America Is Self-Destructing: Wealth, Greed, and Ideology Trump Common Cause and Social Justice

Contents Preface : Disappearance of American Exceptionalism The Narrative: America Is Self-Destructing • Evolutionary Patterns of Social Orders and Human Behavior • Unequal, Inequitable, and Shameless Distribution of National Wealth • Loss of Middle Class Purchasing Power and a Stagnant Economy • Lessons Not Learned from History: Wise Investments of National Wealth • Trickle-Up or Trickle-Down Economics? • Dwindling Professional Ethics and Integrity • Missing in Action: Social Cohesion, the Work Ethic, and Altruism • America’s Self-Destructive Journey: One Chapter of Western Civilization • Truth as Defined by the Prevailing Cultural Mentality • Polarization of American Politics and Human Values Chapter I . America’s Corrupt, Dysfunctional Society: Loss of Cultural Values, Ethics, and Integrity • America’s Post-1970s Theme: Greed Is Good • Shifting Cultural Values and the Pursuit of Wealth • Irrational Priorities and Failed Governance • US Health Care: Partisan Politics, Bad Economics, and Anti-Altruistic Values• Health Care’s “Outrageous Pricing and Egregious Profits” • Environmental Policy in an Era of Excessive Greed • Big Money Financing Politics: A Gift Economy of Influence II . Political and Economic Exploitation of the Middle Class: Demeaning the Principles of Social Justice and the Public Good • Political Economics and Philosophy of New Republicanism: Anti-Altruism • Excessive Income Inequality: Statutory vs. Effective Tax Rates • Creative Tax Schemes and Loopholes • Money, Privilege, and the Power of Politics • Knowledge Deposed by “Infotainment” and Anti-Intellectualism • The Politics of Obstructionism • American Democracy on the Ropes III . America’s Socio-Economic Stagnation: Debilitating Complexity and Misuse of National Wealth • Struggling with the Forces of Cultural Complexity • Complexity and Lack of Resources: Contributors to Economic Stagnation • Realities and Costs of Creeping Societal Complexity • The Price of Civilization and Achieving the Public Good • Resource Challenges and Political Liabilities • Great Deformations of a Crippled National Economy • Excessive Wealth Inequality: What is Wrong With Public Policy? IV . Demise of the Middle Class Economy: Conflicting Economic Theories and Political Agendas • Middle Class Journey: Great Depression to Great Recession and Beyond • Decline of the Middle Class and Corporate Citizenship • Degradation of the US Wage, Salary, and Benefit Structure • Poverty in America “There is hay in the barn but we’re not feeding the horses.” •(k) Retirement Plans: “This Monster Is Out of Control” • Failed Public Education • Federal Taxes Too High? But, Relative to What? • The Pathway to Self-Destruction V . Equitably Sharing Productivity within a Capitalist Democracy: Fundamental to Common Cause, Social Justice, and Economic Growth • Fluctuations of Cultural Values and Income Inequality • America’s Two Gilded Ages and The Global Economy • The Fallacy of Self-Correcting Free Markets • Individualism: Rights and Freedoms vs. Responsibilities to Social Justice • Inequality and Social Cohesion, Trust, and Status VI . Narcissistic Individualism and Darwinian Economics: The Role of Social Capital and Human Behavior • Uncoupling and Disengaging from Community Involvement • Declining Religious, Social, and Professional Involvement • Mysterious Social Disengagement: Pursuit of the Good Life • Human Nature, Values, and Behavior: Variables of Social Change • Values and Morality Affecting Economic Behavior • Individual Motivations, Aspirations, and Responsibilities • Darwinian Economics • The Influence of Spiritual Expectations on Economic Advancement VII . Post-1980s New Republicanism: The Culture of the Old South Collides with the Rights and Freedom Revolution • The South’s Great White Switch: Culture Solidarity and Civil Rights • Post-1950s Reorientation of Southern Politics • Foundations of New Post-1980s Republicanism • Newt Gingrich: Architect and Catalyst for a New Republican Culture • Shifting Voter Values and Priorities • The Political Partisan Divide • Summary of Major Pew National Findings: Partisan Polarization • New Republicanism and America’s Human Rights Revolution• The Rights Revolution Wins Big in 2012 Elections VIII . Big Money’s Grand Scheme and the Great Recession: Seizing Economic and Political Power (1970s-present) • Origins and Mechanisms of Big Money’s Grand Scheme • Consolidation and Solidarity via the Influence of Wealth • Washington’s Post-1970s Political Culture • Dismissing the Bretton-Woods Agreement and Glass-Steagall Legislation • Post-Glass-Steagall Legislation Era (2000-2008) • Goldman Sachs and the “Big Short” • The Role of Credit Rating Agencies • Aftermath of the Great Recession IX . Keynesian Economics to the Rescue... Again! From Roosevelt to Obama • Rebounding from the Great Depression • Post-1970s Abandonment of Keynesian Economics • The Return to Keynesian Economics: The Bush-Obama Era • Bush and Obama Address the Nation’s Financial and Economic Crisis X . Shifting Philosophical Currents of Thought: Self-Interest Defines Truth and Knowledge • The Politics of Global Warming • Shifting Human Values: Fabricating Truth and Altering Political Culture • Formulation of Political Thought, Judgment, and Choice • Identifying Variables of Truth: Relationships to Cultural Dynamics • Defining Truth and Wisdom as Influenced by Adopted Values • Western Civilization’s Six Philosophical Currents of Thought • Cultural Roots of American Society’s Philosophical Basis of Truth XI . Comprehending America’s Cultural Dysfunction: The Science of Complex Systems and Chaos Theory • The Nature and Complexity of Societal Functional Systems • The Elements and Science of Complex Systems• The Origin and Mismanagement of Human Complex Systems • The Great Recession: Mild Randomness of Economics Becomes Chaos Notes