The Betrayal of the American Dream

by Donald L. Barlett, James B. Steele

America’s unique prosperity is based on its creation of a middle class. In the twentieth century, that middle class provided the workforce, the educated skills, and the demand that gave life to the world’s greatest consumer economy. It was innovative and dynamic; it eclipsed old imperial systems and colonial archetypes. It gave rise to a dream: that if you worked hard and followed the rules you would prosper in America, and your children would enjoy a better life than yours.
 
The American dream was the lure to gifted immigrants and the birthright opportunity for every American citizen. It is as important a part of the history of the country as the passing of the Bill of Rights, the outcome of the battle of Gettysburg, or the space program. Incredibly, however, for more than thirty years, government and big business in America have conspired to roll back the American dream. What was once accessible to a wide swath of the population is increasingly open only to a privileged few.
 
The story of how the American middle class has been systematically impoverished and its prospects thwarted in favor of a new ruling elite is at the heart of this extraordinarily timely and revealing book, whose devastating findings from two of the finest investigative reporters in the country will leave you astonished and angry.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Economics, History, Audiobook, American History, Sociology

320 pages, Hardcover

First published June 26, 2012

About the author

Donald Leon Barlett was an American investigative journalist and author who often collaborated with James B. Steele. According to The Washington Journalism Review, they were a better investigative reporting team than even Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. Together they won two Pulitzer Prizes, two National Magazine Awards and six George Polk Awards. In addition, they have been recognized by their peers with awards from Investigative Reporters and Editors on five separate occasions. They were known for their reporting technique of delving deep into documents and then, after what could be a long investigative period, interviewing the necessary sources. The duo worked together for over 40 years and is frequently referred to as Barlett and Steele.

Reviews

[Sheryl Sorrentino · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of the most depressing books I have read in a long time. Even if only half of what Barlett and Steele have to say is true, we are seriously screwed.

Being 50 years old, I have seen firsthand what has been happening to the middle class in this country. Barlett and Steele lay out the myriad reasons for this: Tax inequity, job outsourcing, trade imbalances, deregulation, and failure to enforce the laws against the very wealthy and the multinational corporations they control. Rather than living in a flourishing Democracy, we now find ourselves in a country whose wealth gap is widening as the middle class sinks ever deeper into the abyss, and all the while lobbyists and power brokers spin their self-serving policies in such a way as to make them seem good for the country and its working classes!

I found this book a bit taxing to read, not so much because of the sobering subject matter as the authors' reliance on statistics and studies in addition to the many personal vignettes. While this lends a measure of credibility to their assertions, I am generally suspicious of statistics, as they don't tell the complete story and can be skewed to serve one's purposes. For example, the authors speak of the trillions of dollars in home equity obliterated by the recent real estate meltdown. But putting this into perspective, perhaps three-quarters of that so-called "equity" was illusory in the first place, as it was fueled not by any real increase in home values, but by bloated appraisals and "liar loans." Those of us smart enough to realize this (or, should I say, not so greedy or desperate as to jump on the bandwagon of signing onto loans that we knew we could not afford) have been largely spared the worst of this crash. Those less sophisticated and more short-sighted have borne the brunt of it.

Be that as it may, no thinking person can deny that the high unemployment numbers, the squeezing of wages and benefits for those lucky enough to have jobs, the lack of opportunity for recent college graduates, and the push to correct the national deficit at the expense of Medicare and Medicaid, Social Security and unemployment benefits--the only safety nets available to the elderly and those at the bottom rungs of our economic machine--bespeak an alarming attack on the middle class that is showing no signs of relenting. The Betrayal of the American Dream is a brave--if justifiably alarmist--assessment of the sad state of our country and its rigged economic systems. I consider this book required reading if you care anything about the collective future of the "99 percent."

