Die Analyse beleuchtet die Ursachen für die hohe Armutsrate in den Vereinigten Staaten im Vergleich zu anderen entwickelten Ländern. Sie untersucht das paradoxe Zusammenspiel von enormem Reichtum und gleichzeitig weit verbreiteter Armut. Der Autor hinterfragt gesellschaftliche, wirtschaftliche und politische Faktoren, die zu dieser Ungleichheit führen, und bietet tiefere Einblicke in die Strukturen, die das soziale Gefüge der Nation prägen.
Monica Prasad's powerful demand-side hypothesis addresses three questions: Why does the United States have more poverty than any other developed country? Why did it experience an attack on state intervention in the 1980s, known today as the neoliberal revolution? And why did it recently suffer the greatest economic meltdown in seventy-five years?
The book delves into the Republican Party's unwavering commitment to tax cuts since the 1980s, framing it as a distinctively American strategy. Monica Prasad reveals that the 1981 tax cut was driven by a desire to dismantle the Democratic power structure established post-World War II, rather than mere economic theory or pressure from business groups. By positioning tax cuts as a political tool, Republicans reshaped their identity and electoral strategy. Prasad proposes that learning from European models of combining social protections with growth-oriented policies could benefit the American economy.