The Ends of Freedom

An urgent and galvanizing argument for an Economic Bill of Rightsand its potential to confer true freedom on all Americans. Since the Founding, Americans have debated the true meaning of freedom. For some, freedom meant the provision of lifes necessities, those basic conditions for the pursuit of happiness. For others, freedom meant the civil and political rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights and unfettered access to the marketplacenothing more. As Mark Paul explains, the latter interpretationthanks in large part to a particularly influential cadre of economistshas all but won out among policymakers, with dire repercussions for American society: rampant inequality, endemic poverty, and an economy built to benefit the few at the expense of the many. In this book, Paul shows how economic rightsrights to necessities like housing, employment, and health carehave been a part of the American conversation since the Revolutionary War and were a cornerstone of both the New Deal and the Civil Rights Movement. Their recuperation, he argues, would at long last make good on the promise of Americas founding documents. By drawing on FDRs proposed Economic Bill of Rights, Paul outlines a comprehensive policy program to achieve a more capacious and enduring version of American freedom. Among the rights he enumerates are the right to a good job, the right to an education, the right to banking and financial services, and the right to a healthy environment. Replete with discussions of some of todays most influential policy ideasfrom Medicare for All to a federal job guarantee to the Green New DealThe Ends of Freedom is a timely and urgent call to reclaim the idea of freedom from its captors on the political rightto ground Americas next era in the countrys progressive history and carve a path toward a more economically dynamic and equitable nation.