cover image The Price of Prosperity: Why Rich Nations Fail and How to Renew Them

The Price of Prosperity: Why Rich Nations Fail and How to Renew Them

Todd G. Buchholz. Harper, $29.99 (384p) ISBN 978-0-06-240570-8

Buchholz, director of economic policy in the George H.W. Bush White House, examines the forces that threaten to bring down wealthy countries, observing of the modern-day U.S., that “it is hard to get a country to ‘rally around the flag’ when everyone stomps off in his or her own direction.” He states that it’s a dangerous mistake to think societies are invincible just because they have wealth, citing the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires to show that great wealth will not necessarily protect a regime. In search of examples of strong leadership, he turns to Alexander the Great, Japan’s Meiji Restoration, Israeli prime minister Golda Meir, and Costa Rican president José Figueres Ferrer, among others. He also draws a grim picture of the U.S. as a country hamstrung by an aging populace, trade deficits, debt, a suffering work ethic, and loss of national identity. Buchholz charges that Americans no longer identify as Americans first, but he neatly avoids the trap of whining about the decline of patriotism, focusing instead on quantifiable social and economic change. Some sketched-out solutions are offered, but overall this is less a rallying cry than an interesting view on what makes—and breaks—a wealthy nation. Agent: Susan Ginsburg, Writers House. (June)