Publishers Weekly
06/13/2022
In this data-driven analysis, NYU business professor Galloway (Post Corona) charts rises in economic inequality, political partisanship, and social alienation since the 1980s. Contending that Ronald Reagan’s tax and budget cuts boosted the economy but suppressed social mobility, Galloway uses graphs, pie charts, and other visuals to illustrate the stark divide in wage growth between the top 1% of American workers and the rest, the declines in infrastructure spending that have left 45% of Americans without access to public transportation, and the sharp increase—from 5% to more than half—of corporate profits registered in foreign tax havens. On the flip side, he presents data documenting how U.S.-led globalization efforts over the past 40 years have decreased global poverty and infant mortality rates. The picture that emerges is one of accelerating domestic decline, as Reagan’s ethos of “rugged individualism” has morphed into “idolatry of innovators” while fostering intolerance and distrust in government. There’s a distinct randomness to the information presented—“teeth grinding & clenching” were up 71% in 2021, while Gen Zers unlocked their smartphones 79 times per day in 2018—and some of the graphs feel more obligatory than edifying, but Galloway diagnoses a wide range of social ills. Readers will find much food for thought. (Sept.)
Kirkus Reviews
2022-06-16
We have captains aplenty and loads of technology—and yet, writes entrepreneur and NYU marketing professor Galloway, the ship of state is lost at sea.
A little of the “adrift” metaphor goes a long way, but the author makes good points. For example, we all have powerful computers in our pockets, yet we fail to forge connections that advance the interests of the commonwealth. Moreover, although Galloway is intent on proving his thesis with meaningful numbers, we don’t seem to be capable of fixing major problems: the fact, for instance, that in 1966, “the U.S. committed 2.5% of its potential GDP to infrastructure development,” whereas today the number is 1.3%. Furthermore, “about 1 in every 5 U.S. roads is in poor condition. Forty-five percent of Americans do not have access to public transit. A water main break occurs every two minutes.” Meanwhile, the number of workers in the financial sector who populate the ranks of the ultrawealthy has doubled in the past four decades, and most of them know how to skirt tax laws. Corporate profits are more than double the percentage of employee compensation, while Jeff Bezos’ and Elon Musk’s space adventures occupy far more eyeballs on the TV news than the far more significant climate crisis. Everywhere the reader turns in Galloway’s book, there’s frightening news that promises to grow worse. In a supremely timely turn, for instance, he links mass murder—“a uniquely male crime” committed by “bored young men without any pathway to economic security”—to the general hopelessness of the era. Marriage rates are down, education for minority citizens lags far behind that for Whites, inequality grows, and wages continue to fall. All the points made by the author’s tables and graphs—“visuals that strike a chord and inspire action”—point to a maddeningly visible but unacted-on dissolution of the republic.
A dispiriting though deeply meaningful tour of bad-news numbers that mark a frightful national decline.
