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THE PARADOX OF PROGRESS

GROWING PESSIMISM IN AN ERA OF EXPANDING OPPORTUNITIES

An audit of America's socioeconomic condition, which effectively refutes the protestations of latter-day Jeremiahs that the country's best days are behind it. Without gainsaying the existence of problems in many areas of US life, McKenzie (The Home, 1995, etc.; Graduate School of Management/Univ. of California, Irvine) makes a persuasive case for the upbeat proposition that the promise of the nation's tomorrows is appreciably greater than the considerable achievements of its yesterdays. Disarmingly, he first concedes the perils of prophecy, reviewing wide-of-the-mark predictions made for 1990 by 70-odd commentators a century earlier at the Chicago Columbian Exposition. Getting down to business, the author documents the gains Americans made during the past couple of decades in terms of living standards, creature comforts, and opportunity. Addressing the paradox of progress (i.e., angst in the face of prosperity), McKenzie concludes that technology has given Americans young and old a host of new frontiers to explore and develop. He goes on to reckon the frequently high price (corporate layoffs, diminished job security, the need for individuals to adapt to convulsive change) that must be paid to keep the US competitive in a global marketplace. Covered as well is the slow pace at which political institutions have responded to potent new forces, the accelerating shift of government power to local levels, and (in aid of restoring what the author calls the moral infrastructure) a trend to impose community standards of behavior and personal responsibility on willful renegades whom victim theology has hitherto excused. Winding up (not down) in a burst of enthusiasm, McKenzie urges aging Baby Boomers and Generation Xers to stop whining and start taking advantage of the bright prospects he envisions for post- millennial America. A useful, timely, and forceful reminder of what's right with the US, from a scholar who's more Polonius than Pollyanna.

Pub Date: April 1, 1997

ISBN: 0-19-510239-8

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Oxford Univ.

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1997

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THINKING, FAST AND SLOW

Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...

A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.

The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.

Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011

ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1

Page Count: 512

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011

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REIMAGINING CAPITALISM IN A WORLD ON FIRE

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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