411 on Books, Authors & Publishing

Our currently unsettling political environment fails to address urgent issues. This trend, unless reversed, will lead us to an impoverished future. Technology can either help all to thrive, or deprive most of their livelihoods.

Despite low unemployment, more than one in eight Americans lived in poverty in 2017.  Workers’ wages remain stagnant as the wealthiest prosper. Today’s best paying jobs are in technology companies that produce their products with far fewer workers than did yesterday’s factories.

In as few as ten years advances in artificial intelligence and robotics could eliminate jobs for all but the most highly trained. Now, once bustling factory towns, produce little besides poverty and opioid addiction. What will their future hold?

Our economic system fails to serve hard-working people whose anguish is muffled by a distracting Washington circus. How did this happen? Can we avoid calamity and restore the values that built our republic?

“We Can Fix It: Reclaiming the American Dream” examines the idea that the United States is founded on a vision of opportunities for all ambitious enough to pursue them. Much has changed since the days when land was readily available to farm and men could easily engage in their trades. In the early 1900s, Theodore Roosevelt and those who followed him stood up against monopolies and promoted workers’ concerns.

During the middle decades of the twentieth century, strong unions and high progressive taxes helped build a sturdy middle class. Today that middle class is endangered as the top 20 percent of Americans own nearly 90 percent of American wealth. Some economists predict that already extreme income inequality will be exacerbated by the the tax law passed in December 2017. Others predict that such an unequal economy cannot sustain itself. V. O. Diedlaff’s short book provides an overview of the problems facing Americans in the near future and offers possible solutions.

The eBook is currently free from Apple iBooks, Barnes & Noble, and others. The introductory priced paperback edition is available at Amazon. The Kindle edition is available for pre-order before its summer release.

Discover more at V. O. Diedlaff’s website: http://diedlaffing.blogspot.com/