All Together Now, by Jared Bernstein

Americans face prodigious economic and social challenges today, yet nothing unifies the various strategies and causes that attempt to meet these challenges.

Economist Jared Bernstein believes that frames such as "the ownership society" stress an ever-shrinking role for government and an ever-increasing risk for individuals, clearly implying: "You're on your own."

Arguing that this shift toward extreme individualism needlessly reduces the country's economic security and the living standards of most families, he describes the political and economic forces that pushed the country away from collective action and exposes the significant societal costs associated with the shift.

All Together Now: Common Sense for a Fair Economy
by Jared Bernstein Book Picture

Softcover: 154 pages
ISBN: 9781576753873, 1576753875
Berrett-Koehler Publishers
May 2006

This book presents a new vision, one that applauds individual liberties while emphasizing that such freedoms are best realized with a collectivist approach to public policy.

A timely alternative to a go-it-alone society, All Together Now shows readers how to tap their "better selves" to meet the coming challenges as one.

"Jared Bernstein provides a smart look at the American economy, one deeply rooted in American values. All Together Now explains the importance of having an economy that puts people first and ensures a fair shake for all." -- Senator John Edwards
"Jared Bernstein is to most economic writers what Red Bull is to decaf latte. In All Together Now he makes such a rousing case for mutual responsibility and shared risk that you'll leap out of your chair and into action. Everyone in the sub-billionaire class needs to read this book and send a gift copy to his or her elected officials." -- Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America and Bait and Switch

"What does our national debate about economics most need? It needs ideas. It needs strong voices for justice who understand economics. And it needs economists with a passion for social decency. Jared Bernstein is a passionate economist who provides hard data to describe the world as it is, and ideas to make the world more just. All Together Now should be read and debated by all who know that the status quo is failing us and seek a daring and bracing examination of the reasons for our discontent." -- E. J. Dionne, syndicated columnist, author of Why Americans Hate Politics and Stand Up Fight Back, professor at Georgetown University

"This vitally important and readable book couldn't have arrived at a better time. Jared Bernstein examines the ever-increasing gap between our so-called 'booming' economy and the waning economic security of the very people creating that growth. With common sense and common decency, Bernstein shows where we've gone off course and how to find our way back." -- Robert B. Reich, Professor of Public Policy, University of California at Berkeley, and former U.S. Secretary of Labor

JARED BERNSTEIN is senior fellow and director of the Living Standards Program at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, DC. His areas of research include income and wage inequality, technology's impact on wages and employment, low-wage labor markets and poverty, minimum wage analysis, and international comparisons. Between 1995 and 1996, he held the post of deputy chief economist at the U.S. Department of Labor. He has published extensively in popular and academic journals, including The American Prospect and Research in Economics and Statistics, and is the coauthor of seven editions of The State of Working America.

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