The Vampire State: And Other Myths and Fallacies About the U.S. Economy - Softcover

Block, Fred L.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1565841948 ISBN 13: 9781565841949

Publisher: The New Press, 1997

Synopsis

The Vampire State is a popular and provocative look at the muddled way we talk about economics in America. In engaging prose, Fred L. Block argues that many familiar metaphors, such as the image of the government as a vampire sucking the lifeblood from our economy, are patently false and based on bad economics. He explains why balancing the federal budget will not solve our economic problems, shows the flaws in the arguments for a global free trade regime, and uses a series of counter-metaphors to suggest reforms we desperately need.

About this title

Review

When you recall that the forces of Newt Gingrich got solidly behind the balanced budget amendment, that it was Ross Perot's embracing of deficit reduction that propelled his original meteoric presidential campaign, and that it is Bill Clinton who holds the title of greatest national debt reducer among post-World War II American presidents, you realize that the notion of balancing the federal books is no longer a conservative shibboleth; it's now the apple pie of economic politics. But Fred Block, a sociology professor, remains a dissenter.

The Vampire State is his brief against the importance of the idea of a balanced budget. Block argues that the demand to balance is based on a faulty metaphor, that of an economy that was once vibrant but has been leeched into weakness by a money-parasitic government. In truth, he holds, there are a lot of other factors for economic health besides the money supply, such as new technology, the ways businesses organize themselves, the quality of the labor pool, and the psychology of the investor pool. Indeed, the U.S. government often spurs the economy by drawing these factors into increased play. And we'd see that, argues Block, if, for instance, we abandoned the received, but pessimistic ways of measuring productivity, inflation, and savings.

About the Author

Fred L. Block is a professor of sociology at the University of California at Davis. He is the author of a number of books, including Postindustrial Possibilities, and coauthor, with Barbara Ehrenreich, Richard Cloward, and Frances Fox Piven, of The Mean Season.

About this edition

• Publisher: The New Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 1565841948
• ISBN 13: 9781565841949
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320