[Earl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Evils of capitalism unchecked. This is not your American capitalists - the pirate barons, John Jacob Astor, Bill Gates, who build an empire by bulldozing all opponents and become obscenely rich. No, this is the new capitalism - multinational corporations + Wall St. + US Congress, the Unholy Trio (my name for them). Author recounts many horror stories of ruined lives and towns due to outsourcing of American jobs and the creation of a 'ruling class' in the US by tax changes since 1950. He does not analyze WHY these changes took place in that time span. My belief is that television changed the election process, making it obscenely expensive, our out-spending of the Russian Bear to make capitalist investment safe overseas and the 'close' relationship Nixon formed for us with China. I think those 3 things made the different atmosphere that allows the re-ordering of American economics.
Finally, at the end of the book, the author presents his prescription for stopping this rape of the middle class: he asks us to ask our political candidates 4 questions (page 263) and elect only those who answer them correctly. What a cop-out. The two parties present us the same tribe of sleazeballs every election. BOTH parties have advocated the rape of the middle class and export of American jobs. Should we be lucky enough to get an idealistic political candidate to vote for, Washington will corrupt our new freshman Congressman within a year. Hollywood shows us the stereotype of these 'Honorables' every time it depicts a politician. I think that stereotype is right on the money. In yesterdays paper some politicos wife lamented the public's jaundiced view of 'those who choose to sacrifice' to enter public life - what a crock!

You can't reform corporations or Wall St. Changing Congress is the only thing that's REMOTELY possible. You don't need to elicit their lying campaign promises to get elected (as the book suggests), what Congress needs is a huge dose of selfless American patriots. My only thought on this is a HUGELY popular third political party that would swamp their rigged system. IF we all got mad enough to somehow make this happen we might roll back time and have a middle class again.

[Debbie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book was both inspiring and depressing. It gives example after example of how our government is not on the side of the middle class and that the American Dream is not what it once was in a previous generation.

In reading this book, you come to realize that our parents have it best, having both Social Security and their pensions. Our generation (those born in the 50s), are in danger of having the pension we worked so hard on taken away from us. Our children have possibly a worse fate. They are not even offered pensions and are told Social Security will only be offered when they are far older.

Assault on the middle class by our government comes by way of higher taxes. Higher taxes by percentage than the elite, wealthy billionaries, who can pay for lobbyist to get their way on bills that protect the very wealthy.

Jobs in America are no longer there, but instead are being taken by those living in India and China, where the very wealthy can get cheap labor. Our government lets other countries import goods into our country while the same countries do not allow us to import goods into their country.
The other countries protect their industries.

Companies, such as Thomasville Furniture, Vise-Grip, Rubbermaid and many others lost their businesses because of our government. Our government does not support our workers and does not support the middle class. Business after business fails so the very rich can get richer.

For all those in the middle class, this book is a must read.

[Public Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

The third book I've read by Bartlett and Steele. I'd recommend their work to anyone. These two do a fantastic job laying out precisely how the rich screw everybody else.

[Hazel Bright · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in 2015 and it still haunts me. Example after example of how the ultrarich and billion dollar corporations are colluding with political insiders globally to squeeze the lifeblood out of everyone who can't fight them. Bartlett and Steele have given us a gift with this book. It's lively, engaging, very well-documented, and in the end, heartbreaking. I hope we listen to them. I suspect that we will not.

[Aaron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absorbing, enraging, clear-eyed, aggressive, eye-opening, tremendous -- everything you want in a book that takes on perhaps the biggest economic catastrophe of our times ... yes, the Great Recession qualifies as that catastrophe, but the systematic evisceration of the American middle class that Barlett and Steele document here was decades in the making and continues apace ... so, frankly, it truly is the long-running (Long Emergency? as JHK might describe it) cataclysmic economic event, with the Great Recession only placing a triple-decker shit sandwich on top of it.

And that's the thing: When something is a long time coming - and when so-called economic and policy leaders say trust us, it'll all trickle down, and their cheerleaders in the media yell, "Yeah! Yeah!" - it's damn hard to see exactly what's coming down the pike. That is, until you're watching bankers and hedge fund managers getting bonuses while Corporate America ships your job off to China or India and you end up settling for a lower wage and maybe no health benefits.

I've ready many books about the economy but few as good as this. It's better, dare I say, than David Cay Johnston's "Perfectly Legal," which documented how the political donor class has rigged our tax system to favor the super-rich. It's better because not only does it show what Johnston showed, but it also makes a very strong case that "free trade" as we know it has off-shored scads of middle-class jobs.

