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Rebuilding Aristocracy

The Abdication of American Ingenuity

Kyle J. Tobin

Something is broken. You can feel it. You work harder and fall further behind. You're told it's the market, it's global forces, it's just how things are now. It's not. Fifty years of decisions built an economy that takes from those who work and gives to those who toll. This book names the decisions, the people who made them, and exactly when. Then it shows you what can be done about it.

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Something is broken. You can feel it. You work harder and fall further behind. You're told it's the market, it's global forces, it's just how things are now. It's not.
Fifty years of decisions turned a production economy into an extraction economy. Not by accident. By choices made by people with names, in rooms with addresses, on dates that can be looked up.

This book names the decisions and the people who made them. From the Powell Memo in 1971 to the bank bailouts in 2008. How housing, healthcare, education, and retirement became extraction machines. How America surrendered strategic capacity while calling it free trade.

The tone is precise. The documentation is rigorous. This is testimony for the record, not a rant for the moment.

If you've been told to blame yourself, or immigrants, or the other party, this book shows you who actually made the decisions. If you've wondered whether anything can be done, it ends with a specification, not a wish.

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PoliticsEconomicsLeadershipHistoryUS Foreign Policy

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Author

About the Author

Kyle J. Tobin

Kyle J. Tobin has a high school diploma. No college degree.

He taught himself enterprise IT while bartending, became an engineer, then an advisor to executives at major corporations. He got into the rooms where the decisions in this book were made because he could do what they needed—before they started requiring credentials from people who could do what he did.

He entered technology in the early 2000s, when the deal still held. When demonstrated capability still outweighed diplomas. He watched that path close behind him.

He loves BBQ. He builds furniture with his hands. He lives in the country this book describes.

Contents

Table of Contents

Preface

INTRODUCTION

  1. The Deal
  2. The Break
  3. The Return
  4. The Partisan Trap
  5. The Non-Correction
  6. The Closing Window
  7. The Stakes
  8. PART I: THE INHERITANCE (1945-1973)

Chapter 1: The Deal

  1. The Claim
  2. The Visible Artifacts
  3. The Architecture of Constraint
  4. The Countervailing Power
  5. The Public Foundation
  6. The Pathways
  7. The Exclusions
  8. The Distinction
  9. The Logic of Production
  10. The Fragility
  11. PART II: THE PIVOT (1973-1986)

Chapter 2: The Blueprint

  1. The Memo
  2. The Incubation
  3. The School
  4. The Doctrine
  5. The Gatekeepers
  6. The Infrastructure
  7. The Waiting

Chapter 3: The Shock

  1. The Opening
  2. The Man
  3. The Alternatives
  4. The Weapon
  5. The Breaking
  6. The Knowing
  7. The Asymmetry

Chapter 4: The Mechanism

  1. The Spectacle
  2. The Permission
  3. The Redirection
  4. The Incentive
  5. The Silence

Chapter 5: The Seeds

  1. The Reform
  2. The Freeze
  3. The Conversion
  4. The Planting
  5. PART III: THE SELLOFF (1986-2001)

Chapter 6: The Deregulation Sequence

  1. The Wall
  2. The Erosion
  3. The Gambit
  4. The Demolition
  5. The Shadow
  6. The Reckoning
  7. The Transformation

Chapter 7: The Trade Sequence

  1. The Premise
  2. The Promises
  3. The Dissent
  4. The Calculus
  5. The Toll
  6. The Distance

Chapter 8: The Extraction Machine

  1. The Garage
  2. The Permission
  3. The Mechanism
  4. The Spectacle
  5. The Extraction
  6. The Subsidy
  7. The Harvest
  8. The Landlord
  9. The Toll
  10. The Return

Chapter 9: The Ratchet

  1. The Ratio
  2. The Ratchet
  3. The Reform
  4. The Club
  5. The Template
  6. The Parachute
  7. The Divergence
  8. PART IV: THE EPISTEMIC ROT

