Endangered American Dream [Hardcover]

Edward N. Luttwak (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 14, 1993

Indicting U.S. political and economic systems, the author proposes a master plan for becoming an economic superpower with staying power in the changing world economy. By the author of The Pentagon and the Art of War. 35,000 first printing. National ad/promo.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Surveying the country's increasing numbers of working poor, the decline in our living standards, mounting federal and personal debt and a work force that is becoming lax and ill-equipped for employment, Luttwak predicts that the United States could become "a Third World country" by the year 2020. This powerful, tough-minded, alarming report combines a slashing analysis of the nation's economic and social ills with a decidedly mixed batch of prescribed remedies. Luttwak, a director of Georgetown University's Center for Strategic and International Studies, suggests abolishing corporate and Social Security taxes and replacing them with a value-added tax on goods and services. This, he claims, would encourage corporations to save and invest while alleviating "the central problem of the U.S. economy: overconsumption." He also calls for the creation of a federal office for industrial policy; restrictions on immigration and on free trade; investment in plants, research and infrastructure; and allocation of federal money to those school districts that get proven results.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Having made a name for himself as a military sage, Luttwak (Strategy, 1987, etc.) now turns his attention to geoeconomics--the battleground on which, he asserts, a self-defeating US must best commercial rivals if it's to thrive in the wake of the USSR's collapse. In his wide-ranging, alarmist overview, the author argues that America is on the decline toward Third World status--citing a downward slide in domestic wage scales; measurable drops in living standards; ongoing job losses in major industries (owing to the transfer of advanced technologies); urban decay; spiraling debt burdens; inadequate savings rates; and a persistent failure to invest in capital goods, infrastructure, research, or people. In the meantime, Luttwak warns, an unfortunate trend to unfettered individualism (driven to a great extent by misguided concessions to cultural diversity in schools, the workplace, and other venues) has undermined the nation's unity and, hence, its capacity to compete in global markets. Following his worst-case diagnosis of what ails the body politic, the author prescribes some strong medicine: e.g., he commends vocational as well as academic education (with uniform countrywide standards), value-added taxation (to curb excessive consumption), and a formal industrial policy that enables the US government to support American business (rather than the ad hoc practices that currently preclude effective action). Now that the cold war's end has all but eliminated the nation's need to propitiate erstwhile allies, the US can no longer afford to pay even lip service to free-enterprise principles more honored in the breach than the observance, Luttwak maintains. Indeed, he concludes, America's political leaders must mobilize all available resources for the trade conflicts that will determine economic dominion in the 21st century and beyond. A shrill wake-up call to arms. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (October 14, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671869639
• ISBN-13: 978-0671869632
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,313,748 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Edward N. Luttwak is senior associate (non-resident) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He has served as a consultant to numerous government offices including: the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the National Security Council, the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force. He is the author of numerous books and articles including Strategy and Politics, The Endangered American Dream, and Turbo-Capitalism: Winners and Losers in the Global Economy.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Luttwak's search for Hobbesian economy, July 5, 2005

By 

Vakhtang Makhniashvili "Vakhtang Makhniashvili" (Republic of Georgia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Endangered American Dream (Paperback)

Luttwak's book of early 90's operates within the Hobbesian intuition that a certain type of warfare among divers"us" and "them" is an essential component of history. Far from Fukuyama's picture of ending history, Luttwak suggests that the head wagons of the train of history are going to enter a new space called "geo-economics". In order the United States to avoid "third-worldization", Luttwak suggests, she must mobilize a geo-economic warfare to be waged on a systematic basis. This seemingly counter-Wilsonian suggestion, in fact, is designed as a dialectical counter-balance for possible hot and cold wars among rival subjects of the global market.

Instrumental for the geo-economics is a state-supported research, product development and market penetration - the main equivalents of standard warfare means: fire powder, weapon innovation and military bases on foreign soil.

Luttwak's observations and descriptions of various cases of already operating geo-economical ambush tactics and plain "war zones" in the global market are fascinating. The story of the possible third-worldization of the United State is chilling.

It seems,post 9/11 warfare developments only supplement Luttwak's intuition and point to the need for functional analysis of levels and forms of warfare.

The perspective through which the book engages into the essentials of the post Cold War United States' pragmatics is revealing.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A clarion call to stop decay in its tracks, May 28, 2002

By 

Eric (New London, Connecticut United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Endangered American Dream (Paperback)

Edward N. Luttwak's text does not fit into any traditional political or economic molds. On the one hand he calls for pragmatic, standardized education which will train folks for the rigors of the modern education. He critiques a multicultural agenda which holds that teaching tolerance of other cultures is more important than raising children to be tomorrow's economic leaders. On the other hand, he calls for a value added tax similar to what exists in Europe to encourage savings rather than excessive consumption.

Luttwak's proposals, from tightening security along the US Mexico border to reforming the legal system to curb excessive and frivolous lawsuits, are all viable. The book's only shortcoming is that it comes across as aggressive to the point of being hostile. I certainly agree with much of what he has to say, but I fail to understand why he chooses to employ rhetoric of warfare and belligerence in describing the country's economic situation and the solution. I would much rather see a call for fairness and compassion in economic decisions rather than the belligerance of Luttwak. Still, his book is readable and offers solutions that are highly viable nine years after its publication.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading for the globalization controversy, December 9, 1999

By 

pdever (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Endangered American Dream (Paperback)

This lucid and readable book focuses largely on the reasons (sociopolitical as well as economic) for Japan's phenomenal ascent from a resource-poor, war-ravaged island nation to its premier status today, in contrast to the accelerating decline of the U.S. This is no reactionary us-versus-them rant, as Kirkus might lead you to believe, but an objective analysis of different societies' behavior and priorities, and why we cannot continue to delude ourselves with past glories. The points Luttwak makes are even more relevant now, six years later, as much of the globe falls in thrall of the supranational corporate oligarchy.