It shows how Congress has failed American workers. It shows how media types like Tom Friedman of the NYT have cheer-leaded "free trade" policies that have gutted American industrial manufacturers and wiped out the good-paying jobs that come with them. This book is replete with stuff that will just floor you. It's that good.

But it will only get worse, Barlett and Steele show, as there is seemingly no political will to change course. To their immense credit, the authors end the book with proposed solutions. If only our "leaders" would listen and act.

[Irus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the most depressing books I have ever read. Truly the "dream," which existed for our grandparents ended with our parents, and only now are we realizing we have been sold a bill of goods. The path the US is on is not sustainable. Eventually the country will collapse upon itself. The president claims the entire world envies us. Really? I'm looking for a way out.

[Sam Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've not read this book in a couple of years, but thought I'd add my commentary now: What really stood out for me in this book was the effect of downsizing and outsourcing on the American people. The disappearance of family-wage jobs, particularly those surrounding manufacturing, is leading to the destruction of the middle class in America.

[Erin]

Heard authors interviewed on NPR's Morning Edition. Sounds like an interesting read.

[Jeanne Andersen · Rating 2 out of 5]

While raising very important and interesting issues, Bartlett's analysis was full of over simplifications, one-sided examples, and sketchy economics.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book explained new reasons for why I should hate the government and it did so successfully. I think I kinda understand taxes now. 5 stars.

[Jeremiah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book made me both extremely angry and quite sad (like my ex-wife). It's an easy read, it isn't very complex or even organized that well, but let me briefly summarize. Multinational corporations and the 99% own America. You don't think so Mr. Smartypants? Well, in 1955 the effective tax rate for the top 400 families was 51.2%. In 2007 it was a jaw dropping 16.6%. Isn't it funny how someone making $400,000 dollars can pay the same tax as someone making $40 million dollars? And isn't it funny how someone who makes $400,000 or 40,000,000 million only pays 14.6% more than someone who makes, say, I dunno... $35,351? I mean, that makes sense and seems pretty reasonable, right?

Nevertheless, our trade policies have wiped out millions of jobs (all outsourced by American multinational companies) and created a staggering trade deficit--the world's largest. Our main trading partners all run trade surpluses (money that goes back into their country's economies) while in 2010 we spent $510 billion more on other people's goods than what they bought from us (for some reason they won't let us import very much into their countries without us paying high tariffs. What silly thinking! I mean who wants to protect their country THAT way?!? Psshhha, like whateva!). Let's have a big hurrah for how great Free Trade is mishandled by our concerned politicians! Oh, and don't forget the 510 billion dollars spent EACH YEAR by us that never comes back into our country! Wait, some of it does... but only as profit into the hands of the 99% who own the multinational companies (Hi, Apple! Luving yr map app on my new iphone! Turn left off of the wharf. Got it, thx Siri! :).

And I bet you don't think buying so many foreign products will hurt the U.S. in the long run? You ever wonder why the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner is having all these problems? Well, over 80% of is made in China (Thanks Boeing! America was getting soooo overcrowded with factories). Good thing we still have all those manufacturing jobs here in America-- Oh wait, in the 1950's manufacturing jobs made up 30% of the workforce, and now in 2000 that number has dropped to 11%. (Thank God our unemployment numbers are holding steady at 7.8% of the 313,000,000 million living here. They say that's only 12 million people out of work! But we all know tons of people who no longer get unemployment insurance and are therefore no longer counted. Hi, Drunkle! -->My drunk uncle.).

