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Super Rich: The Rise of Inequality in Britain and the United States | 
 enlarge | Author: George Irvin
Publisher: Polity
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $17.95
You Save: $7.00 (28%)
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Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 535724
Media: Paperback
Pages: 272
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6 x 0.9
ISBN: 0745644651
Dewey Decimal Number: 305
EAN: 9780745644653
ASIN: 0745644651
Publication Date: September 9, 2008
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Product Description
In the past 25 years, the distribution of income and wealth in Britain and the US has grown enormously unequal, far more so than in other advanced countries. The book, which is aimed at both an academic and a general audience, examines how this happened, starting with the economic shocks of the 1970s and the neo-liberal policies first applied under Thatcher and Reagan. In essence, growing inequality and economic instability is seen as driven by a US-style model of free-market capitalism that is increasingly deregulated and dominated by the financial sector.
Using a wealth of examples and empirical data, the book explores the social costs entailed by relative deprivation and widespread income insecurity, costs which affect not just the poor but now reach well into the middle classes. Uniquely, the author shows how inequality, changing consumption patterns and global financial turbulence are interlinked.
The view that growing inequality is an inevitable consequence of globalisation and that public finances must be squeezed is firmly rejected. Instead, it is argued that advanced economies need more progressive taxation to dampen fluctuations and to fund higher levels of social provision, taking the Nordic countries as exemplary. The broad political goal should be to return within a generation to the lower degree of income inequality which prevailed in Britain and the US during the years of post-war prosperity.
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| Customer Reviews:
The super-rich and what they mean for the rest of us August 20, 2008
Joao Guimaraes (The Hague, Netherlands)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Everybody knows that CEO bonuses have soared and that the gap between rich and poor has grown enormously in Britain and the USA. But why has this happened, and what are its economic implications? Is this the affair only of those affected, or is it a cause for concern for all of us who are not among the super-rich?
Unlike most other books on the subject, this one establishes a link between growing inequality and growing financial turbulence. The author stresses that inequality is no longer simply a problem of rich and poor. Increasingly, it affects the middle class too, which today struggles to make ends meet. The financial revolution has pumped credit into the economy, but at the price of growth of personal indebtedness. The deregulation which followed the Reagan-Thatcher years means that many of the safety nets which once helped protect people have vanished. Today, fiscal and financial imbalances are so great that a trigger like the sub-prime mortgage crisis could lead to a major recession, or even to a depression on a scale not witnessed since the 1930s.
At a time when many governments seem to wish to follow Britain and the US in deregulating and in removing safety nets, supposedly for the sake of economic efficiency, this book emphasizes the costs, both economic and political, of such a course of action. This is an important book, for politicians and for citizens.
And they can read it: a really strong point about this book is that, though loaded with data, it can easily be read by a non-specialist. It's written not just for academics but for ordinary people who want to understand what's happening in the world. It's progressive without being preachy. And the combination of the factual and anecdotal will make you want to go on reading.
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