Download or read book The Moral Economists written by Tim Rogan and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-03-19 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fresh look at how three important twentieth-century British thinkers viewed capitalism through a moral rather than material lens What’s wrong with capitalism? Answers to that question today focus on material inequality. Led by economists and conducted in utilitarian terms, the critique of capitalism in the twenty-first century is primarily concerned with disparities in income and wealth. It was not always so. The Moral Economists reconstructs another critical tradition, developed across the twentieth century in Britain, in which material deprivation was less important than moral or spiritual desolation. Tim Rogan focuses on three of the twentieth century’s most influential critics of capitalism—R. H. Tawney, Karl Polanyi, and E. P. Thompson. Making arguments about the relationships between economics and ethics in modernity, their works commanded wide readerships, shaped research agendas, and influenced public opinion. Rejecting the social philosophy of laissez-faire but fearing authoritarianism, these writers sought out forms of social solidarity closer than individualism admitted but freer than collectivism allowed. They discovered such solidarities while teaching economics, history, and literature to workers in the north of England and elsewhere. They wrote histories of capitalism to make these solidarities articulate. They used makeshift languages of “tradition” and “custom” to describe them until Thompson patented the idea of the “moral economy.” Their program began as a way of theorizing everything economics left out, but in challenging utilitarian orthodoxy in economics from the outside, they anticipated the work of later innovators inside economics. Examining the moral cornerstones of a twentieth-century critique of capitalism, The Moral Economists explains why this critique fell into disuse, and how it might be reformulated for the twenty-first century.

Download or read book The Morality of Radical Economics written by Ron P. Baiman and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-08-31 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is in equal parts a treatise on morality and economics, a critique of neoclassical orthodoxy, a brief for replacing mainstream economics with a radical political economics, and an argument for the abandonment of neoliberal capitalism in favor of democratic socialism. It includes a detailed proposal for a "demand and cost" alternative to "supply and demand" analysis and an in-depth technical critique of both neoclassical "high theory" and "applied microeconomic analysis" demonstrating that these are not only infeasible or immoral, but have directly contributed to public policy disasters. Further, the book suggests that only a moral economics in the form of radical political economy can address the looming economic and environmental crises of today’s world. Baiman begins with an introduction to morality and ethics in both general sciences and in economics in particular. He then guides readers through evidence of how neoclassical economics has not only failed to remain objective and value-free, but has become an ideology of apologetics protecting an immoral system. In addition to breaking down real-world examples to demonstrate his assertions, Baiman analyzes a theoretical Utopia design exercise. He concludes by arguing that the only form of economics that supports widely shared human values—such as social equity, democracy, and solidarity—is so-called "radical economics", and that all true economics science should be directed toward achieving more socially productive economic activity. An invaluable guide to morality and economics, this book will appeal to researchers and teachers looking to change the way we think about economics, policy, and society.

Download or read book Defending the Free Market written by Robert Sirico and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-05-21 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thirty years ago, the economic system of the Soviet empire—socialism—seemed definitively discredited. Today, the most popular figures in the Democratic Party embrace it, while the shapers of public opinion treat capitalism as morally indefensible. Is there a moral case for capitalism? Consumerism is an appalling spectacle. Free markets may be efficient, but are they fair? Aren’t there some things that we can’t afford to leave to the vicissitudes of the market? Robert Sirico, a onetime leftist, shows how a free economy—including private property, legally enforceable contracts, and prices and interest rates freely agreed to by the parties to a transaction—is the best way to meet society’s material needs. In fact, the free market has lifted millions out of dire poverty—far more people than state welfare or private charity has ever rescued from want. But efficiency isn’t its only virtue. Economic freedom is indispensable for the other freedoms we prize. And it’s not true that it makes things more important than people—just the reverse. Only if we have economic rights can we protect ourselves from government encroachment into the most private areas of our lives—including our consciences. Defending the Free Market is a powerful vindication of capitalism and a timely warning for a generation flirting with disaster.

Download or read book The Morality of Radical Economics written by Ron P. Baiman and published by Palgrave Macmillan. This book was released on 2016-03-29 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is in equal parts a treatise on morality and economics, a critique of neoclassical orthodoxy, a brief for replacing mainstream economics with a radical political economics, and an argument for the abandonment of neoliberal capitalism in favor of democratic socialism. It includes a detailed proposal for a "demand and cost" alternative to "supply and demand" analysis and an in-depth technical critique of both neoclassical "high theory" and "applied microeconomic analysis" demonstrating that these are not only infeasible or immoral, but have directly contributed to public policy disasters. Further, the book suggests that only a moral economics in the form of radical political economy can address the looming economic and environmental crises of today’s world. Baiman begins with an introduction to morality and ethics in both general sciences and in economics in particular. He then guides readers through evidence of how neoclassical economics has not only failed to remain objective and value-free, but has become an ideology of apologetics protecting an immoral system. In addition to breaking down real-world examples to demonstrate his assertions, Baiman analyzes a theoretical Utopia design exercise. He concludes by arguing that the only form of economics that supports widely shared human values—such as social equity, democracy, and solidarity—is so-called "radical economics", and that all true economics science should be directed toward achieving more socially productive economic activity. An invaluable guide to morality and economics, this book will appeal to researchers and teachers looking to change the way we think about economics, policy, and society.