And that pesky tax code that all the politicians say we need to simplify? Really? Doesn't everyone use TurboTax? Wait, doesn't 48% of the people not even pay taxes according to Mitt? Why would they need to simplify it? Oh, right... to lower the EXTREMELY HIGH TAXES ON THE RICH even more than they currently are. Got it, my bad! In the 1940's tax on corporate income as a percentage of GDP was at 4.3%. In the 2000's the GDP corporate tax average was 1.9%. Is it fair the Exxon, Boeing, GE and Carnival Cruise Lines (pays a HUGE 1.4% tax) and the 99% (Romney paid a HUGE 13.9%) pay less on their taxes than you and I? Seven out of 10 big corporations operating in America under foreign ownership paid no taxes. As for large corporations owned by U.S. citizens, an astonishing 55 percent reported that they owed no federal income tax. The Cayman Islands, used as tax shelters by corporations, has a population of 53,000 people. Guess how many companies exist there? Yup, only 93,000 companies. Whaaa?? And Bank of America has 59 of them.

The middle class is being sucked dry by multinational corporations and the 99%. You might ask, Why? Because of greed. What about, how? Because they own our government. The late U.S. Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis once said, "We can have concentrated wealth in the hands of a few or we can have democracy. But we cannot have both.". So true.

[David Stephens · Rating 3 out of 5]

In Betrayal of the American Dream, two-time Pulitzer Prize winning journalists Donald L. Bartlett and James B. Steele contend that the middle class has been, and continues to be, hollowed out by a corporate ruling class that is able to buy politicians. They go as far as to say that "We are no longer the democracy we once were. We have become a plutocracy in which the few enact programs that promote their narrow interest at the expense of the many." To back up these assertions, they go through plenty of personal accounts and statistics on the reduction of tax rates on high-income earners, corporate dividends, and capital gains; the dwindling of manufacturing jobs, mostly due to purported free trade policies; the loss of pension funds; and the deregulation of the trucking, airline, and financial industries. And, all one needs to do is see these statistics to know something has gone horribly wrong for the middle class.

In part because I was largely ignorant on this topic, I found the authors' treatment of free trade policies to be the most enlightening portion of the book. They do a good job explaining how policy after policy—under Republican and Democratic Administrations—has only served to deepen the trade deficits since the late 1960s and how America's only remaining export surplus comes from civilian aircraft, which may not last long. They also detail how the U.S. won't respond to the illegal subsidization of exports from China like solar panels because of cries of "protectionism" from free trade purists.

But, while the book does a solid job showing the harmful effects the policies of the ruling class have on the American middle class, it spends much less time on the ruling elites themselves. The authors do point out that there is no one established institution directing the country. Instead they describe the corporate elites as more of an amorphous group: "Lacking a civic or moral compass, it's a peer group without a purpose beyond its own perpetuation with no mission except to wall in the money within its ranks."

What I would have liked to hear more about, though, is a more detailed account of how the ruling class gets its policies implemented. I understand they lobby and contribute enormous amounts to political campaigns, and maybe that's all one needs to know about it, but the book makes it sound incredibly easy to enact extreme policies and manipulate the public into favoring them when I imagine there is at least a little more to it than that.

The other area I was disappointed in was the proposed solutions. Like many books of this kind, the authors end with some remedies to restore the middle class. If you've paid much attention to politics or economics or have read a few of these books before, you've most likely heard their solutions: a more progressive tax rate, taxes on Wall Street transactions, raising tariffs on imports from countries who are subsidizing their goods, investing in infrastructure, and reinstating the rule of law. It's not that the solutions are bad either; I agree with them. It's just that I've been hearing them for years, and they don't seem to be going anywhere. So, maybe they serve as nice reminders of what can be done, but I imagine in the future, books like this will continue to have very similar solutions.

[Stacy Lam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Barlett and Steele’s book has created an emphasis on America’s economy and how it affected the middle class. The authors, as I noticed, like to go straight to the point. There isn’t any sugar coating or anything. Many people still believe in the American Dream, but if they will read this book, then they will understand what goes on behind the scenes that affects their American Dream. Honestly, this is a depressing book as the authors presents how the American Dream’s rules have changed and how people's’ lives are negatively impacted as they struggle to survive. Overall, the message was very clear: Big companies and the wealthier people have the upper hand in the government and they don’t care what happens to the smaller companies.

