For the United States, the 20th century marked a period of vast and unparalleled prosperity thanks -- in large part -- to an economic model known as the “mixed economy.” Under that model, the nation's government and markets operated in tandem, creating a robust coalition from which health, wealth, and well-being not only grew, but flourished.
Recently, however, political scientists Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson say that model has been rejected -- supplanted by a wave of anti-government sentiment that’s pitted government and markets against each other. It’s a phenomenon the two men write about in their new book American Amnesia.
This hour, we take a closer look inside that book. We learn about the fall of the mixed economy and rise of the so-called “war on government," and find out what it all means for the future of American growth and progress.
GUEST:
- Jacob Hacker - Stanley B. Resor Professor of Political Science; Director of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University; co-author of American Amnesia: How The War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper
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John Dankosky and Chion Wolf contributed to this show, which originally aired on March 29.
