Sarah Leonard

I received this book for free from LibraryThing's Early Reviewers Program.

Insofar as I don't want the future most of the contributors of this book are advocating for, this was an interesting read. I put off reviewing this for two years, so as part of my Lenten observance, I will review The Future We Want: Radical Ideas for the New Century.

The first essay, "Working for the Weekend," by Chris Maisano is a good example of what you'll find in the rest of the volume: excellent points interspersed with assertions premised on things I find dubious. For example, Maisano says that the definition of "full employment" is an economist's construct, based on the Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment, or NAIRU. It is indeed a bit strange to think that 5% unemployment, or 1 out of 20 people is looking for work [to horrendously oversimplify], constitutes full employment.

In principle, the NAIRU, or its equivalents, is supposed to be the point where there is equilibrium between labor and capital. It represents a place where the curves cross, based on some empirical data. There is some unemployment, and some change in prices. However, I find myself a little suspicious that the chosen euphemism for this is "full employment." If you read between the lines, the economists who write about this admit that there is an element of choice in what level of unemployment is considered acceptable.

I can get on board with that. I think my problem is that Maisano, and the other contributors to this volume support lots and lots of other things that directly work against the goal of a stronger labor movement. For example, immigration was long considered by union leaders to be a tool of the boss-class to keep wages down and workers internally divided. This subject never once comes up in Maisano's essay. Which is probably because it is an own-goal.

While I'm interested in many of the subjects discussed here, I'm far from convinced the contributors know enough about them to really contribute. Thus, despite some overlap with what I also find wrong with America, I think I'm still a contra.… (altro)

“The Future We Want : Radical Ideas for the New Century” is a collection of essays from an eclectic group of young writers and activists. They look at all the problems we normally think about, education, inequality, racism, a justice system that lacks justice, and societal bias over sex and gender. As an example of that last I need to point out that on the book the authors are listed as Sarah Leonard and Bhaskar Sunkara. The online citation I found for the book, “Sunkara, Bhaskar. The Future We Want : Radical Ideas for the New Century. City: Henry Holt & Co, 2013.”, lists Sunkara, the male, as primary author. The book did open my eyes to a few problems that I have just begun to notice, “bad science”, the way financial interests are twisting what research we do as well as the outcomes of that research. .

As a lifelong liberal I wanted to like this book and, for the most part I did. Almost every goal mentioned in the book has my full support but, unfortunately, the book offers little, almost nothing, in the way of a roadmap to achieving these goals. We need a color blind justice system? Duhh. We need a justice system blind to color and wealth but how do we get there? A book I reviewed earlier, “Unfair: the new science of criminal injustice”, explains the problems in detail and gives a list of very doable corrections. Perhaps the problem is that each of these problems needs a full length treatment by an expert in the field to offer sufficient insight to allow a vision on solving them.

The one glaring problem I had with the book was its naive view of economics. Yes, today’s economy needs major reform but capitalism, Adam Smith’s capitalism not the “Free Market” Ayn Rand God is Greed, Austrian and Chicago school capitalism, is still the least bad of all economic systems. People do really work the best when they are working for their own improvement. That means that poverty wages do not inspire the best work, even with the whip of homelessness and starvation driving the workers. Regulating for living wages and safety nets for the calamities that naturally befall everyone are needed to, frankly, benefit the employers to ignorant or greedy to act in their workers and their own best interests.

The book is a good examination of what young liberals see as our current problems but it lacks any reasonable ideas to fix them. For that we have to look elsewhere. At least for ideas on repairing the broken criminal justice system I can recommend Adam Benforado’s “Unfair: The New Science of Criminal Injustice”.… (altro)

It's clear that many of the social problems the US faces are not responding to the "solutions" we've implemented. Simply raging against injustice doesn't fix anything. Eleven critics of the status quo have contributed essays that outline pragmatic solutions to issues such as gender and racial inequality, criminal justice, scientific research and more. Well-thought and clearly expressed solutions here have the added impetus of being possible.

Personally, I'm a big fan of thinking creatively to create the future we want. Humanity is on the cusp of the greatest change in our long history. Will we allow personal liberty to continue to erode or will we become the true democratic power we've given lip service to? Many of the ideas put forth have already proved themselves in other parts of the world. We once led the world... and can do so again if enough of us insist upon reforms that allow increasing numbers to thrive. This collection of essays is a nice jumpstart to imagining and implementing change.… (altro)