Mark Orton, who used to live in Hudson (but now lives in Florida) and from 2009 to 2024 ran the Orton Davis Gallery at 114 Warren Street with his wife, Karen Davis, has written a book about the U.S. economy. The book is called The Heist: How the Rich & Corporations Stole the American Dream.
Here's what Orton says about his work:
After eight years of research and writing, my book, THE HEIST: how the rich and corporations stole the American dream, has been published.
The book tells the very important story of the changes in the US economy over the past fifty years that have produced today's tsunami of income and wealth inequality, with the accompanying broadening and intensification of insecurities for the bottom 90% of our population. It also reviews many other troubling features of the economy and how our society does and doesn't function with equity and sustainability.
THE HEIST is written to be accessible to everyone and is not overly long at 180 pages. It is fully referenced, so you can see the sources I used. It also includes appendices that provide an introduction to why orthodox economics is not useful, how to understand charts and graphs, getting you head around huge numbers like trillions, and more.
Somewhat ironically, the book is available in paperback and ebook formats on Amazon and in paperback at IngramSpark.
Looking forward to the read.
ReplyDeleteBut based on the description, the "Heist" isn't happening in boardrooms, it’s happening at the (DC) cash printing press. The rich didn’t steal your paycheck, the government did. Since 1971, the dollar has lost over 80% of its value.
When DC prints trillions, the wealthy see their assets skyrocket (equities and assets) while the progressive working class with fewer assets and equities sees eggs and oat milk double. That’s not "corporate greed," it’s a regressive inflation tax, and the US used to warn other countries about this risk.
A sinking dollar affects all ships. It wouldn’t be such a problem if all those trillions were more equitably distributed. The inversion of the labor/capital curve in the 70s permitted the wage disparity we suffer through today to begin. It’s been widening for the past half century.
DeleteWe agree on the problem, though probably differ on the solution. Would love to discuss one day with you. Classic Rawlsian dilemma: The American Model vs. The Nordic Model.
DeleteIt really comes down to a trade-off: High ceiling/low floor vs. High floor/lower ceiling. >
Interestingly, the migration data shows how people vote with their feet; despite the safety net of the Nordics, the absolute flow of people moving to the US is higher than the inverse (consider the Nordics are around 30m and the US 300m plus. It seems, at scale, people are still willing to gamble on the ceiling.
Carole, thanks for picking up this announcement. To Hudson Common Sense, don’t miss the extensive section on the finance sector and money. It will give you a more fact-based understanding of how money actually works. Mark
ReplyDeleteThank you Mark - eager to learn more about economics and finance from you.
DeleteTwo questions to ponder before your book tour, hopefully through Hudson and at Spotty:
1. Are you sure you aren't misidentifying a 'Heist' for a 'supply constraint'?
Technology has made the quality of life better for everyone, but bad policy has made the gateways to a middle-class life (like housing and education) artificially scarce. See Hudson. Isn't the problem that we've stopped building the physical world, not that the rich "stole" the digital one?
2. Curious, why did you move to Florida? You lived in Hudson for fifteen years in a high-tax environment. Now you live in a state with no income tax, lower property taxes (less than half of Hudson's), and higher-rated public services, and specifically public schools.
If your economic model (at least articulated on the book cover/blurb) is the only way to build a functional society, why did you choose to live in a place that contradicts it?
Carole, I understand the irony of publishing on Amazon. But, I think this story of the past fifty years is important enough for me to suffer that irony. Mark
ReplyDeleteHudsonCommonSense, I was going to respond further to your questions about 'supply constraint' and my relocation. But, I don't communicate with anonymous interlocutors. I looked at your website, but found not a single name of a human being responsible for it.
ReplyDeleteYou can see part of my approach to this here: https://theheist.us/about-2/ethics-statement/
I've written a number of times over the years about why anonymity is a corrosive elment of our world. See this recent post: https://markorton.substack.com/p/pervasive-anonymity-is-a-significant which includes several earlier notes about anonymity.
When you decide to come out of your secret state I will respond to yoiur questions.
Mark
No problem Mark.
DeleteHope Amazon sends you a lot of money from book sales and happy that your income from books will not be taxed in Florida.
You can read more about us here:
www.HudsonCommonSense.com/aboutus
In the section titled "⏩ More about The Editors, How This Got Started, and Who Reads and Writes Common Sense: "
re: "Anonymity" or shared editorial voices.
Read here why The Economist continues this tradition, one that used to be widespread:
https://medium.com/severe-contest/we-are-anonymous-87a82714ee5
Good to know there is another issue you disagree with The Founding Fathers on, most of whom wrote the Constitution, Federalist Papers, and other influential pamphlets and a collective or with pseudonyms that were known to locals, but less so globally.
Also, famously, the Bronte sisters and Joanne Rowling used male names or non-gendered initials to overcome bias and allow readers to focus on the ideas and words.
Over the years I have written several notes about the troubles with anonymity in our public life. Here are links to two recent posts concerned with various aspects of anonymity.
Deletehttps://open.substack.com/pub/markorton/p/protecting-you-from-ai
Mention of anonymity on Gossips: https://markorton.substack.com/p/end-anonymity
Thanks Mark - look forward to seeing how your book does on sales numbers.
DeleteAre there other areas where you disagree with the founding fathers and the history of America?
Love to see the experts mix it up. I once asked Milton Friedman what the meaning of life was and he replied, "I only comment on things I know something about." Andule pues.
ReplyDeleteHudson Common Sense - I am most concerned with the facts of our current world. The thinking of those from 250 years ago are germane only as today’s thinkers claim them as explanations of the present. But the present facts largely overwhelm those explanations. Mark
ReplyDeleteThe only reason you are here, and so rich that you can spend so much time writing a book that relatively few would read, is because of those special souls 250 years ago, and how they reasoned, wrote, and designed a great nation and Constitution.
DeleteVery likely, if you were born in China, Russia or Sub-Saharan Africa... you would not have the leisure time, or education, or be permitted the privilege of extolling on macro economics without first mastering econometrics.
The present facts; you are voluntarily in Florida, not NY.
You are selling your book on Amazon, helping paying for Jeff Bezos' extravagant wedding in Italy.
So yes, please lean into American capitalism more and enjoy the State of the Union.
Whether you are right or wrong about your economic arguments... Uncle Sam's Lockheed Martin supplied F-35s will keep you safe from foreign threats and your local PD's Glock issued (made in Georgia) sidearms and Axon Enterprise manufactured Tasers will protect you from domestic harm.