Short description:

First published in 1983, Recapitalizing America (now with a new preface by Donald Tomaskovic-Devey) identifies, criticizes and offers alternatives to accepted wisdoms of recapitalization, whose variants include not only Reaganomics and Thatcherism but also less rigid neo-liberal and liberal policy proposals likely to supplant them.

Long description:

First published in 1983, Recapitalizing America (now with a new preface by Donald Tomaskovic-Devey) identifies, criticizes, and offers alternatives to the accepted wisdoms of recapitalization, whose variants include not only Reaganomics and Thatcherism but also the less rigid neo-liberal and even liberal policy proposals likely to supplant them. The authors do not want simply to restore the Keynesian welfare state liberalism of the past, but to change and build beyond it.

If the economic ideology of pro-business recapitalization is productivity, the social ideology is the deliberate widening of inequalities and the legitimation of the inegalitarian trends. In opposition to this erosion of support for greater equality, Miller and Tomaskovic-Devey first expose the faulty economic analysis of recapitalization and then propose an alternative economics and politics which are grounded in a commitment to social justice. More specifically, they argue that high-technology jobs cannot solve the problem of unemployment, that the U.S. does not suffer from low investment but from the inappropriate use of capital funds, and that higher productivity is no panacea for the complex problems of the American economy. Their prescriptions include a more effective allocation of capital coupled with a realistic assessment of the difficulties faced by democratic planning, advocacy of employment as the social policy, and the recognition that a more caring society depends not only on legislation and administration but more fundamentally on the concern of one citizen for another.

Reviews of the first publication:

?With the continuing erosion of jobs and economic security in the U.S., the call for some sort of ?industrial policy? is coming from many quarters. Miller and Tomaskovic-Devey provide us with a serious critique of plans that seek new incentives to recapitalize private industry, and in their place argue for public investment and democratic planning. This book should be read by anyone who worries about the fate of our economy and what might be done about it.?

? Barry Bluestone, Boston College, USA

?Miller and Tomaskovic-Devey provide a hard-hitting critique of the current array of patent remedies for curing the ailing American economy. More than that, they make an important beginning in sketching a progressive economic and social program for the 1980s and beyond.?

? Frances Fox Piven, City University of New York, USA

Table of Contents:

Part One: Misunderstanding America  1. Accepted wisdoms  2. The Great Transformation  3. International trade: the real British Disease?  4. Productivity: producing confusion  5. Investment panacea  6. Can recapitalization provide the jobs?  Part Two: Moving beyond Reaganism and liberalism  7. Old beginnings: contradictions and tensions in bureaucratic liberalism  8. Progressive departures  9. Breaking political boundaries