Download or read book Capitalism and Disability written by Marta Russell and published by Haymarket Books. This book was released on 2019-08-06 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Spread out over many years and many different publications, the late author and activist Marta Russell wrote a number of groundbreaking and insightful essays on the nature of disability and oppression under capitalism. In this volume, Russell’s various essays are brought together in one place in order to provide a useful and expansive resource to those interested in better understanding the ways in which the modern phenomenon of disability is shaped by capitalist economic and social relations. The essays range in analysis from the theoretical to the topical, including but not limited to: the emergence of disability as a “human category” rooted in the rise of industrial capitalism and the transformation of the conditions of work, family, and society corresponding thereto; a critique of the shortcomings of a purely “civil rights approach” to addressing the persistence of disability oppression in the economic sphere, with a particular focus on the legacy of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990; an examination of the changing position of disabled people within the overall system of capitalist production utilizing the Marxist economic concepts of the reserve army of the unemployed, the labor theory of value, and the exploitation of wage-labor; the effects of neoliberal capitalist policies on the living conditions and social position of disabled people as it pertains to welfare, income assistance, health care, and other social security programs; imperialism and war as a factor in the further oppression and immiseration of disabled people within the United States and globally; and the need to build unity against the divisive tendencies which hide the common economic interest shared between disabled people and the often highly-exploited direct care workers who provide services to the former.

Download or read book Radical Political Economy written by Robin Hahnel and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-07-14 with total page 119 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a point-by-point comparison of Sraffian and Marxian treatments of prices, profits, technological change, economic crises, environmental sustainability, and the moral case against capitalism, are presented in six core chapters. They explain how the Sraffian treatment surpasses the Marxian treatment in every case. Large professional literatures are thoroughly referenced throughout, with both Marxian and Sraffian theories presented in a highly accessible way. This book is of great importance to those who study Sraffa and Marx, as well as academics and students who are interested in political economy, history of economic thought and economic theory and philosophy.

Download or read book Radical Economics written by Bruce Roberts and published by Springer. This book was released on 2012-09-28 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Basic Income written by Philippe Van Parijs and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-20 with total page 395 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Powerful as well as highly engaging—a brilliant book.” —Amartya Sen A Times Higher Education Book of the Week It may sound crazy to pay people whether or not they’re working or even looking for work. But the idea of providing an unconditional basic income to everyone, rich or poor, active or inactive, has long been advocated by such major thinkers as Thomas Paine, John Stuart Mill, and John Kenneth Galbraith. Now, with the traditional welfare state creaking under pressure, it has become one of the most widely debated social policy proposals in the world. Basic Income presents the most acute and fullest defense of this radical idea, and makes the case that it is our most realistic hope for addressing economic insecurity and social exclusion. “They have set forth, clearly and comprehensively, what is probably the best case to be made today for this form of economic and social policy.” —Benjamin M. Friedman, New York Review of Books “A rigorous analysis of the many arguments for and against a universal basic income, offering a road map for future researchers.” —Wall Street Journal “What Van Parijs and Vanderborght bring to this topic is a deep understanding, an enduring passion and a disarming optimism.” —Steven Pearlstein, Washington Post

Download or read book Radical Sufficiency written by Christine Firer Hinze and published by Georgetown University Press. This book was released on 2021-02-01 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this timely book, Christine Firer Hinze looks back at Monsignor John A. Ryan’s American Catholic defense of worker justice and a living wage, advancing his efforts for an action-oriented livelihood agenda that situates US working families’ economic pursuits within a comprehensive commitment to sustainable, “radical sufficiency” for all.

Download or read book Money and the Morality of Exchange written by Jonathan P. Parry and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1989-11-09 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume deals with the way in which money is symbolically represented in a range of different cultures, from South and South-east Asia, Africa and South America. It is also concerned with the moral evaluation of monetary and commercial exchanges as against exchanges of other kinds. The essays cast radical doubt on many Western assumptions about money: that it is the acid which corrodes community, depersonalises human relationships, and reduces differences of quality to those of mere quantity; that it is the instrument of man's freedom, and so on. Rather than supporting the proposition that money produces easily specifiable changes in world view, the emphasis here is on the way in which existing world views and economic systems give rise to particular ways of representing money. But this highly relativistic conclusion is qualified once we shift the focus from money to the system of exchange as a whole. One rather general pattern that then begins to emerge is of two separate but related transactional orders, the majority of systems making some ideological space for relatively impersonal, competitive and individual acquisitive activity. This implies that even in a non-monetary economy these features are likely to exist within a certain sphere of activity, and that it is therefore misleading to attribute them to money. By so doing, a contrast within cultures is turned into a contrast between cultures, thereby reinforcing the notion that money itself has the power to transform the nature of social relationships.

