Review of "Unbound: How Inequality Constricts Our Economy and What We Can Do About It," by Heather Boushey, 2019. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, cloth, 257 pages.
The author is an expert in Economics and is the Executive Director of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth. She illustrates in technical terms how the huge gaps among income levels and among potential income levels contribute to stagnation and lack of success for a great many American enterprises.
Simply put, the idea is that because the poor cannot afford to participate in mainstream society, there is great waste.
The author talks about possible ways to remedy the gaps and argues both sides of the solutions. Going beyond arguing for people to embrace the poor and help them, she shows how not helping them costs society greatly in many different ways.
Not helping the less fortunate slows down progress and growth, ignores the needs of a growing number of consumers, and slows the investment businesses need to thrive. She shows how some politicians and mindsets are short-sighted because it does no good to create products and services that only a few people can afford. Helping individuals get out of poverty is a winner in many ways.
To read the information in this book, the reader really needs a pretty good knowledge of Economics. It is dense reading and a challenge for general readers, I would assume.
This sort of book does have its place—for experts in their fields. I myself am a general reader when it comes to the technical information presented in this book. I re-read several sections to feel more comfortable I was at least getting the gist of what she was conveying.
All of the above being said, I would suggest that this book does in fact provide some very good benefits—talking points for dealing with conservative-minded persons (and votes and stakeholders and decision-makers) who need to be convinced to help others.
This book provides good points for the arguments IN CONSERVATIVE PEOPLE LANGUAGE.
The book is dense reading — but I recommend it because of those important arguments it shares on why we should help the disadvantaged—citing the benefits to business and progress. This is essential information to have on hand when debating those who think wealth can somehow magically just trickle down into the neighborhood and help those who need assistance the most.
As we found out before, wealth does NOT just trickle down…