Why does working full-time in America no longer guarantee a decent life?
In Paycheck to Paycheck in the Richest Nation on Earth, economist Dr. Maya Sorenson exposes the systematic policy decisions over five decades that transformed the American economy from one of shared prosperity into a system where 64% of workers live paycheck to paycheck despite record national wealth.
This isn't a story about personal failure or individual responsibility. It's about how deliberate choices-union destruction, financial deregulation, tax cuts for the wealthy, wage stagnation, and safety net erosion-restructured the economy to extract wealth from workers and concentrate it among billionaires and corporate executives.
THE CRISIS DOCUMENTED:
Sorenson reveals the staggering reality facing working families: wages that haven't kept pace with productivity gains, housing costs consuming 40-60% of income, healthcare expenses causing 530,000 bankruptcies annually, student loan debt trapping 45 million Americans, childcare costs exceeding college tuition, and a broken unemployment system that fails most who need it.
Through compelling stories of nurses, teachers, warehouse workers, and millions of others who work hard but can't get ahead, the book demonstrates how the productivity-pay gap, extreme inequality, medical debt, credit card traps, and the cost-of-living crisis combine to make economic security impossible for typical workers.
THE SYSTEMIC ROOTS EXPOSED:
The book traces how we got here through seven fundamental transformations: the destruction of organized labor (from 35% to 6% union density), the shareholder value revolution that prioritized stock prices over worker welfare, trade policies exposing workers to devastating global competition, regressive taxation shifting burdens from wealth to work, deregulation enabling corporate exploitation, privatization of public goods, and the transformation of education and healthcare into debt-financed commodities.
Sorenson names names and identifies specific policy decisions-from Reagan breaking unions to financial deregulation enabling predatory lending, from trade agreements without worker protections to tax cuts creating trillions in deficits used to justify social spending cuts.
THE PATH FORWARD:
Unlike books that only document problems, Paycheck to Paycheck provides comprehensive solutions: rebuilding worker power through labor law reform and sectoral bargaining, creating good jobs through federal jobs guarantees and public investment, making essentials affordable through universal healthcare and social housing, establishing true security through expanded Social Security and unemployment insurance, taxing wealth fairly through progressive rates and wealth taxes, democratizing the economy through worker ownership and antitrust enforcement, and revitalizing democracy through campaign finance reform and voting rights protection.
Perfect for readers of Barbara Ehrenreich, Matthew Desmond, Robert Reich, Elizabeth Warren, and Thomas Piketty. Essential reading for anyone wondering why working hard stopped being enough-and what we can do about it.
