I tell some personal stories in this book, because I want to reveal how my own family background has shaped my point of view. Each chapter focuses on an important aspect of the relationship between economics and family values. The chapters are grouped into three sections. The first deals with theory, the second with policy, the third with strategies for the future.
In the Introduction, the author concludes things by laying out the framework for how the text will be structured. In doing so, the author also foreshadows how the book will be presented. This is going to be an analytical overview, but one in which the more academic elements are punctuated by intrusions of personal experience. This is not always the case with such books. In fact, many critics of such non-fiction tomes come down hard on such introductions of personal narratives into the larger overview. It will be left to each reader to respond on their own terms.
One of my heroes, the Texas populist Jim Hightower, argues that we should develop an alternative to the Dow Jones, one that better describes what’s happening to ordinary people. It could measure some combination of changes in unemployment, wages, and benefits like health insurance—the overall average of what people are earning. He suggests calling it the Doug Jones, in honor of the working-class guy.
Take, for example, this intrusion of the personal into the bigger picture. It tells the reader a lot to know that the author considers Jim Hightower a hero. If, that is, the reader is familiar with Jim Hightower. Hightower would certainly be a considered a controversial person to take as a hero to some people. On the other hand, those already familiar with Hightower will recognize that the author could do far, far worse than following his lead. The commingling of the personal with the larger idea at work in the narrative comes to a head here because without the personal heroism of Hightower, it is possible the reader might not come to an awareness of the fundamental genius of the “Doug Jones Average” as a means of interpreting the actual economic state off the nation in opposition to the absurdity of the Dow Jones Average.
The new international order al- lows corporations to elude regulation. Got laws giving workers a right to organize and protection against discrimination? Hey, we'll go someplace they don’t. Got rules against pollution? You'll be sorry, because there are plenty of countries that don’t. Got requirements for occupational health and safety? See you later.
The link between the personal and the big picture is also reflected in the basic economy of the language the author chooses as a means of conveying information. What is reflected here is the kind of informal and laid-back approach to making a point that would simply not cut the mustard in a more straightforward scholarly approach. This excerpt illuminates the more rhetorically dense approach taken by writer to simplify complexities. The phrase “dumbed down” gets tossed around a lot and some would apply it to a situation such as this. The reality, however, is that a huge difference exists between dumbing down complex issues and presenting them within a more easily accessible vernacular that approximates the way that most Americans think. And research has shown that most Americans think on a seventh-grade level when it comes to reading.
