A Country That Works: Getting America Back on Track [Paperback]

Andy Stern (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 20, 2008

Andy Stern, one of the most visionary leaders in America today, has fought relentlessly to ensure that Americans' hard work is rewarded in today's hypercompetitive, globalized world. As the newsmaking president of the fastest-growing, most dynamic union in America, he has led the charge for modernizing the "house of labor" -- taking unions out of the past and into the twenty-first century. He has spearheaded the campaign against the "Wal-Marting" of jobs and has innovated transformative solutions to the daunting problems facing Americans, from job insecurity to runaway health care costs. In this powerful critique and call-to-arms, he offers a revelatory dissection of the gathering threats to our standard of living -- threats that our politicians have failed utterly to address -- and he puts forth a bold, unassailable plan for making vital reforms.

In his eye-opening diagnosis that makes the urgency of the threats vividly clear, Stern shows that Americans are contending with the most disruptive economic upheaval in the world economy since the Industrial Revolution. Yet, in the face of this daunting challenge, the American system simply isn't working well enough for most of us. Stern powerfully portrays how with the pace of globalization relentlessly quickening, the competitive pressures on our jobs and quality of life are heating up even more, especially as housing, health care, and oil prices skyrocket. While CEO salaries soar and business and the wealthy are handed plentiful tax shelters, the incomes of both white-collar and blue-collar workers stagnate, leaving most Americans struggling to pay off ever-escalating debt, instead of saving for retirement. The plain fact is that our system is out of whack, serving the interests of the top sliver of the most wealthy while putting the squeeze on the rest of us.

Meanwhile, our politicians irresponsibly sidestep the crucial solutions that we so desperately need in order to make sure Americans can move into the twenty-first century with their futures secure. As Stern so persuasively shows, it is time for bold thinking and creative solutions to overhaul a health care system in crisis; correct a tax system rigged in favor of business and the wealthy; revamp our inadequate retirement system; and make truly innovative improvements in education. He presents a set of course-correction reforms so compelling, simple, and achievable that readers will find themselves enraged that they haven't yet been enacted. Americans have a right to expect our government to work for us. Andy Stern shows how we can get things back on track to make sure it does.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The misleading title of this maverick, clearly argued account from Service Employees International Union (SEIU) president Stern elides the bulk of its contents: he bookends his story with the problem-globalization, a widening income gap and its concomitant crises-and its solutions, but sandwiched in between are several chapters of recent labor history from the vantage point of a key leader. Stern details how he led his union of janitors, home health workers, nurses and other laborers in a split from the AFL-CIO in 2005. According to Stern, this restructuring exemplifies the necessity of revitalizing unions for positive change in America. He's optimistic about the future of unionization in the U.S.: not only does he see membership in the organized labor movement increasing, he casts unions as a major force in implementing sweeping societal reforms. His proposals include altering the regressive Social Security tax to put more burden on high earners (i.e. removing the cap on wages taxed and ending the wage-tax-only), offering universal access to decent health care, implementing guaranteed retirement plans, providing equal access to the Internet and improving public education from pre-K on up. Free market fundamentalists will dismiss Stern's ideas and moderates may not be convinced by his idealism, but he provides an important point of view for organizers and labor historians.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Stern, president of the fastest-growing union in the U.S., focuses on those Americans who are a paycheck or two away from crisis. Although he acknowledges the role of globalization, Stern primarily lays the blame for derailed systems to protect Americans in retirement, education, and health care primarily on irresponsible politicians who serve special interests. His model for all Americans' health care is the one provided to the president, 535 members of Congress, and approximately nine million federal employees. He offers his and others' ideas for change, including overhauling our tax system to avoid taxing hard work while taxing wealthy individuals and corporations appropriately, urging significant investment in the Internet, and proposing strategies for education and a new retirement structure. As a major union figure, Stern may be preaching to his own constituents, but he repeats the familiar caution to never underestimate the power of people. He tells us, "You either change and make history or stick to the status quo and become history." Mary Whaley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Free Press (May 20, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743297687
• ISBN-13: 978-0743297684
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,496,224 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Hard Truth, January 9, 2007

By 

James A. Young (Harrisburg, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Country That Works: Getting America Back on Track (Hardcover)

Andy Stern deepens and extends previous efforts to describe and analyze the state of America's -- and, implicitly, the globe's -- socio-economic condition, and he supplies suggestions and proposals meant to remedy the more egregious symptoms of our civilization's decline. Long ago, Stern became the first major American labor leader to point publicly to the need for workers' action at the global level, and he turned heads three years ago with the somewhat heretical suggestion that US labor reconsider its monogamous relationship with the Democratic Party, a frequently unfaithful partner. For those who favor social change, A Country That Works provides a thoughtful overview and myriad leads toward a better future for all.

20 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clear and compelling, October 8, 2006

By 

Kerry Trueman "Kat" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Country That Works: Getting America Back on Track (Hardcover)

This book spells out in a clear and compelling fashion the challenges that American workers face in our global economy, and what can be done to stop the American dream from disintegrating any further.

You may think of unions as a quaint, irrelevant relic of a bygone era, or perhaps you see them as a blight on business. After you read this book, you'll understand how Stern's progressive union, the SEIU, has the potential to be a real force for good, not just for workers, but for employers and the country as a whole.

The best thing about Stern's book is that it doesn't just describe all the problems plaguing American workers, it offers innovative solutions from a union leader who is, on the one hand, willing to reach out to CEO's and conservatives, while also taking on Wal-Mart and other corporations who shortchange their own employees to boost their bottom line. Stern's even traveled to China five times to get a handle on our competition and how best to handle it.

I got to hear Stern speak at a book party for A Country That Works the other night, and he spoke so passionately and persuasively that I decided I really had to get a second copy of his book to give my dad, who's always held an anti-union bias. Unfortunately, Stern did such a great job pitching his ideas that they sold the forty copies of A Country That Works his publisher had provided before I could get my hands on one. Looks like my dad will have to settle for an unsigned copy!

18 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you like your country, read this book!, October 22, 2006

By 

helen MciKeever (Memphis, Tenn) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Country That Works: Getting America Back on Track (Hardcover)

After a long period of corruption, arrogance and distain for American values and American working people, a new generation of leaders is beginning to emerge...fresh voices with solid ideas and much to say to the Amerian people. The author of this book is one of them and he is inspriring the younger generations. Read this to understand how and why! A must read! Those who favor the status quo won't like it at all..those who are more optimistic will love it.