In the aftermath of the 2010 Citizens United decision, it's become
commonplace to note the growing political dominance of a small segment
of the economic elite. But what exactly are those members of the elite
doing with their newfound influence? The One Percent Solution provides
an answer to this question for the first time. Gordon Lafer's book is a
comprehensive account of legislation promoted by the nation's biggest
corporate lobbies across all fifty state legislatures and encompassing a
wide range of labor and economic policies.In an era of growing economic
insecurity, it turns out that one of the main reasons life is becoming
harder for American workers is a relentless―and concerted―offensive by
the country’s best-funded and most powerful political forces: corporate
lobbies empowered by the Supreme Court to influence legislative outcomes
with an endless supply of cash. These actors have successfully
championed hundreds of new laws that lower wages, eliminate paid sick
leave, undo the right to sue over job discrimination, and cut essential
public services.Lafer shows how corporate strategies have been shaped by
twenty-first-century conditions―including globalization, economic
decline, and the populism reflected in both the Trump and Sanders
campaigns of 2016. Perhaps most important, Lafer shows that the
corporate legislative agenda has come to endanger the scope of democracy
itself. For anyone who wants to know what to expect from
corporate-backed Republican leadership in Washington, D.C., there is no
better guide than this record of what the same set of actors has been
doing in the state legislatures under its control.
