Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Austerity In America, Stephen R. Gray Jibb

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The main focus of Austerity in America concerns how the country's geographical belts contribute to the culture of austerity in US capitalism in the time since Reaganism. In this dissertation I examine the Corn Belt, the Rust Belt, the Bible Belt, the Sun Belt and the Marijuana Belt as stages in the development of America’s culture of austerity. Since the early 1980s America’s culture of austerity has protected the wealthy elite from the working classes, who have been punished by the offshoring of US manufacturing jobs in post-Fordist corporate restructuring. The overall goal of this research is to address how …