The Next Progressive Era: A Blueprint for Broad Prosperity [Hardcover]

Phillip Longman (Author), Ray Boshara (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2, 2009

Progressives 100 years ago were deeply concerned about vast income inequalities, concentrated corporate power, a weak labor movement, high immigration rates, threats to small-scale producers and retailers, middle-class debt levels, environmental degradation and unsafe food, terrorism, religious fundamentalism, and the deteriorating quality of family life. Sound familiar? The Progressive Era changed America profoundly, and this book argues that modern-day progressives must return to their roots by protecting families (rather than individuals) from the social and environmental ravages of global capital. In doing so, they should also stress the importance of wide-scale ownership of propertyincluding both real estate and secure financial assetsboth to reduce inequalities of wealth and to save more Americans from what the original progressives recognized as "wage slavery."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Longman and Boshara, both of the think tank the New America Foundation, tackle the most worrisome of American early 21st-century problems: environmental preservation, exurbanization and car culture, the country's uneven health-care system and the debt and credit crises. They connect seemingly disparate U.S. social ills: urban sprawl, car-choked highways and the health-care crisis, for example, and they offer policy solutions from the core Progressive ideals of the early 20th century—including the practice of thrift as a road to financial independence. They note a return to yeomanry—their term for Americans' increasing rates of entrepreneurship and independent contract work to escape the wage slavery of working for a large corporation. Calling for stronger, rather than bigger government to regulate big business, they evoke Teddy Roosevelt's assertion that regulation should only give each man as good a chance as possible to develop the qualities he has in him. Despite the subtitle, this is not a lofty blueprint but an astute policy guide, communicating the urgency for reform in health care, banking and transportation without resorting to shrillness or stridency. (Apr.)
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Polipoint Press (April 2, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 098157694X
• ISBN-13: 978-0981576947
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #808,405 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Many good ideas, BUT, May 22, 2010

By 

S. J. Snyder "De gustibus non disputandum" (Various, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Next Progressive Era: A Blueprint for Broad Prosperity (Hardcover)

It's got some definite political philosophy flaws. And, it looks to the wrong political era from the past to fix today's problems.

That said, it's well more than a one-star book; so, to offset another rating, I'm giving this book a 4-star even though it's a more a 3-star in some ways.

The authors are right indeed on the need for a new progressive era, and in most their specific ideas, above all in the area of transportation.

That said, could the same philosophical concepts of progressivism 100 years ago translate to today?

Probably not, and for many reasons.

One, the population is triple of the start of Progressivism, or more.

Two, TR's "muscular Christianity"? Woodrow Wilson's "Wilsonian idealism" (and not-so-ideal racist-based segregation)? Neither one would fit inside today's Democratic Party.

Three, progressivism arose as a response to a vigorous third-party mvement in the latter part of three 19th century. Massive amounts of campaign money have eviscerated such possibilities today. Worse, the authors ignore both the third-party roots of progressivism AND campaign finance issues today.

Fourth, they are trying to fit the modern workforce into a "yeomanry" vice. Rather, especially here, why they're not calling for a New New Deal rather than a New Progressivism is beyond me.

Fifth, despite noting the problems with TR's "muscular Christianity," their yeoman idea seems a bit bound up with the Protestant work ethic.

That said, the authors usually come up with at least decent, if not good or better, answers to the problems they diagnose. But, as noted, they miss a few problems, and that's part of their poor attempt at "translating" Progressivism to today.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read, April 6, 2009

By 

J. Bailey - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Next Progressive Era: A Blueprint for Broad Prosperity (Hardcover)

Drawing on the wisdom of the Progressive Era, the authors recast the insights of this tradition for the 21st century. What emerges is a sensible and inspiring vision of progressive politics for our day.

Among other things, the authors call for a renewed national effort to boost the national savings rate and expand ownership in ways that are realistic, responsible and inclusive. Like earlier progressives, Longman and Boshara understand that excessive concentration of wealth and widening inequality are a threat to both democracy and to real economic development. They also understand, as did earlier progressives, that the development of a strong middle class in this country did not just "happen"; nor was it produced by a purely laissez faire approach to economics. Rather, the middle class was built and supported (at least in part) by public policies and social practices that encouraged, facilitated, and rewarded savings and ownership. It follows that extending the reach of such policies and practices to all--not encouraging ever greater concentrations of wealth--ought to be the goal of public policy going forward. In this era especially, the progressive era of old has something new to teach contemporary progressives (and, for that matter, present day "conservatives.")

Their discussion of the health care crisis is at once disturbing, surprising, and reassuring. It puts the lie to the tired conservative argument that government-run health care is inherently problematic and that market-based solutions are always better than public alternatives. Their proposal for health care reform is so sensible and politically savvy that you will wonder why it has not dominated public debate (perhaps this book will change that?).

