Examining the "American Dream" and the vision of America as "the land of opportunity", this text measures the ideal against the reality, calculating exactly how much opportunity is available relative to the number of households reliant on it. This measure reveals that even in the 1960s opportunity was drying up, and in the late-20th century, nearly a quarter of American families cannot find adequate work. The author of this study shows how this happened, and how the signs have been constantly misread, manipulated or ignored by American leaders. He demonstrates that neither global competition nor governmental interference are the real culprits. Americans still share the belief that all American citizens should be able to sustain themselves, their families and communities decently. This book reveals how the American Dream might become reality again.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Schwarz (political science, Univ. of Arizona, Tucson) presents a lucid and engaging argument that the current "healthy" economy falls seriously short in providing opportunity for all citizens to achieve a decent life?the author's "moral bottom line." The book extends his previous analysis of working poverty with Thomas J. Volgy in The Forgotten Americans (LJ 9/15/92) and draws on the historic benefits of government spending he demonstrated in America's Hidden Success (Norton, 1988. rev. ed.). A significant contribution is the historical background that puts government economic involvement into the context of the political philosophy of the nation's founders. The author notes that the traditional American ethic of hard work, honesty, and persistence is sustainable only in the presence of opportunity that allows the virtuous to attain a rising, if modest, standard of living. He also persuasively criticizes current government calculations of unemployment and poverty. Highly recommended for all libraries.?Paula Dempsey, Loyola Univ., Chicago
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
An academic's arresting appraisal of what he deems a serious lack of employment opportunity in a booming domestic economy. Drawing mainly on statistical data, Schwarz (coauthor of The Forgotten Americans, 1992, etc.) makes a persuasive case for the proposition that there's a serious shortage in the US of adequate jobs--defined as full-time, year-round positions that provide base- line compensation or better (at least $7.60 per hour in 1994 dollars). All told, he concludes, the gross deficit of jobs that pay an adequate (i.e., living) wage aggregates 15.7 million. In the author's book, this shortfall puts paid to any comforting notion that America is a land of opportunity in which the industrious can get ahead and provide their families with basic necessities (which include medical care and recreation). He goes on to note that breadwinners who can't make ends meet are neither unskilled nor uneducated; indeed, two-thirds are high-school graduates and one- third have at least some college. Arguing that an affluent society owes its working poor a helping hand, Schwarz (Political Science/Univ. of Arizona) proposes a series of government actions to offset the economy's persistent inability to generate enough good jobs and make the needy employed minimally self-sufficient. Among other initiatives, he recommends: indexing the minimum wage so it could not fall below 47 percent of the average pay of nonsupervisory personnel; expanding earned-income tax credits on a sliding scale; subsidizing private enterprises that allocate profits to creating new jobs at above-average rates; enhancing employment opportunity in the public sector; providing health-care coverage to the working poor; and establishing apprenticeship programs. The author also offers suggestions as to how these efforts might be underwritten. A timely reminder that the blessings of America's good times remain unequally distributed. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The limits of the free-market to provide opportunity,
By A Customer
This review is from: Illusions of Opportunity: The American Dream in Question (Hardcover)
In a time of ongoing reports of historically low "unemployment rates" this book offers an important corrective. Schwarz shows just how unhelpful our typical figures for unemployment are, and he makes a persuasive argument for the importance of focusing as a nation on the need to provide jobs that actually pay a living wage. The initial chapters may be a bit tough going, as he argues that provision of adequate opportunity has been a central part of the founding fathers' vision for America. But the latter chapters make clear just how short of this vision we have fallen. Schwarz shows that for a large number of Americans it does not matter if you have the skills, are kicked off of welfare, or are willing to work hard -- beyond a certain point our economy simply does not have the jobs for millions of adult Americans who need them. Some readers may balk at his proposals for addressing this problem, but this book may help all involved in the debate take the issue of actual vocational opportunity more seriously. This is the most important book on public policy that I have read in several years. David Carr, Columbus, Ohio
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Never got its due,
By not a natural "Bob Bickel" (huntington, west virginia United States) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE)
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This review is from: Illusions of Opportunity: The American Dream in Question (Hardcover)
This is a remarkably good book which has become even more timely since it was published twelve years ago. Sadly, it has never gotten the attention it is due.
Schwartz's thesis is that the primary problem with the American economy is, and has long been, failure to create an adequate number of reasonably lucrative occupational opportunities. Those who commonly resort to victim-blaming in discussions of the decline of the middle class and reduction of the working class to the working poor are skillfully cut short through invocation of James Madison's thesis of economic competency. According to Madison, the survival of any society depends, in the long run, on providing the means whereby hardworking people can make a living for themselves and their families. Otherwise, what is society for? Anyone familiar with the relentless and unsubstantiated attacks on public education, and the dismissal of most families as willfully dysfunctional will find a compelling response in Schwartz's book: social and economic decline are not due to deficient schools or ineffective families, but to the opportunity-poor macro-structure in which these institutions are located. To closely paraphrase Schwartz, no society survives on incantations alone, so the common claim that "you can make it if you really want to" can reasonably be construed as a rhetorical precursor to the demise of American society. Illusions of Opportunity provides us with compelling evidence that the most useful books sometimes go largely unread.
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