Campaign Boot Camp 2.0—Basic Training for Candidates, Staffers, Volunteers, and Nonprofits

America can’t more forward if we don’t have a clear understanding of how wealth is actually produced. How we view the creation of wealth and individual success shapes our choices on taxes, public investments in schools and vital infrastructure, regulations, the legitimacy of extravagant CEO pay, and more.

This book challenges the by-bootstraps-alone narrative beloved by anti-government conservatives to offer a more holistic view of the success of America’s business leaders and entrepreneurs. While acknowledging the importance of hard work, creativity, and leadership, it highlights several crucial, often unrecognized factors, with a particular emphasis on the ways government and society support and assists individuals: public education, research and development grants, social services, roads and highways, laws and regulations that establish a stable business environment, and many more. Miller and Lapham explore the historic roots of the self-made myth and offer profiles of business leaders who, in their own words, identify the kinds of government support and assistance that were crucial to their success. They also disprove the arguments of individuals like Donald Trump who have tried to perpetuate their own self-made myths of their success.

Brian Miller has served as executive director of United for a Fair Ecomy (UFE) since 2009, drawing on nearly 20 years of experience as a community organizer, coalition leader, media spokesperson, writer, researcher, and nprofit director. Author Residence: Seattle, WA.Mike Lapham is the project director and co-founder of UFE’s Responsible Wealth project, a network of over 700 business leaders and wealthy individuals. In addition to directing the program, Lapham is also a member, having inherited stock in his family’s paper mill in upstate New York. Author Residence: Boston, MAResponsible Wealth is a project of UFE that brings together 700 business leaders, high-wealth, and high-income individuals to speak out against their narrow financial self-interest and in favor of progressive tax policies and corporate accountability.