The Conscience of a Liberal: Difference between revisions

▲The book is a history of wealth and income gaps in the US in the 20th century. The book documents that the gap between rich and poor declined greatly in mid-century—he referrs to this as the "Great Compression"—then widened in the last two decades to levels higher than those in the 1920s. Most economists—including Krugman himself—have regarded the late 20th century divergence as resulting largely from changes in technology and trade, but now Krugman writes—particularly in Chapters 1, 3, and 4—that ''government policies''—particularly the establishment of, and subsequent attacks on, the [[social safety net]] or "[[welfare state]]"—has played a much greater role both in reducing the gap in the 1930s through 1970s, and in widening it in the 1980s through the present.

▲He talks about the history of American [[conservatism]], both, in Chapter 2, pre-[[New Deal]] conservatism—dominating the period between the [[American Civil War]] and the [[Great Depression]] (which he calls the "Long [[Gilded Age]]")—and, in Chapter 6, modern-day "[[movement conservatism]]";—he argues—particularly in Chapters 5, 6, and 9—that the subtle exploitation by movement conservatives of racial and cultural resentments through small-government rhetoric (see "[[dog-whistle politics]]") and of national security-fears were key in the movement's ability to win national elections—even though its policies concentrating wealth at the top should be deeply unpopular. He talks extensively, in Chapter 6, about [[William F. Buckley, Jr.]]'s, [[Irving Kristol]]'s and [[Ronald Reagan]]'s role in building the movement—and, in Chapters 7 and 8, about the role of "institutions [particularly [[labor unions]]] and norms [particularly corporate policy]"—visa vi government policy—in increasing or decreasing economic inequality. He rebukes the [[George W. Bush]] administration for policies that were currently widening the gap between the rich and poor.

▲Nevertheless, Krugman expresses optimism in Chapter 10 that demographic trends—particulary on race and culture—and what he sees as conservative overreach during the Bush years—are creating a new [[liberalism|center-left]] political environment and are slowly undermining the conservative movement. (He references [[John Judis]] and [[Ruy Texeira]]'s book, ''[[The Emerging Democratic Majority]]''.) Krugman proposes, in Chapters 11 and 12, that [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrats]] propose a "new [[New Deal]]", which includes placing more emphasis on social and medical programs—particularly [[universal health care]]—and less on national defense.<ref>Oct 17 2007- Krugman [http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/17/1352236 On Healthcare, Tax Cuts, Social Security, the Mortgage Crisis and Alan Greenspan], in response to [[Alan Greenspan]]'s [http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/24/1412226 Sept 24 appearance] with [[Naomi Klein]] on ''[[Democracy Now!]]''</ref>

▲Finally, in Chapter 13, he talks about what it means to be a "[[liberal (politics)|liberal]]", about the rise in new progressive organizations—which, unlike conservative [[think tanks]], publications and other organizations, are actually more ''de-''centralized and independent-thinking,—and how many more people appear to support "liberal" ''policies'' than are prepared to use that ''word'' to describe themselves.

▲==Reviews and Critiques==

▲==Related Information==

▲''The Conscience of a Liberal'' is also the title of Paul Krugman's economics and politics [[blog]], hosted by the ''[[New York Times]]'' since 2005.<ref>Paul Krugman:[http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2005/09/17/welcome/ Welcome],''The Conscience of a Liberal'',September 17, 2005</ref>