The Good Life and Its Discontents: The American Dream in the Age of Entitlement

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Synopsis
A New York Times Business Book Bestseller. "Shrewd and optimistic... [The Good Life and Its Discontents] combines first-rate analysis with persuasive historical, political and sociological insights."--The New Republic. Today Americans are wealthier, healthier, and live longer than at any previous time in our history. As a society, we have never had it so good. Yet, paradoxically, many of us have never felt so bad. For, as Robert J. Samuelson observes in this visionary book, our country suffers from a national sense of entitlement--a feeling that someone, whether Big Business or Big Government, should guarantee us secure jobs, rising living standards, social harmony, and personal fulfillment.In The Good Life and Its Discontents, Samuelson, a national columnist for Newsweek and the Washington Post, links our rising expectations with our belief in a post-Cold War vision of an American utopia. Using history, economics, and psychology, he exposes the hubris of economists and corporate managers and indicts a government that promises too much to too many constituencies. Like David Reisman's The Lonely Crowd and John Kenneth Galbraith's The Affluent Society, the result is a book that defines its time--and that is sure to shape the national debate for years to come. "A smart, balanced epitaph for an era--with a few clues for what's ahead."--Business Week. "Lucid [and] nonsectarian... Samuelson traces how the reasonable demand for progress has given way to the excessive demand for perfection."--The New York Times.
Copyright:
1997

Book Details

Book Quality:
Publisher Quality
ISBN-13:
9780307758804
Related ISBNs:
9780679781523
Publisher:
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Date of Addition:
Copyrighted By:
Robert J. Samuelson
Adult content:
No
Language:
English
Has Image Descriptions:
No
Categories:
History, Nonfiction, Business and Finance
Submitted By:
Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:
This is a copyrighted book.

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