This book examines how many of the United States' social and economic problems are reinforced by the combination of school, business, and government. It outlines ways that U.S. government policy can be reformulated to make schools and training major components in the U.S. labor market's successful adjustment to the new workplace realities. The following are among the topics examined in the book's 13 chapters: reasons why many workers in the U.S. labor market are experiencing economic stagnation and decline; failings of the free market and government policies that have led to current labor market difficulties; investment and reinvention as strategies for emerging from current labor market difficulties; ways of reforming secondary and postsecondary education and transforming the school and postschool years into components of a life cycle of learning; policies to improve workplaces; strategies for reinventing workplace regulation; policies to end public housing as it now exists; strategies to address the problems faced by youths in poor areas; reinvention of disability policy; a normative model of policymaking that integrates knowledge of social sciences, the political process, and citizens' preferences; and lessons learned. Twenty-six boxes/figures are included. The book contains 290 references. (MN)