Ganesh Sitaraman > Quotes

“There can be no real political democracy unless there is something approaching an economic democracy,” he wrote. “There can be neither political nor industrial democracy unless people are reasonably well-to-do, and also reasonably able to achieve the difficult task of self-mastery.”17 The progressives wanted mastery over the”
― Ganesh Sitaraman, The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution: Why Economic Inequality Threatens Our Republic

“pass across virtually all areas of public policy. As Frederick Winslow Taylor’s principles of scientific management gained traction, progressives began to see expertise and a professional civil service as a way to insulate policy making from corruption. During Roosevelt’s time, the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act (both passed in 1906) created federal regulation of food and pharmaceuticals. Throughout the twentieth century, federal regulation would become the dominant model in a variety of areas. Aviation, occupational safety, consumer products, clean water, clean air, hazardous materials—all are areas in which the national government regulates markets to protect the public from the misuse of corporate power and to advance the public interest. Roosevelt’s incorporation law simply applied”
― Ganesh Sitaraman, The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution: Why Economic Inequality Threatens Our Republic

“to be middle class means that you have enough spending money to provide for yourself and your family without living hand to mouth,”
― Ganesh Sitaraman, The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution: Why Economic Inequality Threatens Our Republic

“The same man who tells you that he does not want to see the government interfere in business,” he said, “is the first to go to Washington and ask the government for a prohibitory tariff on his product.” And when “things go bad enough,” he will “go with equal speed to the United States government and ask for a loan.” The problem,”
― Ganesh Sitaraman, The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution: Why Economic Inequality Threatens Our Republic

“tended to be regarded as either an individual or a racial problem rather than a structural one.”347 There was simply no appetite—or popular energy—for such a bold reform. The labor reform bill was an even bigger surprise. Organizations that Powell hoped would use political power “aggressively and with determination”
― Ganesh Sitaraman, The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution: Why Economic Inequality Threatens Our Republic