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

creative distraction vs regs to benefit special interests, Apple benefits few in US, masters of misinformation, cato liberal leanings, trade and taxes and regulations are roots of problem, biased politicians an issue, view of one party continues this trend, education and a false sense of security, destroy the best with liberal thought and extreme debt and terrible interest rate in lieu of min rate, cannot forgive college loan debt while cost of college exploded and largely run by liberals, get manufacturing back and free trade and minimal taxes and get rid of corrupt politicians.

[Jan Schable · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the last 4o years the middle class has suffered as a result of globalization - job loss, low pay, deterioration of benefits and rising housing and health care costs. This book provides an understanding of what corporate greed and the lack of government concern for the average taxpayer has cost all of us.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now out of date, but still respected enough to be assigned last year by Western Oregon University to it's college students and plainly but with good quantifiable basis states reasons US fiscal and social policy was and still is self destructive

[Josie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a requirement for my college class, however I found myself enthralled. While a very depressing read I have become more educated on topics I knew very little about. I think this book is a must read for everybody today, especially before such a big election.

[Mom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seems to be well documented and reasonable interpretation of the loss of the middle class and the rise of the misinformed in th US. Troubling but also reassuring that I'm not crazy or at least not alone in seeing danger for our democracy in Republican policies.

[Bob Colwick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book should have been a slam dunk 5-star review for me; my personal viewpoint on Big Business' history of malfeasance is a moderate version of the author's and I was interested to see how their circa-2012 predictions would look in 2021. While not a wild-eyed fanatic that would blindly gobble up anything on the pages as unassailable truth, I lean towards having a concept of the government increasing accountability for the corporate sector and would be inclined to read a sound investigative novel that digs through reams of existing data so they could show the gems to us buried within.

However, what I found in this book was a "tabloid-light" style of reporting...rapid-fire scare stories, a litany of faulty argument techniques (standing up straw men, anecdotal accounts used to support their industry-wide perspective, etc), and sub-par annotations to back their claims (having an appendix of generalized sources - basically, a vague list of books/articles without related details such as page numbers). While this by itself is frustrating, I feel that the greater loss was taking a legitimate issue and not treating it with the proper level of reporting integrity...I feel most/all of the authors' information was good, but the way in which it was handled cheapened the effect and risks alienating those who don't believe it or are on the fence.

This book would have been more impactful if the number of arguments would have been limited, the reporting would have been more complete, and the analysis would have been more even-handed.

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a depressing read to start the year. Ten years after publication, the problems identified continue, and worsen. After a presidency that ran on promises to save American industry from China, but actually further deregulated industry and reduced taxes for the upperclass, all these problems have only been exacerbated.

Often critical of theories put forth by the book “The World is Flat”, that volume has moved up my TBR list. If my secondhand perception is correct, that bestseller advances education as the cure-all. It will be interesting to see how that holds up for an American family (mine) that immigrated to a social democracy partly as a way to fund 3 university educations. “The Betrayal...” doesn’t hold out much hope that even affordable higher education will move the needle for America’s middle class families.

Overall, this book has confirmed my opinion that the American Dream is alive and well, and available to those who are able to leave the US.

[Mark · Rating 1 out of 5]

Any political writers who can take the Koch brothers to task for their financial impetus for political activism and ignore the very comparable work of George Soros aren't credible enough for me to decide to even finish looking at what they have else to say.

[Matt Speer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and worth the time to read. Not sure I understood everything the authors talked about, as I am no genius… but I would recommend this book and look forward to reading more books by these authors.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is depressing. It's a good accessible read, but not very deep or sophisticated, and that's not a criticism. I wonder how much of what's in the book is what helped to elect Trump.

[Liz Michaels · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
Though this book was written in 2012, it is just as applicable today as then, if not more so.
Every American should read it.

[Werner Neff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book to read about the current situation in the U.S.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite being published in 2012, this book holds up remarkably well. Some information is dated, but the basic argument still holds and the examples are still relevant.

[S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brings attention to so many issues with so much documented evidence but is short on solutions. This country has severe greed issues that are ruining the cou try and conservatives are loving it.

[Jeanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I don't agree with everything in the book, it was good to read about different views and perspectives

[Justin · Rating 3 out of 5]

An effective and well-researched (if depressingly prescient) polemic.