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Robert Kuttner

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“Both rich and poor nations have a common stake in policies that put the globe on a sustainable development path. The conflict is less between poor and rich countries than between the broad interests of people and the narrow interests of extractive industries. We need to find our way towards some kind of global regime that reduces emissions of the greenhouse gases, but well-off nations need to transfer the technology to make this possible, rather than viewing this shift as one more opportunity for private industry to profit.”

PeopleWayNeedsWellsKindCountryOpportunityNationsInterestPoorCommonTechnologyPathRichPolicyDevelopmentIndustryConflictProfitGlobal WarmingBroadsStakesRegimesGlobesTransfersRich And PoorEmissionsSustainable DevelopmentGreenhousesGreenhouse GasesRich CountriesPoor Nations
Author:Robert Kuttner
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“The Unheavenly Chorus is the definitive study of participatory inequality in America. Marshaling prodigious evidence, the authors show how money not only buys influence directly but also affects associations that are supposed to be democratic antidotes to concentrated wealth. A monumental achievement of careful scholarship, this book offers real knowledge of how politics actually operates.”

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“We are already well down the road toward a managed-trade regime. It would be far better to acknowledge that reality, and seek a set of reasonable rules, than to pretend that Ricardian trade is the norm and allow mercantilist states to overwhelm U.S. industry and ratchet down wages, in the name of free trade.”

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Book:The Economic Illusion: False Choices Between Prosperity and Social Justice
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“By default, we have created a "system" of nursing-home care for the aged in which middle-class people pay exorbitant rates to for-profit nursing-home entrepreneurs - and then when private resources are consumed and the patient qualifies as a pauper, the nursing home begins billing Medicaid. This is precisely the antithesis of social citizenship; instead of the poor being accorded the dignity associated with the middle class, equality of treatment is achieved by making the middle class undergo pauperization.”

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Author:Robert Kuttner
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“Britain, with the most completely socialized health system in the West, now spends the lowest fraction of GNP on health care of any major nation. There are frequent complaints of excessive waits for elective surgery and other inconveniences, but British citizens live slightly longer than Americans, on average, and our overall health conditions are comparable.”

CareNationsWaitingConditionsCitizensMajorsWestAverageBritishHealth CareBritainSurgeryComplaintsLowestFractionsInconvenienceHealth SystemOverall Health
Book:The Economic Illusion: False Choices Between Prosperity and Social Justice
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“American critics of welfare statism are often surprised to learn that countries like West Germany, with a much more comprehensive welfare state and a statistically larger public sector, have fewer government employees per capita than the United States does.”

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Book:The Economic Illusion: False Choices Between Prosperity and Social Justice
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“For over a century, popular struggles in the democracies have used the nation-state to temper raw capitalism. The power of voters has offset the power of capital. But as national barriers have come down in the name of freer commerce, so has the capacity of governments to manage capitalism in a broad public interest. So the real issue is not "trade" but democratic governance.”

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Author:Robert Kuttner
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“Though editorialists at The New York Times and The Washington Post still don't get it, most Democrats in Congress finally do: Today's trade disputes are no longer mostly about tariffs, quotas, or free entry of goods. They are about the ground rules for capitalism. Are there to be only property rights? What about the other rights that liberal democracies have fought for since the 1880s?”

StillsTodayDemocracyRightsNew YorkCapitalismTradePropertyDemocratCongressLibertarianPostsGoodsDisputesNew York TimesEntryProperty RightsDemocracies HaveQuotaTariffsLiberal DemocracyGround Rules
Author:Robert Kuttner
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