Summary

Combining keen insight with a flair for bringing a human dimension to facts and figures, bestselling author Andrew Hacker shows how the changing economy affects our lives. His clear-eyed analysis of the data illuminates the real results of women's fight for salary parity, the impact of affirmative action on the income of African-Americans, the effect immigration has on the job market, and more.

"A titillating collection of statistical snapshots designed to reveal who makes how much in America and why". -- Clay Chandler, The Washington Post

"Andrew Hacker...uses numbers to enlighten instead of obscure, making sure the statistics come alive by illustrating their inexorable messages with cases involving real people. This wise, creative book is filled with equally fascinating explanations of financial behavior". -- Steve Weinberg, Baltimore Sun

"If you are the ordinarily nosy sort...Hacker indulges your curiosity about how much other people make and how much they have squirreled away". -- Fredric Smoler, Worth

Publisher's Weekly Review

This intriguing book has two aims: to describe how much individuals and groups in America make and to explain the reasons behind the distribution of income, earnings and wealth. Hacker's (Two Nations ) underlying concern is expressed early: less job security, weaker labor unions and the shrinking middle class exacerbate already large economic gaps. Drawing on secondary sources, he reminds us that we have the most glaring income gap between rich and poor of the industrialized countries. The rich, he stresses, get richer not from salaries but investment income. He suggests that broad-based investment institutions like mutual funds pressure corporate downsizing. Reminding us that welfare was not designed to let people live well, his study raises provocative questions: Why can't we allocate income and earnings more rationally? Why don't we recognize that money gaps lead to greater social misery than in other countries? Unfortunately, those questions range beyond the scope of Hacker's inquiry. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Choice Review

This work is a sage, readable, and witty analysis of the changing distribution of personal incomes in the US between the 1970s and the 1990s. Focused on who earns what, and how, Hacker (Queens College) has converted seemingly dry or formidable statistics into readily comprehensible answers to such questions as, are the rich getting richer (and the poor increasing in number) and why this might be so; how and why US income distribution always has been tilted; the magnitude of women's advance to income parity with men; and the inefficiency of affirmative action in improving the status of African Americans. Out of these and other issues come many interesting facts, e.g., of those with annual incomes above $1 million (some 68,000), 1,500 were employed on Wall Street, 600 were chief executives of companies, 246 were professional football players, and 241 were professional basketball players. Never-married women who work full-time earn $1,005 for every $1,000 earned by men in comparable positions. Hacker attributes the more unequal distribution of income in recent years to the growing importance at the top of special skills and advanced education, growth of two-income households to prevent downward mobility of the middle-income groups, and the increased number of single-parent households in the lowest group. Highly recommended to all educated readers interested in public affairs. All levels. H. I. Liebling; Lafayette College

Library Journal Review

In his best-selling Two Nations (LJ 3/15/92), political scientist Hacker examined the role of race in the social and economic life of America. In his latest work, he argues that an equally enormous financial division separates Americans. He explains why there are increasingly more individuals at the extremes of the income scale while the middle is contracting. Besides the income gap between blacks and whites, Hacker shows where immigrants stand on the income scale, and he assesses the financial disparities between the sexes. He also explores how other elements‘e.g., greed, talent, and education‘are factored into the income gap equation. Hacker combines detailed data on individual incomes and wealth in the United States with an exceptional analysis of economic and social class divisions. His well-researched work will interest scholars and students as well as the general public. Recommended for academic and public libraries.‘Ali Abdulla, East Carolina Univ., Greenville, N.C. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.