher Education - Danny Dorling

"A persuasive, accessible economic argument... Hollowed Out offers serious food for thought and is highly recommended for... Economic Studies."

The Midwest Book Review

2015-04-28
The director of economic policy at the Center for American Progress argues that it is time to mount a political challenge to the economic theories—namely, supply-side, or trickle-down economics—that have provided cover for the unparalleled growth in inequality over the past three decades. Madland states that the theory "has failed in a number of ways and is thus vulnerable to a challenge from the middle out." Among the failures are the destructive consequences of growing income inequality, responsibility for the 2007-2009 "Great Recession," and dramatic income-based undermining of opportunities and outcomes in American secondary and college education. As a senior member of the progressive Center for American Progress, Madland takes on the right wing's purblind opposition to raising taxes for expenditures on public goods such as education, which increase cultural and economic potentials in all areas by improving what the author calls "human capital." College graduation rates, he writes, "have barely budged in over a generation," and upward mobility is in decline. Furthermore, students from wealthy backgrounds continue to have significant access advantages over their poorer counterparts. "The average income for parents of Harvard students is now $450,000," writes Madland. As inequality grows, the author shows how power shifts to the wealthy, politics becomes more polarized, and civic engagement suffers. The mad pursuit of profit and advantage—e.g., Wall Street banks insisting on deregulation, which contributed to the crash—and demanding no-strings-attached bailouts eliminate the trust and reciprocity that Madland promotes as a necessary accompaniment to a strong middle class. He believes American democracy "has proven resilient" but is not immune "to wealthy elites gaining disproportionate influence." As the author notes, such elites, devoted to the theory of supply-side economics, don't readily change their ways. A dramatic and clearly delineated outline of "how the stage has been set for transformative political conflict."

Kirkus Reviews