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Jacob S. Hacker Books

2 books·~20 min total read

Hacker is a political scientist and professor at Yale University, known for his research on American political economy and social policy.

Known for: American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper, Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer—and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class

Key Insights from Jacob S. Hacker

1

The Mixed Economy

Every advanced economy is a blend of public and private, but America’s distinctive genius was how it managed that blend. For much of the 20th century, we embraced what we call the mixed economy—a dynamic balance between market competition and government cooperation. Markets generated innovation, dis...

From American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper

2

The Golden Age of Shared Prosperity

From the end of World War II to the early 1970s, America experienced an unprecedented era of widely distributed prosperity. The middle class expanded, wages grew in tandem with productivity, and the social contract seemed solid. This was the golden age of the mixed economy, when bipartisan consensus...

From American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper

3

The Great Divergence

We begin with the unmistakable numbers. By the end of the 1970s, America’s economic landscape began to shift dramatically. The postwar promise—that hard work would translate into upward mobility—started to fracture. The top one percent of earners, who had once taken home a modest portion of national...

From Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer—and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class

4

The Washington Shift

Something remarkable happened in Washington during the last forty years—a fundamental shift in how power operates. The center of gravity moved away from broad public interests toward those who could afford permanent representation in the capital. Lobbying exploded as an industry not of petitioners b...

From Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer—and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class

About Jacob S. Hacker

Hacker is a political scientist and professor at Yale University, known for his research on American political economy and social policy.

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Hacker is a political scientist and professor at Yale University, known for his research on American political economy and social policy.

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