Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Just a Little Bit More: Summary Version and Study Guide: The Culture of Excess and the Fate of the Common Good
    Just a Little Bit More: Summary Version and Study Guide: The Culture of Excess and the Fate of the Common Good
    Just a Little Bit More: Summary Version and Study Guide: The Culture of Excess and the Fate of the Common Good
    Ebook51 pages35 minutes

    Just a Little Bit More: Summary Version and Study Guide: The Culture of Excess and the Fate of the Common Good

    By T. Carlos Anderson

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Is America a Christian Nation? According to author T. Carlos Andersen, the true religion of the land is the confluence of commerce, materialism, and consumerism. Andersen, defining religion as "ultimate concern," claims our true devotion is found in material pursuits. It's been a good religion; it has fed, clothed, sheltered, and employed millions of Americans. It can go too far, however. When these pursuits become excessive, the religion breaks bad and the common good suffers.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBlue Ocotillo Publishing
    Release dateNov 19, 2015
    ISBN9780879466381
    Just a Little Bit More: Summary Version and Study Guide: The Culture of Excess and the Fate of the Common Good

    Read more from T. Carlos Anderson

    Related to Just a Little Bit More

    Related ebooks

    Social Science For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      How the Bobos Broke America

      Aug 2, 2021

      How the Bobos Broke America
      21 min read

    • Article

      Meet The Expert

      Feb 16, 2023

      SARAH CHURCHWELL is a professor of American literature and chair of public understanding of the humanities at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. She is the author of numerous books on US history, including Behold, America: A History

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Politics of Dignity

      Feb 20, 2020

      The Politics of Dignity
      12 min read

    • Article

      The Power of “We”

      Dec 4, 2020

      The Power of “We”
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Power of “We”

      Dec 4, 2020

      The Power of “We”
      3 min read

    • Article

      Can You Put A Price Tag On Life?

      Mar 1, 2020

      Can You Put A Price Tag On Life?
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Abandonment Of Growth And The Decline Of The West

      Sep 15, 2022

      From the founding of the republic to the turn of the millennium, America’s core economic creed was growth. That growth religion enabled the United States to become the world’s richest and most powerful nation, and dramatically improved Americans’ qua

      42 min read

    • Article

      Michael Hiltzik: America Is Falling Out Of Love With Billionaires, And It's About Time

      Feb 1, 2019

      Our emerging political debate over taxing the rich seems to be getting bogged down in details - how high a tax rate, should we tax income or wealth, etc., etc. But this fixation on nuts and bolts is obscuring what may be the most important aspect of

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Truth About Prohibition

      Jan 1, 2022

      The Truth About Prohibition
      4 min read

    • Article

      Austerity

      Feb 15, 2023

      Austerity
      2 min read

    • Article

      Have Americans Given Up?

      Mar 5, 2017

      Have Americans Given Up?
      4 min read

    • Article

      As We Move Into New Decade, At Look At Life 100 Years Ago

      Jan 2, 2020

      It can be useful and instructive to observe the turning of a decade by looking back on what life was like in America a mere 100 years ago. On Jan. 2, 1920, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 108.76. Today it is over 28,000 points. In 1920, the U.S.

      2 min read

    • Article

      Sharing The Great American Dream

      Oct 29, 2020

      ROBERT PUTNAM is an American intellectual institution. His books, from Bowling Alone (2000) on the decline of community to Our Kids (2015) on the diminishing promise of equal opportunity, are committed social science at its best, and they stimulated

      6 min read

    • Article

      The People Who Hate People

      May 24, 2022

      The People Who Hate People
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Controlling Force

      Jan 29, 2019

      The Controlling Force
      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Just a Little Bit More

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Just a Little Bit More - T. Carlos Anderson

      Democracy

      INTRODUCTION

      I want to tell you a story about a god that has been around for a long time. This god lives in human hearts, and through the ages its spirit has inhabited various financial crises from the Dutch tulip panic of the seventeenth century to the US housing market bust of 2007–08. For the last one hundred and fifty years—what I call the long era—this god has promoted excess at the expense of the common good. Specifically, for the last thirty-five years a fundamentalist belief in the powers and ways of the market has pushed excess to new extremes. Excess isn’t solely found on Wall Street, excess has filtered its way into significant areas of American life.

      This pamphlet will take you through the three short eras of excess that make up the long era: the Gilded Age (1870–1900), the Roaring Twenties, and the current era that began in 1980. The dominant culture of commerce, materialism, and consumerism will be detailed and described as a religion—ultimate concern. It’s been a good religion for the most part—feeding, clothing, sheltering, and employing millions while simultaneously lifting many from the grip of poverty. The religion has it limits, however, and when it goes too far, it breaks bad and the shared common good suffers. Economic inequalities previously unknown produce for many a lifestyle strained and agitated, with a greater occurrence of social problems.

      Americans are told that in a free society of opportunity and liberty there will be winners and losers. Sure enough. But I contend that liberty and egalitarianism (a great American societal value to be explained in chapter 3) need not fight against one another. How can we live together, balancing freedoms and limits, for the good of society and for the betterment of the world?

      What would it be like to live in a society where poverty is treated as an historical relic, like slavery is today? Keep reading. This summary version of Just a Little Bit More: The Culture of Excess and the Fate of the Common Good will inform your understanding of the past and challenge your view of the present and future. The questions at the end of the chapters are intended for personal use or group discussion. If you like the presentation of these issues, please consider reading the full version of Just a Little Bit More, which develops these themes with greater detail, illustration, and depth.

      CHAPTER 1

      ROCKEFELLER AND THE NEW PERMISSION

      When John D. Rockefeller Sr. retired from Standard Oil in 1913, he had accumulated a fortune of $1 billion. His wealth stood apart from that of his Gilded Age peers Andrew Carnegie, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan. In the early part of the twentieth century, Rockefeller was the wealthiest person the world had ever known. Legend has it that around this time Rockefeller was asked the following question about wealth accumulation: How much is enough? His reputed answer: "Just a little

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1