2013-45 - Pity the Billionaire, by Thomas Frank

45 - Pity the Billionaire, by Thomas Frank
WHY I PICKED IT: Bought it at the Word on the Street Book Fair
ELAPSED TIME: 4 days
RATING: Meh

Thomas Frank asking a very interesting question.   How is it that the economic collapse of the 2008 bring about the resurgence of the conservative right?  And he brings about a few great points:

a) Conservative (corporate) media has focused on economy boosting measures that help the population while ignoring those that bail out large corporations (saying the latter are "necessary").  As such, people's focus has been to say "why should my tax dollars bail out my neighbor who lived beyond their means," rather than ask "why are we keeping the structures that resulted in this type of epic failure?

b)  By lumping all business-people in one bucket, the Tea Party lumps all government oversight into one bucket.  That means the safety and environmental inspectors that oversee large corporations are viewed as negatively as the food inspectors that small business owners do not like.  It's a false comparison, but one that has taken hold.

c) The wealthy within the conservative movement has in fact grouped themselves with the masses, and identified the intelligentsia and the government as "the other."  So rather than the wealthy (who took insane risks to make insane returns) being blamed for economic downfall, it is the educated and the government who feels the wrath.

d) If you limit your research of the 1930s Depression to the internet, then you would believe that it was the government who limited growth.  The numbers, however, do not match that.  FDR's new deal brought about economic growth in terms of GDP that have been the highest in US history (excluding that driven my military action).

With all of these good points (and more), why am I only rating the book as "meh"?  Because it doesn't even think about starting us down a path of how to tackle this preposterous situation, and it's remarkably dry!  It's not written in a manner that is engaging or draws you in.  I do not recommend this book.

I should add that I appreciate how he calls out Obama for turning over the economy to  Wall Street rather than following the approach taken by FDR which was to bail out companies where necessary, and put a lot of money into the economy... but in smaller amounts and in the hands of a broad number of people in a cross-section of industries.  FDR also presided over the implementation of Glass-Steagall Act, which broke up big bangs through the Glass Steagall Act (a law which protected the market from a banking oligopoly, until Clinton repealed it).