The Good Life and Its Discontents: The American Dream in the Age of Entitlement 1945-1995

Times Books, Random House, 1995. First edition. First Edition [stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. xxii, [2], 293, [3] Notes. Index. Signed by author. Inscription signed 'Sam". Robert J. Samuelson (born December 23, 1945) wrote a twice-weekly economics column before he retired in September 2020. Both appeared online, and one usually ran in The Washington Post in print on Mondays. He was a columnist for Newsweek magazine from 1984 to 2011. He began his journalism career as a reporter on The Post business desk, from 1969 to 1973. He left the paper to become a freelancer in 1973. His work has appeared in The Sunday Times, The New Republic and the Columbia Journalism Review. He joined the National Journal in 1976, where he wrote the "Economic Focus" column. He was a contributing editor there from 1981 to 1984, when he left to write for Newsweek. Samuelson does not vote in any elections as he believes that voting interferes with his impartiality as a journalist." From 1973 to 1976, he was a freelance writer. He was an economics reporter and columnist for National Journal magazine from 1976 to 1984 — when he joined Newsweek. He grew up in White Plains, N.Y., and attended Harvard College. Derived from a Kirkus review: A journalist's diagnosis of what he believes ails the body politic in the latter-day US. Newsweek and Washington Post columnist Samuelson defines the angst, disenchantment, funk, or malaise that has obstructed America's pursuit of happiness these many years since VJ day. Heoffers a clear picture of its causes. In the author's view, the domestic economy fared so well in the years immediately following WW II that the electorate began to assume Big Government in league with Big Business could guarantee not only endless affluence but also such ancillary blessings as upward mobility, cradle-to-grave financial security, racial harmony, reduced crime rates, greater social justice, and even a more stable world order. In time, he notes, the shared credo of entitlement expanded to include a new imperative: personal fulfillment, a permissive ethic that discarded traditional rules of conduct, devalued accountability, and imposed burdens on institutions. It eventually became apparent that the state was but one of the many global influences on the US economy. Nor, it developed, could corporate managers credibly claim to be miracle workers. Worse yet, risk and pain proved concomitants of capitalism's rewards, a reality that frequently pitted competitiveness against compassion in the marketplace. In the meantime, hordes of interest groups emerged to plead their parochial causes, while Washington failed to deliver on many promises. Among other unfortunate consequences, the public's faith in government has been eroded if not destroyed. At the close, Samuelson provides a renewal agenda based on curbing the `casual use of government . . . as the problem solver of last resort' and a commitment to individual responsibility.