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The Tyranny of Dead Ideas: Letting Go of the Old Ways of Thinking to Unleash a New ProsperityMatt Miller
יצא לאור ע"י הוצאת Times Books,
שפת הספר: אנגלית |
ללא דירוג
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תקציר הספר
A leading political and business thinker identifies the greatest threat to our economic future: the things we think we know—but don’t
America is at a crossroads. In the face of global competition and rapid technological change, our economy is about to face its most severe test in nearly a century—one that will make the recent turmoil in the financial system look like a modest setback by comparison. Yet our leaders have failed to prepare us for what lies ahead because they are in the grip of a set of "dead ideas" about how a modern economy should work. They wrongly believe that
- Our kids will earn more than we do
- Free trade is always good, no matter who gets hurt
- Employers should be responsible for health coverage
- Taxes hurt the economy
- Schools are a local matter
- Money follows merit
These ways of thinking—dubious at best and often dead wrong—are on a collision course with economic developments that are irre-versible.
In The Tyranny of Dead Ideas, Matt Miller offers a unique blend of insights from history, psychology, and economics to illuminate where today’s destructive conventional wisdom came from and how it holds our country back. He also introduces us to a new way of thinking—what he calls "tomorrow’s destined ideas"—that can reinvigorate our economy, our politics, and our day-to-day lives. These destined ideas may seem counterintuitive now, but they will coalesce in the coming years in ways that will transform America.
A strikingly original assessment of our current dilemma and an indispensable guide to our future, Miller’s provocative and path-breaking book reveals why it is urgent that we break the tyranny of dead ideas, for it is only by doing so that we can move beyond the limits of today’s obsolete debates and reinvent American capitalism and democracy for the twenty-first century.
Matt Miller is a contributing editor for Fortune, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, and the host of public radio’s popular week-in-review program Left, Right & Center. He is a consultant to corporations, governments, and nonprofits, and his first book, The Two Percent Solution: Fixing America’s Problems in Ways Liberals and Conservatives Can Love, was a Los Angeles Times bestseller. He lives in Los Angeles.
America is at a crossroads. In the face of global competition and rapid technological change, our economy is about to face its most severe test in nearly a century—one that will make the recent turmoil in the financial system look like a modest setback by comparison. Yet our leaders have failed to prepare us for what lies ahead because they are in the grip of a set of "dead ideas" about how a modern economy should work. They wrongly believe that
- Our kids will earn more than we do
- Free trade is always good, no matter who gets hurt
- Employers should be responsible for health coverage
- Taxes hurt the economy
- Schools are a local matter
- Money follows merit
These ways of thinking—dubious at best and often dead wrong—are on a collision course with economic developments that are irreversible.
In The Tyranny of Dead Ideas, Matt Miller, a leading political and business thinker, identifies the greatest threat to our economic future: the things we think we know—but don’t. Miller offers a unique blend of insights from history, psychology, and economics to illuminate where today’s destructive conventional wisdom came from and how it holds our country back. He also introduces us to a new way of thinking—what he calls "tomorrow’s destined ideas"—that can reinvigorate our economy, our politics, and our day-to-day lives. These destined ideas may seem counterintuitive now, but they will coalesce in the coming years in ways that will transform America.
A strikingly original assessment of our current dilemma and an indispensable guide to our future, Miller’s provocative and path-breaking book reveals why it is urgent that we break the tyranny of dead ideas, for it is only by doing so that we can move beyond the limits of today’s obsolete debates and reinvent American capitalism and democracy for the twenty-first century.
"Matt Miller writes and thinks with amazing clarity about some of the most difficult problems this country is facing. The Tyranny of Dead Ideas offers the most plausible way to renovate our political and policy thinking to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century—if we have the guts to go forward. This is must reading for the next president and for anyone who wants to be a creative citizen in a difficult time."—Joe Klein, political columnist, Time
"Whenever an administration gets ready to take office for the first time, new ideas are back in vogue. 'Not so fast,' warns Matt Miller: We need to get rid of the old ideas first. In The Tyranny of Dead Ideas he argues that stale thinking about government, business and public policy is holding America back and suffocating our national discourse . . . When it comes to offering change, however, Mr. Miller preaches neither guillotines nor social upheaval but fresh policy . . . These ideas are certainly worthy of debate.—Daniel Casse, The Wall Street Journal
"Matt Miller gives me a headache. If his name doesn't ring a bell, wait until his new book, The Tyranny of Dead Ideas, gains traction in the national debate about how to fix The Current Mess. Before we can fix the economy, health care, Social Security, education and other problems, we have to rethink some of our most sacrosanct premises. Here's a paradoxical thought to get you started: We have to increase taxes and federal programs to save the capitalist system. I know, I know. But don't dismiss Miller without hearing him out. He has some compelling ideas that, though they seem at first counterintuitive, are ultimately reasonable. It is first necessary to suppress the instinct to remain comfortable in the familiar and to calm the knee that aches to jerk. Miller—a journalist (Fortune columnist and host of the radio show Left, Right & Center), Democrat and former economic aide in the Office of Management and Budget under Bill Clinton—has singled out six second-nature, but dead, ideas about how a modern economy ought to look. If not corrected, he argues, our very economic model could be threatened as other nations lose faith in capitalism's ability to improve the lives of everyday people. The dead ideas are that: our children will earn more than we do; free trade is 'good' no matter how many people it hurts; employers should play a central role in the provision of health coverage; taxes hurt the economy; 'local control' of schools is essential; people tend to end up, in economic terms, where they deserve to. Is this man insane? More government? More taxes? With a few tweaks here and there, Miller's dead ideas sound an awful lot like core American principles. (Exceptions: Even some hardened free-marketers will acknowledge the X factor of 'luck,' a subject Miller explored in his previous book, The Two-Percent Solution.) But he's got a point. In fact, he's got several . . . Miller doesn't pretend to possess a magic formula. Instead, he poses questions that expose the folly of our certitude . . . Miller dismisses criticism that he is advancing a 'nanny state.' He acknowledges that 'big government' liberalism is dead and rejects European socialist models. He even notes that Clin
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