The Tyranny of Dead Ideas
Letting Go of the Old Ways of Thinking to Unleash a New Prosperity
-
- $11.99
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
"Offers the most plausible way to renovate our political and policy thinking to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century."—Joe Klein, Time
A leading political and business thinker identifies the greatest threat to our economic future: the things we think we know-but don't.
America is at a crossroads. In the face of global competition and rapid technological change, our economy is about to face its most severe test in nearly a century-one that will make the recent turmoil in the financial system look like a modest setback by comparison. Yet our leaders have failed to prepare us for what lies ahead because they are in the grip of a set of "dead ideas" about how a modern economy should work. They wrongly believe that
- Our kids will earn more than we do
- Free trade is always good, no matter who gets hurt
- Employers should be responsible for health coverage
- Taxes hurt the economy
- Schools are a local matter
- Money follows merit
These ways of thinking-dubious at best and often dead wrong-are on a collision course with economic developments that are irre-versible.
In The Tyranny of Dead Ideas, Matt Miller offers a unique blend of insights from history, psychology, and economics to illuminate where today's destructive conventional wisdom came from and how it holds our country back. He also introduces us to a new way of thinking-what he calls "tomorrow's destined ideas"-that can reinvigorate our economy, our politics, and our day-to-day lives. These destined ideas may seem counterintuitive now, but they will coalesce in the coming years in ways that will transform America.
A strikingly original assessment of our current dilemma and an indispensable guide to our future, Miller's provocative and path-breaking book reveals why it is urgent that we break the tyranny of dead ideas, for it is only by doing so that we can move beyond the limits of today's obsolete debates and reinvent American capitalism and democracy for the twenty-first century.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
If Fortune columnist Miller's eerily prophetic book had come out earlier, it could have served as a wakeup call for Wall Street leaders and Washington, D.C. lawmakers before the failure of several venerable financial institutions required government bailouts. The author's prescient observations make a persuasive case for how an American attitude of entitlement and outdated beliefs about government, education, taxes, business, corporate excess and health care threaten our national well-being and our position as a world leader. The author denounces such cherished and longstanding beliefs as "Your Company Should Take Care of You," and "The Kids Will Earn More than We Do," and examines their historical provenances for example, he traces the adoption of pensions to the early 20th century, when employers like Proctor and Gamble and G.E. "acted as feudal lords" offering benefits to recruit and retain employees strategies that are now strangling these same corporations at the expense of global competitiveness. Rather than a petulant indictment of our political and economic myopia, this book offers a fair-handed critique.