Next book

THE GOOD SOCIETY

THE HUMANE AGENDA

Always more of a critic than a scholar, Galbraith (The Culture of Contentment, 1992, etc.) here offers an exiguous primer on what, in his unabashedly partisan view, would constitute an attainably good society. Apparently assuming the truth of his progressive proposals to be self-evident, the octogenarian economist does not trouble to examine, let alone analyze, the varied elements of his construct at any length. Asserting that the welfare state is the result of historical forces (rather than political will) and that a modern consumer economy cannot perform satisfactorily without government intervention, the author starts by declaring that a good society should afford all of its members access to a rewarding life; it must also provide financial security for the aged, unemployment compensation for the jobless, a minimum wage, health care for all, strict regulation of working conditions, and price protection for farmers. Among other means to these ends, the author advocates progressive taxation; a willingness to tolerate moderate rates of inflation; less concern with federal budget deficits; curbs on speculation; and energetic efforts to counter swings in the business cycle. Galbraith goes on to laud the high returns yielded by substantive and systematic investments in education. Also high on his list of priorities are safeguards for the environment, a relatively open door for immigrants (who do society's heavy lifting), and a foreign policy calculated to ensure peaceful relations with other countries great and small. Galbraith argues that society should now look beyond the narrow confines of the nation-state to the brave new multilateral world that lies ahead. In the meantime, he urges Democrats to establish coalitions of the caring and compassionate to get out the vote for their party in future elections. An elder eminence's meagerly substantiated but righteously framed prescriptions for creating collective heavens on earth.

Pub Date: April 26, 1996

ISBN: 0-395-71328-5

Page Count: 208

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1996

Next book

GOOD ECONOMICS FOR HARD TIMES

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

Next book

THE NEW GEOGRAPHY OF JOBS

A welcome contribution from a newcomer who provides both a different view and balance in addressing one of the country's...

A fresh, provocative analysis of the debate on education and employment.

Up-and-coming economist Moretti (Economics/Univ. of California, Berkeley) takes issue with the “[w]idespread misconception…that the problem of inequality in the United States is all about the gap between the top one percent and the remaining 99 percent.” The most important aspect of inequality today, he writes, is the widening gap between the 45 million workers with college degrees and the 80 million without—a difference he claims affects every area of peoples' lives. The college-educated part of the population underpins the growth of America's economy of innovation in life sciences, information technology, media and other areas of globally leading research work. Moretti studies the relationship among geographic concentration, innovation and workplace education levels to identify the direct and indirect benefits. He shows that this clustering favors the promotion of self-feeding processes of growth, directly affecting wage levels, both in the innovative industries as well as the sectors that service them. Indirect benefits also accrue from knowledge and other spillovers, which accompany clustering in innovation hubs. Moretti presents research-based evidence supporting his view that the public and private economic benefits of education and research are such that increased federal subsidies would more than pay for themselves. The author fears the development of geographic segregation and Balkanization along education lines if these issues of long-term economic benefits are left inadequately addressed.

A welcome contribution from a newcomer who provides both a different view and balance in addressing one of the country's more profound problems.

Pub Date: May 5, 2012

ISBN: 978-0-547-75011-8

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Review Posted Online: April 3, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012

Close Quickview