America Beyond Capitalism: Reclaiming Our Wealth, Our Liberty, and Our Democracy2011 edition, with a new introduction by the author and a new foreword by James Gustave Speth As discontent with the economic and political status quo mounts in the wake of the "great recession", America Beyond Capitalism is a book whose time has come. Gar Alperovitz's expert diagnosis of the long-term structural crisis of the American economic and political system is accompanied by detailed, practical answers to the problems we face as a society. Unlike many books that reserve a few pages of a concluding chapter to offer generalized, tentative solutions, Alperovitz marshals years of research into emerging "new economy" strategies to present a comprehensive picture of practical bottom-up efforts currently underway in thousands of communities across the United States. All democratize wealth and empower communities, not corporations: worker-ownership, cooperatives, community land trusts, social enterprises, along with many supporting municipal, state and longer term federal strategies as well. America Beyond Capitalism is a call to arms, an eminently practical roadmap for laying foundations to change a faltering system that increasingly fails to sustain the great American values of equality, liberty and meaningful democracy. Gar Alperovitz is the Lionel R. Bauman Professor of Political Economy at the University of Maryland and co-founder of the Democracy Collaborative. He is the author of numerous books, including Unjust Deserts (with Lew Daly), Making a Place For Community (with Thad Williamson and David Imbroscio), Rebuilding America (with Jeff Faux) and, in connection with foreign policy, Atomic Diplomacy and The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb. |
Contents
Foreword to the Second Edition | v |
Preface to the First Edition | xxxix |
Acknowledgements | xlvii |
The Pluralist Commonwealth | 9 |
Money Time and Real Freedom | 28 |
From the Ground Up | 42 |
Inequality and Giant Corporations | 50 |
Is a Continent Too Large? | 63 |
The Democratization of Wealth and | 119 |
Is Local Democracy Possible in the Global Era? | 125 |
Community the Environment and | 137 |
The Regional Restructuring of the American | 152 |
TwentyFirstCentury Populism | 167 |
Social Security Retirement and Health Care | 182 |
A TwentyFiveHour Week? 18 Beyond SuperElites and Conspicuous | 197 |
TwentyFirstCentury Populism | 226 |
Common terms and phrases
accessed achieve Alaska Permanent Fund Alperovitz American American Prospect Ann Markusen approach assets benefits Brookings Institution Budget Bush Business California CalPERS capital CDCs Center century challenge cities citizens companies conservative corporate costs Democracy democratic ecological economic economist efforts elites Employee Ownership Enron Enterprise environmental ESOPs estimated federal firms fiscal Foundation Gar Alperovitz global greater growth Hispanic Imbroscio important income increase individual inequality institutions investment involved issues labor liberty logic long-term major ment Michael million National NCEO nomic OECD offered organizations Paul Krugman pension funds percent planning Pluralist Commonwealth Policy political political-economic population problems programs projected proposed recent regional retirement revenues Robert roughly Social Security Statistics strategies suggest tion traditional trends trillion U.S. Census Bureau ultimately United University Press Urban Washington Post wealth wealth tax William worker-owned workers York