There are very few things in the world that have had such a profound impact on me as “Who Stole the American Dream?” I read this in 2014, after being hired by SoftLayer, a recent IBM acquisition. Though my paychecks said IBM, everything else I did was under the SoftLayer banner and culture (until 2016, but that’s a story that wraps up here).
I was flying around the country, working with startups, evangelizing a cloud product I cared about and believed in, and getting paid by IBM to do it. IBM, by the way, is prominently vilified by Hedrick Smith in a few places. Smith’s vilification and my job enjoyment—way beyond mere satisfaction—seemed in direct conflict. This was just one of the many points in the book that had me thinking deeply about my purpose in my life.
It was a few months after finishing the book, reflecting on it, and working with a coach that I crystallized my mission: to transform the world through innovation and entrepreneurship.
Here’s where this review becomes an actual review. The book is about the systematic erosion of the middle class in America, and how the opportunity to achieve “American Dream” is being destroyed by everything from bi-partisanship, to corporate influence over government, and ultimately the widening of the wealth gap. All of this is told through a reporter’s investigative lens in a narrative style that pulls you in page after page (or minute after minute).
I believe I can make a difference in the American Dream and returning the middle class to prominence, but it sure as hell is an uphill battle. If you need some inspiration to join me on this quest, start here.
Publisher’s Summary
Pulitzer Prize winner Hedrick Smith’s new book is an extraordinary achievement, an eye-opening account of how, over the past four decades, the American Dream has been dismantled and we became two Americas.
In his best-selling The Russians, Smith took millions of readers inside the Soviet Union. In The Power Game, he took us inside Washington’s corridors of power. Now Smith takes us across America to show how seismic changes, sparked by a sequence of landmark political and economic decisions, have transformed America. As only a veteran reporter can, Smith fits the puzzle together, starting with Lewis Powell’s provocative memo that triggered a political rebellion that dramatically altered the landscape of power from then until today.
This is a book full of surprises and revelations – the accidental beginnings of the 401(k) plan, with disastrous economic consequences for many; the major policy changes that began under Jimmy Carter; how the New Economy disrupted America’s engine of shared prosperity, the “virtuous circle” of growth, and how America lost the title of “Land of Opportunity”. Smith documents the transfer of $6 trillion in middle-class wealth from homeowners to banks even before the housing boom went bust, and how the U.S. policy tilt favoring the rich is stunting America’s economic growth.
This book is essential reading for all of us who want to understand America today, or why average Americans are struggling to keep afloat. Smith reveals how pivotal laws and policies were altered while the public wasn’t looking, how Congress often ignores public opinion, why moderate politicians got shoved to the sidelines, and how Wall Street often wins politically by hiring over 1,400 former government officials as lobbyists.