by Bill Poje ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 8, 2018
Overly broad declamation and triumphalism crowd out scrupulous analysis.
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Poje furnishes a sweeping critique of the current American systems of law, economics, and governance, and proposes an alternative.
According to Poje (Painless, 2008) the American “socioeconomic legal political system,” or SELP, is so thoroughly plagued by “inherent flaws” that it can’t be remedied by a series of targeted tweaks—it must be entirely replaced. At the heart of the problem is a gratuitously impenetrable complexity: The legal system is so “arcane” that no citizen understands it, and each citizen is necessarily involved in some illegal activity. Likewise, the tax system is similarly labyrinthine and seems chiefly designed to pit citizens against one another in a contest for resources. Finally, a burgeoning matrix of social welfare programs is doomed to fail to treat citizens equally, again inevitably stoking the flames of class conflict. Instead of a well-functioning society, Americans are subjected to a “Byzantine pineapple,” which the author attempts to explain this way: “Those who get the tax money are those inside the pineapple of government dole, while those outside the Byzantine pineapple get deterred by the outer defense mechanisms of the pineapple.” It’s never entirely clear what precisely he means by this demarcation—the principal point seems to be that such a system necessarily involves favoritism. The author proposes that the current tax system be replaced by a flat tax—he includes a macroeconomic formula to determine its specific nature—and an equal monthly stipend for all citizens. He recommends the termination of need-based government programs, though the government would pay all medical bills. Poje anticipates that a streamlined SELP, including a government hamstrung by tight spending limits, will produce ample tax revenue to cover the new costs. The author also outlines the establishment of a corporation to steward these changes, which includes the marketing plan for a movie that further educates Americans about the SELP he advocates. Poje’s critique is sensible if familiar—it’s hard to argue that the current tax regime isn’t monstrously bloated. However, his study offers hyper-general declaration in the absence of detailed analysis—a more rigorous empirical appraisal would have been more helpful than a chapter on the way his “lifetime of accomplishment” justifies his expertise. Also, while he admits he has no background in film, he seems quixotically convinced his will be a big hit and “it will succeed where Ben-Hur failed.”
Overly broad declamation and triumphalism crowd out scrupulous analysis.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-984555-12-0
Page Count: 191
Publisher: XlibrisUS
Review Posted Online: Feb. 25, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 12, 2019
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
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SEEN & HEARD
by Rebecca Henderson ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2020
A readable, persuasive argument that our ways of doing business will have to change if we are to prosper—or even survive.
A well-constructed critique of an economic system that, by the author’s account, is a driver of the world’s destruction.
Harvard Business School professor Henderson vigorously questions the bromide that “management’s only duty is to maximize shareholder value,” a notion advanced by Milton Friedman and accepted uncritically in business schools ever since. By that logic, writes the author, there is no reason why corporations should not fish out the oceans, raise drug prices, militate against public education (since it costs tax money), and otherwise behave ruinously and anti-socially. Many do, even though an alternative theory of business organization argues that corporations and society should enjoy a symbiotic relationship of mutual benefit, which includes corporate investment in what economists call public goods. Given that the history of humankind is “the story of our increasing ability to cooperate at larger and larger scales,” one would hope that in the face of environmental degradation and other threats, we might adopt the symbiotic model rather than the winner-take-all one. Problems abound, of course, including that of the “free rider,” the corporation that takes the benefits from collaborative agreements but does none of the work. Henderson examines case studies such as a large food company that emphasized environmentally responsible production and in turn built “purpose-led, sustainable living brands” and otherwise led the way in increasing shareholder value by reducing risk while building demand. The author argues that the “short-termism” that dominates corporate thinking needs to be adjusted to a longer view even though the larger problem might be better characterized as “failure of information.” Henderson closes with a set of prescriptions for bringing a more equitable economics to the personal level, one that, among other things, asks us to step outside routine—eat less meat, drive less—and become active in forcing corporations (and politicians) to be better citizens.
A readable, persuasive argument that our ways of doing business will have to change if we are to prosper—or even survive.Pub Date: May 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5417-3015-1
Page Count: 336
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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