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Capitalism Endures
When George Gilder first published Wealth & Poverty in 1981, the book was an instant classic, becoming the economics bible of the unfolding Reagan revolution. “Not since the Gilded Age of the late 1800’s has anyone advanced so enthusiastic an endorsement of capitalism and capitalists,” observed the New York Times.
Now, amid the Obama administration’s redistributionist zeal, industrial planning schemes, vandalistic energy policies, demonization of wealth-creating entrepreneurs, and Keynesian spending programs, Gilder returns to the fray with an updated edition of his famous tome.
Thirty years after his paean to free enterprise shocked the Washington establishment, have the collapse of Enron, the economic meltdown of 2008, the advent of the Occupy Wall Street movement, and other events caused Gilder to reassess his devotion to capitalism? In a way, they have. As Gilder states in this edition, “It is clear that we, the original supply siders, bear some responsibility for the failure to persuade. All these years later, it has become clear that we were not radical enough.”
Dissatisfied with half-hearted defenses of capitalism as the least bad system available, Wealth & Poverty passionately extols the morality, compassion, and efficacy of free enterprise. Buoyed by the collapse of communism but disturbed by the return of socialism under new guises, Gilder argues in a new prologue and epilogue that the solution to America’s current economic troubles cannot be found in warmed-over socialism, but in the generosity and economic vitality that can only be unleashed by the free market.
As President Obama’s policies lend Gilder’s arguments a shocking new relevancy, Gilder reminds us why the New Yorker called him a “scourge of feminists, unrepentant supply-sider, and now a technology prophet.” Featuring a new foreword by Steve Forbes, this edition of Wealth & Poverty informs us that free enterprise is the core of freedom—and that nations which forget or ignore that historical lesson will not and cannot prosper.
Foreword Steve Forbes ix
Prologue: The Secret of Enterprise xiii
Part 1 The Mandate for Capitalism
Chapter 1 The Dirge of Triumph 3
Chapter 2 The Economy of Frustration 11
Chapter 3 The Returns of Giving 27
Chapter 4 The Supply Side 51
Chapter 5 The Nature of Wealth 75
Chapter 6 The Nature of Poverty 97
Chapter 7 The Entrepreneurial Future 111
Chapter 8 The Clashes of Class 125
Chapter 9 The War against Wealth 139
Part 2 The Crisis of Policy
Chapter 10 The Moral Hazards of Liberalism 149
Chapter 11 The Coming Welfare Boom 161
Chapter 12 The Myths of Discrimination 179
Chapter 13 The Jobs Perplex 195
Chapter 14 The Make-Work Illusion 211
Chapter 15 Laffer and Liberal Economics 233
Chapter 16 The Inflationary State 259
Reconsideration 2012 279
Chapter 17 The Productivity of Services 283
Chapter 18 The Imperatives of Growth 297
Part 3 The Economy of Faith
Chapter 19 The Kinetic Economy 319
Chapter 20 The Bullheaded Brewer 335
Chapter 21 The Necessity for Faith 351
Epilogue: The Supply-Side Solution 365
Acknowledgments 381
Notes 387
Selected Bibliography 419
Index 433
If you are looking for a solid examination of the causes of poverty,the creation of wealth and the connection between the two then this book is not for you. However, if instead you want a book filled with soaring rhetoric, occasional information and a view of capitalism of such hopeless hyper-optimism that it would even make Pollyanna puke then this book is for you.
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Overview
Capitalism Endures
When George Gilder first published Wealth & Poverty in 1981, the book was an instant classic, becoming the economics bible of the unfolding Reagan revolution. “Not since the Gilded Age of the late 1800’s has anyone advanced so enthusiastic an endorsement of capitalism and capitalists,” observed the New York Times.
Now, amid the Obama administration’s redistributionist zeal, industrial planning schemes, vandalistic energy ...