Restoring the American Dream

Abstract

Restoring the American Dream requires a new social contract to replace the one revoked by extensive reliance on free-market ideologies. The industrial-era contract was based on the enormous productivity of the mass-production system and supportive policies to counteract some of that system's most serious weaknesses. Restoring the dream of good jobs and opportunities for all requires that highly stressed families demand more flexible high-road policies to unlock the knowledge economy's enormous potential, including stronger worker participation on corporate boards, at work, and in the larger society.