How Are You Going to Pay for That?: Smart Answers to the Dumbest Question in Politics

Description

A compelling alternative view of the relationship between our politics and our economy. Throughout America, structural problems are getting worse. Economic inequality is near Gilded Age heights, the healthcare system is a mess, and the climate crisis continues to grow. Yet most ambitious policy proposals that might fix these calamities are dismissed as wastefully expensive by default. From the kitchen table to Congress, debates are punctuated with a familiar refrain: “How are you going to pay for that?” This question is designed to shut down policy pushes up front, minimizing any interference with the free market. It comes from neoliberalism, an economic ideology that has overtaken both parties. Proponents insist that markets are naturally-occurring and apolitical—and that too much manipulation of the economy will make our society fall apart. Ryan Cooper argues that our society already is falling apart, and the logically preposterous views of neoliberalism are to blame. Most progressives understand this instinctively, but many lack the background knowledge to make effective economic counterarguments. How Are You Going To Pay For That? is filled with engaging discussions and detailed strategies that policymakers and citizens alike can use to assail even the most entrenched lines of neoliberal logic, and start to undo these long-held misconceptions. Equal parts economic theory, history, and political polemic, this is an essential roadmap for winning the key battles to come. Title Page Copyright Notice Dedication Introduction Part I: How a Wildly False Economic Ideology Conquered American Politics Chapter 1. A History of a Self-Immolating Idea Chapter 2. Collective Economics Chapter 3. How Neo-Propertarianism Conquered the World Chapter 4. Casting the False Prophets of Growth Out of the Economic Temple Chapter 5. Social Growth Part II: Making America Great for the First Time Chapter 6. The Broken American Labor System Chapter 7. The Hell of American Healthcare Chapter 8. The Social Climate Chapter 9. Inequality, Explained Chapter 10. A New Collective American Freedom Chapter 11. How to Argue with propertarians Acknowledgments Notes Notes: Introduction Notes 1 Notes 2 Notes 3 Notes 4 Notes 5 Notes 6 Notes 7 Notes 8 Notes 9 Notes 10 Notes 11 Index About the Author Newsletter Sign-up Copyright