States for Sale

What explains the hard-right turn across states like Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, North Carolina, Kansas, and Michigan? And why are lawmakers in those states pursuing conservative reforms from exactly the same playbook? These are the questions that University of Oregon labor scholar Gordon Lafer tackles in The One Percent Solution. Working "one state at a time," Lafer argues that companies have aggressively lobbied legislatures to slash social benefits, privatize public services, undermine labor standards, and weaken unions across the public and private sectors.