Throughout the book, which also includes an important critique of modern day usury and a constructive argument on how to reduce energy consumption), the authors' arguments join insights from the Progressive Era to more recent research in the social sciences (particularly behavioral economics and sociology), medical science, environmental science, as well as to significant debates within public policy circles. While the literature in these areas is often highly technical, Longman and Boshara manage to convey the relevant findings of this research in ways that are intelligible, interesting, even entertaining.

The end result is a clear, insightful, and creative argument that is a pleasure to read. Anyone who cares about our current economic and social problems and is interested in realistic proposals about what to do about them, should read this book. Highly recommended.

6 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The VA as the healthcare ideal???, June 18, 2009

By 

Kendal B. Hunter (Provo, UT United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Next Progressive Era: A Blueprint for Broad Prosperity (Hardcover)

POP QUIZ!

"X signed a proclamation assuming control of railroads on behalf of the people of Y" (158)

Who was X, and which country was Y?

*

This is an idea book, specifically about renewing and restoring the ideal of the Progressive Era. (American Progressivism: A Reader)

Its twelve chapters are divided into four parts: 1-2 and 12 focuses on Progressive ideals and yeomanry (look it up!). Three through six deal with finance and economics, 7 and 8 focus on healthcare, and 9 through 11 focus on transportation. The last chapter is a summarizing clarion call.

Like Newt Gingrich's idea books (Real Change: The Fight for America's Future and Winning the Future: A 21st Century Contract with America), we get a smattering of principles, an elucidation of the problem, highlighted absurdities, and then suggestion for resolution by legislation.

For example, the bullet-list on 112 through 114 focus on such things as reverse toll for cyclists, free government vegetables, elimination of free parking areas in cities, a junk food tax (Ronald McDonald=Joe Camel), and legalizing THC (marijuana) patches.

But this list also underscores the logical and philosophical problem of the book. Yeomanry is incompatible with intrusive government; a rugged individualist and a fussy Mommy State cannot mix. "Soft paternalism" (89) ultimately leads to a hard, and even hard-fisted paternalism (or a Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Change).

This is more than a bait and switch. It is a logical, and therefore systematic flaw which dooms the idea. If the government hands out free vegetables, who grows them, who pays for them, and what do we do in case of crop failure?

The healthcare chapters celebrate the VA as the healthcare ideal.

Touché!

In Chapter 6, titled "Financial Independence," the authors suggest an American Stakeholders Account. This is a savings account with a $500 nest egg, matching funds, and a cap at $2,000 per year.

It sounds good, but the catch is that "all Americans ... would be compelled--with no opting out--to contribute 2 percent of their earnings to stakeholder accounts." (93)

*Compelled.*

*No opting out.*

Is the idealized Yeoman really in control? Or is it the meddling Mommy State? This is the core issue--who controls your life? And what punishments will follow if we do not conform?

The sad thing is that right now any parent can walk into any bank or credit union, and set up a savings account for himself or his children--all done without any government coercion.

Furthermore, what is there to stop Congress from raiding these ASA funds, as the have already done with Social Security?

Behind the "soft paternalism" of the Mommy State (mixed metaphor intended), is the idea of rights. This is where the book becomes dangerously flawed. They write:

"Today's progressives reject appeals to divine right, natural law, or custom and point to the Constitution as the loadstone from which new individual and minority rights can be extracted." (12)

That one sentence is dense with flaws:

* Not based on custom? But the The Constitution of the United States of America, with the Bill of Rights and all of the Amendments;: The Declaration of Independence; and the Articles of Confederation is itself codified custom, based on the customs of Great Britain, with additional innovations.

* Rights are not extracted, like a dentist extracting diseased teeth, but are discovered over time by rational thought. They are inherent and unalienable.

* Individuals and minorities are not separate. Minorities are individuals, and the individual is the smallest minority--a minority of one.

* If rights are just agreed upon by the current powerbrokers or the current bill of rights, then they are merely a matter of public opinion.

So this book is not about a yeoman ideal, but the ideal of serfdom or the status of some chessboard pawn. This brings us full circle to the pop quiz, "X signed a proclamation assuming control of railroads on behalf of the people of Y." No, they were not describing Lenin, Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler, Castro or Hugo Chavez.

It was President Woodrow Wilson. (Woodrow Wilson and the Roots of Modern Liberalism (American Intellectual Culture))

This is the danger of the book. Yes there are problems out there. Yes, action needs to be taken. But action can easy be taken by free individuals with preexisting institutions, and that with out government coercion. This can be done by flesh and blood parents, with no need to involve the iron-fisted Leviathan. (Leviathan (Philosophical Classics))

We all know people who cannot help themselves, but there is danger in defining things to lowest common denomination. Thomas Sowell, in The Quest for Cosmic Justice, points out that trying to solve everyone's problem, to make everything fair, to have government fuss about like an over-conscientious kindergarten teacher, ultimately will lead to the undoing of the county.

A new Progressive Revolution with entail the undoing of the American Revolution.