4 Quotes by Jacob S. Hacker

As the concentration of wealth and power at the top increased, the Democratic Party faced cross-pressures that muddied its message and moderated its stances on economic matters. The Republic Party, in stark contrast, radicalized. Starting as a standard-issue center-right party, it mutated into an ultraconservative insurgent force, one that cast its lot with plutocracy even as plutocracy's rise endangered the economic security and opportunity of many of its voters.

The United States now ranks twentieth out of twenty-seven OECD nations in the share of young people expected to finish high school.50.

The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that the United States would have to spend $3.6 trillion more than currently budgeted just to bring our infrastructure up to acceptable levels by 2020.95 China and India are spending almost 10 percent of GDP on infrastructure; Europe, around 5 percent.96 Even Mexico spends just over 3 percent.97 The United States has not broken 3 percent once since the mid-1970s.98.

Once without peer, the United States has fallen to nineteenth in college completion in the OECD, and the gap in completion between higher-income and lower-income students has widened.56 Older Americans are the most educated in the world. Younger Americans, not even close.