How Are You Going to Pay for That?, Ryan Cooper
How Are You Going to Pay for That?, Ryan Cooper
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How Are You Going to Pay for That?
Smart Answers to the Dumbest Question in Politics

Author: Ryan Cooper

Narrator: Ryan Cooper

Unabridged: 8 hr 22 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/25/2022

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included

Synopsis

A compelling alternative view of the relationship between our politics and our economyThroughout America, structural problems are getting worse. Economic inequality is near Gilded Age heights, the health-care system is a mess, and the climate crisis continues to grow. Yet most ambitious policy proposals that might fix these calamities are dismissed as wastefully expensive by default. From the kitchen table to Congress, debates are punctuated with a familiar refrain: “How are you going to pay for that?”This question is designed to shut down policy pushes up front, minimizing any interference with the free market. It comes from neoliberalism, an economic ideology that has overtaken both parties. Proponents insist that markets are naturally occurring and apolitical and that too much manipulation of the economy will make our society fall apart.Ryan Cooper argues that our society already is falling apart and the logically preposterous views of neoliberalism are to blame. Most progressives understand this instinctively, but many lack the background knowledge to make effective economic counterarguments.How Are You Going to Pay for That? is filled with engaging discussions and detailed strategies that policymakers and citizens alike can use to assail even the most entrenched lines of neoliberal logic and start to undo these long-held misconceptions.Equal parts economic theory, history, and political polemic, this is an essential roadmap for winning the key battles to come.

About Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent for The Week and is widely considered one of the most thoughtful and clear-eyed leftist commentators in America. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The Nation, Washington Post, Mother Jones, the New Republic, and others. He received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Reed College in 2008 and served in the Peace Corps in South Africa from 2009 to 2011. He is a cohost and producer of the Left Anchor podcast. He lives in Philadelphia with his girlfriend, two cats, and a dog.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Nathan

The greatest critique of this book is that the ways by which we change to a better, more egalitarian system seem … unattainable in our current political climate. This book looks at economics through a lens of what we’re doing wrong as compared against most other developed nations. It proposes simple......more

Goodreads review by David

The title doesn't really connote what's going on in this book. You go in thinking that this is about deficit hawkery and austerity and the stupidity of long-run budget projections being so predominant in Washington, but really it's an alternative vision for an egalitarian society, with a few nods to......more

Goodreads review by Óscar Moreno (OscarBooker)

Creo que es un fascinante texto sobre diferentes aspectos del tejido social y económico de EEUU. La primera mitad es una forma introductoria a los diferentes debates económicos de dicho país y también el impacto del covid en su economía. En lo personal, lo que más me interesó fue la explicación del......more

Goodreads review by Wick

A good primer to social democratic policy This is like the umpteenth book I've read like this. It was very good with reasonable and sound ideas to fix American society and politics. We get a nice history of monopolization and neoliberalism through the 20th century and then very tangible and concise s......more

Goodreads review by Ben

Dry but quite informative. Whole lotta graphs. I’m glad I read it in the same way one is glad to eat one’s vegetables. Borrowing the term from Ursula K. Le Guin, Cooper takes aim at “propertarianism” — the stance that “property rights should be the inalterable foundation of politics” (essentially neo......more

Quotes

“Every weekday is the same routine: I wake up, I read Ryan Cooper, I’m smarter because of it. He’s consistently one of the best analysts of our political pageant.” David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect

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