Chapter 10: The Toll Booth

  1. The Distance
  2. The Subsidy
  3. The Trap
  4. The Filter
  5. The Premium
  6. The Closure

Chapter 11: The Contempt

  1. The Move
  2. The Doctrine
  3. The Succession
  4. The Results
  5. The Invisible
  6. The Declaration
  7. The Separation

Chapter 12: The Forgetting

  1. The Reach
  2. The Fab
  3. The Yard
  4. The Chain
  5. The Timeline
  6. PART V: THE FOUR EXTRACTIONS

Chapter 13: Housing

  1. The Deal
  2. The Break
  3. The Mechanism
  4. The Trajectory

Chapter 14: Healthcare

  1. The Deal
  2. The Break
  3. The Mechanism
  4. The Trajectory

Chapter 15: Retirement

  1. The Deal
  2. The Break
  3. The Mechanism
  4. The Trajectory

Chapter 16: Family

  1. The Deal
  2. The Break
  3. The Mechanism
  4. The Trajectory
  5. PART VI: THE SELF-INFLICTED WOUND

Chapter 17: The Suicide Pact

  1. The Physics of Power
  2. The Test
  3. The Crime Scene
  4. The Deafness
  5. The Reverse Meritocracy
  6. The Pact Named
  7. The Hinge

Chapter 18: The Surrender

  1. The Uninvaded
  2. The Price
  3. Return on Sovereignty
  4. The Empty Chair
  5. The Waiting
  6. The Recklessness Named
  7. The Bill

Chapter 19: The Empty Arsenal

  1. The Audit
  2. The Masks
  3. The Medicine Cabinet
  4. The Island
  5. The Arsenal
  6. The Inheritance
  7. The Question

Chapter 20: The Revelation

  1. The Demand
  2. The Selection
  3. The Sacrifice
  4. The Immunity
  5. The Capture
  6. The Lesson
  7. PART VII: THE INCAPACITY

Chapter 21: The Obstacle

  1. The Distinction
  2. The Selection
  3. The Fossil
  4. The Arithmetic
  5. The Rejection
  6. The Cage

Chapter 22: The Proof

  1. The Paper
  2. The Empire
  3. The Immune System
  4. The Clean Sheet
  5. The Spasm
  6. The Diagnosis

Chapter 23: The Clocks

  1. The Inheritance
  2. The Island
  3. The Ledger
  4. The Capture
  5. The Mechanism

Chapter 24: The Default

  1. The Baseline
  2. The Inversion
  3. The Constraint
  4. The Spiral
  5. The Accelerant
  6. The Lock
  7. The Refusal
  8. PART VIII: WHAT COMES NEXT

Chapter 25: The Restructuring

  1. The Specification
  2. The Mechanism
  3. The Numbers
  4. The Objections
  5. The Path
  6. The Correction
  7. The Reckoning
  8. Appendix

Appendix A: Chapter References

  1. Chapter 1: The Deal
  2. Chapter 2: The Blueprint
  3. Chapter 3: The Shock
  4. Chapter 4: The Mechanism
  5. Chapter 5: The Seeds
  6. Chapter 6: The Deregulation Sequence
  7. Chapter 7: The Trade Sequence
  8. Chapter 8: The Extraction Machine
  9. Chapter 9: The Ratchet
  10. Chapter 10: The Toll Booth
  11. Chapter 11: The Contempt
  12. Chapter 12: The Forgetting
  13. Chapter 13: Housing
  14. Chapter 14: Healthcare
  15. Chapter 15: Retirement
  16. Chapter 16: Family
  17. Chapter 17: The Suicide Pact
  18. Chapter 18: The Surrender
  19. Chapter 19: The Empty Arsenal
  20. Chapter 20: The Revelation
  21. Chapter 21: The Obstacle
  22. Chapter 22: The Proof
  23. Chapter 23: The Clocks
  24. Chapter 24: The Default
  25. Chapter 25: The Restructuring

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