The Great Risk Shift: The New Economic Insecurity and the Decline of the American Dream, Second Edition

On the eve of the financial crisis, Jacob S. Hacker wrote "the policy book of the year" (E.J. Dionne, Jr., Washington Post), demonstrating and explaining the hidden story of growing economic insecurity. In this fully revised and updated second edition, he brings his powerful exposé of "The Great Risk Shift" up to date with startling new evidence and compelling new ideas. Hacker shows that the safety net was unraveling long before the late-2000s, as more and more economic risk shifted from the broad shoulders of government and business onto the fragile backs of American families. Whether the problem is risky jobs brought on by corporate restructuring and the "gig economy" of contingent work, risky families created by the rising costs and instabilities of parenthood, risky retirement caused by the collapse of traditional guaranteed pensions, or risky health care fueled by skyrocketing costs and unstable coverage-Hacker shows what has changed and why, the ways in which ordinary Americans have been affected, and how we can fight back. Behind the risk shift, he contends, is the "Personal Responsibility Crusade" eagerly embraced by corporate leaders and conservative politicians who speak of an economic nirvana in which Americans are free to choose. But the result, Hacker reveals, has been very different: a harsh new world of economic insecurity in which far too many Americans are allowed to fall behind. Blending powerful human stories, big-picture analysis, and compelling ideas for reform, this remarkable volume has become a rallying point in the struggle for economic security in an increasingly uncertain world.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: On the Edge 1. The New Economic Insecurity 2. Risking It All 3. Risky Jobs 4. Risky Families 5. Risky Retirement 6. Risky Health Care Conclusion: Securing the Future Acknowledgments Notes Index

About the Author :
Jacob S. Hacker is the Stanley B. Resor Professor of Political Science at Yale University and a frequent commentator on American politics and social policy. He is also the coauthor, with Paul Pierson, of Winner-Take-All Politics (Simon & Schuster),American Amnesia (Simon & Schuster) and Off Center: The Republican Revolution and the Erosion of American Democracy (Yale University Press).

Review :
"As Jacob Hacker argues persuasively in The Great Risk Shift, America's middle class finds itself living with far more risk and income volatility than it did a generation ago." --Chris Hayes, The Nation "The essential policy book of the year." --Washington Post "Provocative and worth reading." --New York Times "Hacker offers up a new foundation for economic security. This is an important book." --Robert B. Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor "Provides a fresh diagnosis of a familiar complex of problems from structural unemployment to the erosion of retirement plans you can retire on." --The Atlantic "[This] book deserves the widest possible audience, for having nailed the most powerful and underappreciated economic trend of our era, thereby inviting a discussion of the political opportunities." --Robert Kuttner, American Prospect "A brilliant diagnosis of how the American dream has dissolved, and what might be done to resurrect it. With cool intelligence but also great compassion, Jacob Hacker shows how both corporate and governmental safety nets have been systematically dismantled, leaving average Americans at the mercy of an increasingly risky global economy." --Charles Ferguson, Director of Inside Job