The Myth That Made Us

Jeff Fuhrer

A Note from Eastern Bank Foundation vii
Preface: A Mainstream Economist Discovers His Blind Spots ix
Introduction: Like Dives before Lazarus 1
Part I The Myth 13
1 Our National Economic Mythology 17
2 Public Belief in The Myth: A Survey of Polling Results 35
3 An Origin Story for The Myth: Roots in the Founding of the Republic 49
Part II The Facts 57
4 How Broken Are We? Low (and Unequal) Incomes 63
5 How Broken Are We? The Distribution of Wealth 79
6 Broken Work: The Prevalence and Characteristics of "Low-Quality" Jobs 93
7 The Rest of the Story: More Signs of Brokenness 101
Part III The Myth versus the Facts 113
8 Evidence against The Myth 117
9 This Is Not the Only Way: International Comparisons 131
Part IV Broken by Design: How We Have Chosen to Create and Sustain Our Broken System 137
10 The History of Systems That Have Been Shaped by The Myth 143
Part V The Wreckage 179
11 The Loss Looking Backward 183
12 The Loss Looking Forward 189
Part VI What Are You Prepared to Do? The Way Forward 197
13 Change the Narrative 201
14 How to Get There: A Program to Build Human and Financial Capital 209
15 The Other Half of the Battle: Implementation Matters 239
Conclusion: A Vision of Opportunity 247
Acknowledgments 249
Notes 255
Bibliography 295
Index 337