The Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer: How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer

by Dean Baker and Dean Baker

Book Overview

In his new book, economist Dean Baker debunks the myth that conservatives favor the market over government intervention. In fact, conservatives rely on a range of "nanny state" policies that ensure... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1411693957
• Release Date: May 2006
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Length: 113 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.3" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Dean Baker socks it to welfare for the wealthy

POW! It takes but 108 pages for economist Dean Baker's THE CONSERVATIVE NANNY STATE: HOW THE WEALTHY USE THE GOVERNMENT TO STAY RICH AND GET RICHER to knock out wealthy self-proclaimed conservatives who are in reality pretty liberal about government spending or intervention - as long as it benefits them. Their actions do not reflect conservative ideology, the book explains, as that is just the mask they wear while they rob the commons blind. WHAP! Chapter 1, "Doctors and Dishwashers: How the Nanny State Creates Good Jobs for Those at the Top." Why do the moneyed interests promote "free trade" when it's a N.A.F.T.A. scheme making American factory employees compete with overseas slave-wage workers but are silent about protectionist measures that reduce the number of foreign doctors entering the United States, where they would compete with American health care professionals - and their fees? BOOM! Chapter 2, "The Workers Are Getting Uppity: Call In the Fed!." The rich don't mind government intervention when it's the Federal Reserve driving down wages of the poor and middle class they employ by increasing interest rates. WHAM! Chapter 3, "The Secret of High C.E.O. Pay and Other Mysteries of the Corporation." While they blather on about how great it would be if the government just left corporations alone, the overpaid hope no one asks, "But isn't the corporation a creation of government?" And crying about "double taxation" on corporations and its employees, they hope no one asks, "What's forcing any company to incorporate? Isn't doing so voluntary?" KA-POW! Chapter 4, "Bill Gates -- Welfare Mom: How Government Patent and Copyright Monopolies Enrich the Rich and Distort the Economy." Patents and copyrights are government-granted monopolies, the opposite of the "free market" the wealthy so bellicosely boast about, so why aren't they demanding the government stop them? OOF! Chapter 5, "Mommy, Joey Owes Me Money: How Bankruptcy Laws are Bailing Out the Rich." If they are dead set against big government, why do the moneyed interests go crying to the government for help collecting on credit defaults? If businesses can't tell a good risk from a bad risk and extend credit to those with insufficient collateral, shouldn't that be their problem? BOP! Chapter 6, "The Rigged Legal Deck: Takings and Torts (The Nanny State Only Gives)." Wealthy self-proclaimed conservatives are all hot on personal responsibility as they belittle families on welfare. But when it comes to owning up to the harm their companies cause, they whine for "tort reform" limits on damages a court may award. Waa! BLAM! Chapter 7, "Small Business Babies." They say increasing minimum wage will hurt small businesses because large corporations don't want to admit they just don't want to pay more to their thousands of minimum wage employees. WHAM-O! Chapter 8, "Taxes: It's Not Your Money." The affluent say people should not pay taxes on capital gains and dividends. They

Baker Cuts Through Public Relations/Media Spin

Dean Baker says much with few words (100 pages) covering Tort Reform, Patenting/Intellectual property rights, Health Care, The Federal Reserve...Check out the table of contents see more topics. Baker's gift is his ability to identify how Public Relations firms/conservative think tanks manipulate opinion to spin agendas which are not in the public interest. My favorite one is "Tort Reform".. Baker points out how Mainstream conservatives push legislation which interfere/discourage citizens from obtaining lawyers. So much for allowing the free association of individuals to form a contract... Many good reviewers for this one. I highly recommend this book.

Concise and powerful

This is a neat little book. Dean Baker is an economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research - a think tank with tons of fresh ideas - and he knows his stuff. He offers his take on issues such as trade agreements, monetary policy, CEO compensation, intellectual property, etc. and with each of these demonstrates how the interests of the rich dominate. For example, proponents of NAFTA support "free trade" for manufacturing goods produced by low skilled workers but oppose free trade in high skill occupations (law, medicine, accountancy, etc.) which leads to a great divergence in the income distribution. In each of the chapters Dean Baker argues clearly and persuasively. Do you want to know what share of private R & D spending in pharmaceuticals goes to unnecessary copycat drugs? Do you want to know why a corporation cannot exist in a truly free market? Do you want to hear why marginal productivity does not determine CEO pay? Get this book.

A 199-page treatise that needs to be read by every economics student

In "The Conservative Nanny State: How The Wealthy Use The Government To Stay Rich And Get Richer", Dan Baker (a macroeconomist and Co-Director for Economic and Policy Research in Washington D.C.) has written a revealing expose on how conservatives favor government intervention to regulate the market to their own advantage. Baker documents and illustrates a number of `nanny state' policies that advantage the wealthy while penalizing the poor, expand the economic well being of those at the top, while diminishing the middle-class and expanding the ranks of the impoverished. The fault does not lay with the market which is simply an economic tool. The fault lays with those who manipulate that tool to unfairly favor those that have to have more, and those who have little, to have even less. Deftly written so as to be fully accessible to scholars and non-specialist general readers alike, "The Conservative Nanny State" is a 199-page treatise that needs to be read by every economics student, every free market capitalist, every elected politician, every corporate manager, and every working citizen in the country.

Emperor's New Clothes-Unmasking the Use of

Dean Baker a PhD. Economist and co-director of the Center for Economic Policy and Research (CEPR) provides a brilliant, evidence-based, iconoclastic deconstruction of the myth that liberals like "Big Government" and conservatives favor the "Free Market". He documents the importance of government intervention on behalf of the rich and powerful in most of the important sectors of the economy. Covering such diverse areas as immigration policy, patient (monopoly) law, "Free" trade agreements, bankruptcy law, and Federal Reserve policy, Baker clearly demonstrates how these policies operate in the background (below the radar of public perception) to decidedly advance the class interests of the already powerful. If you carefully examine his arguments you will be less likely to fall into the trap of believing the only way to advance a progressive agenda is through major government spending (not that he is opposed to this in principle). Several market-based solutions which powerfully elucidate the current bias against working class people are thoughtfully juxtaposed to policies which would be class neutral or enhance the well-being of the more vulnerable segments of society if they were to be implemented. Finally, Dr. Baker walks the walk and has made his complete book available as a free download which can be found at the following web address: [...]. Given the economical cost of buying the book in paperback, you should strongly consider purchasing on line as it represents a valuable addition to the expanding body of literature to assail the growing economic divide. The practical solutions advanced in this book make it an important read for both activists and scholars willing to take an honest look at current economic policy.