Introduction
Over the past decade or so, I have been researching changes in American capitalism and their consequences for our society over the past fifty years. During that time, we have seen the creation of a billionaire class and, simultaneously, a serious flattening in the real incomes of the vast majority of Americans. For the majority, life is now characterized by an intensification and broadening of insecurities produced by the economy.
Building on this research and many blog posts on AmericanDelusions.com, I have been working on a book with the working title, The Heist: how the rich and corporations stole the American dream and how we can take it back. This summary is partly an exercise for me to determine if I can distill my arguments down to their minimal core elements. I also hope that it will act as a simplified introduction to the fifty years of change and its causes.
Poke around as you will, but this summary is really an ordered list of ideas and information, each building on what precedes. So, I strongly suggest reading them in the order presented.
The citations for the statistics and other ideas here are found as footnotes in the book. There is also an extensive bibliography as well as suggested readings for each chapter.