Download or read book Rethinking Economic Policy for Social Justice written by Radhika Balakrishnan and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-31 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The dominant approach to economic policy has so far failed to adequately address the pressing challenges the world faces today: extreme poverty, widespread joblessness and precarious employment, burgeoning inequality, and large-scale environmental threats. This message was brought home forcibly by the 2008 global economic crisis. Rethinking Economic Policy for Social Justice shows how human rights have the potential to transform economic thinking and policy-making with far-reaching consequences for social justice. The authors make the case for a new normative and analytical framework, based on a broader range of objectives which have the potential to increase the substantive freedoms and choices people enjoy in the course of their lives and not on not upon narrow goals such as the growth of gross domestic product. The book covers a range of issues including inequality, fiscal and monetary policy, international development assistance, financial markets, globalization, and economic instability. This new approach allows for a complex interaction between individual rights, collective rights and collective action, as well as encompassing a legal framework which offers formal mechanisms through which unjust policy can be protested. This highly original and accessible book will be essential reading for human rights advocates, economists, policy-makers and those working on questions of social justice.

Download or read book The New Economics written by Steve Keen and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2021-11-11 with total page 141 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the wall of Wittenberg church. He argued that the Church’s internally consistent but absurd doctrines had pickled into a dogmatic structure of untruth. It was time for a Reformation. Half a millennium later, Steve Keen argues that economics needs its own Reformation. In Debunking Economics, he eviscerated an intellectual church – neoclassical economics – that systematically ignores its own empirical untruths and logical fallacies, and yet is still mysteriously worshipped by its scholarly high priests. In this book, he presents his Reformation: a New Economics, which tackles serious issues that today's economic priesthood ignores, such as money, energy and ecological sustainability. It gives us hope that we can save our economies from collapse and the planet from ecological catastrophe. Performing this task with his usual panache and wit, Steve Keen’s new book is unmissable to anyone who has noticed that the economics Emperor is naked and would like him to put on some clothes.

Download or read book Capitalism written by Ayn Rand and published by . This book was released on 1967 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Why Do Elections Matter in Africa written by Nic Cheeseman and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2021-02-18 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A radical new approach to understanding Africa's elections: explaining why politicians, bureaucrats and voters so frequently break electoral rules.

Download or read book The Economics of Belonging written by Martin Sandbu and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-06-16 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This is a proposal for a short book (of around 50,000 words) that speaks directly to the state we are in. The populist insurgency on both sides of the Atlantic and in Europe has deep roots in decades of mismanagement of economic and cultural change and as a result there are large groups of people who feel they no longer belong to the societies they live in, the disinfranchised, the left behind. The appeal of the anti-liberal populists who have emerged is that they convince those who feel left behind that national leaders are no longer working in their interests hence the rhetoric of 'putting America first' and 'making America great again' or the Brexiteers claining that they are 'taking back control.' In undemocractic regimes elsewhere populists play on people's feelings of insecurity in an unpredictable and fast changing world, promising security and order in exchange for democratic freedom. Liberal openness has been put on the defensive so it is up to us, electorates, politicians and policy makers, to show how an open and liberal economic system can once again belong to everyone. In the second part of the book Martin Sandbu outlines four key areas of economic policy that he believes will address not just the symptoms but the underlying causes of the current inequality which has led to so many people, especially the young and the most vulnerable being left behind. These include productivity, regional development, improved access to business finance for SMEs, and increaed representation for workers. He makes a number of other recommendaitons regarding housing, education for all, universal basic income and taxation. He concludes by saying that while these proposals add up to a radical package in total they are necessary reforms to ensure a sense of belonging and without them we could be opening the door to a radicalism which is both illiberal and undemocratic"--

Download or read book Radical Reform written by Tariq Ramadan and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009-02-05 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this new book, Tariq Ramadan argues that it is crucial to find theoretical and practical solutions that will enable Western Muslims to remain faithful to Islamic ethics while fully living within their societies and their time. He notes that Muslim scholars often refer to the notion of ijtihad (critical and renewed reading of the foundational texts) as the only way for Muslims to take up these modern challenges. But, Ramadan argues, in practice such readings have effectively reached the limits of their ability to serve the faithful in the West as well as the East. In this book he sets forward a radical new concept of ijtihad, which puts context -- including the knowledge derived from the hard and human sciences, cultures and their geographic and historical contingencies -- on an equal footing with the scriptures as a source of Islamic law.

Download or read book Karl Polanyi written by Gareth Dale and published by Polity. This book was released on 2010-06-21 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Karl Polanyi’s The Great Transformation is generally acclaimed as being among the most influential works of economic history in the twentieth century, and remains as vital in the current historical conjuncture as it was in his own. In its critique of nineteenth-century ‘market fundamentalism’ it reads as a warning to our own neoliberal age, and is widely touted as a prophetic guidebook for those who aspire to understand the causes and dynamics of global economic turbulence at the end of the 2000s. Karl Polanyi: The Limits of the Market is the first comprehensive introduction to Polanyi’s ideas and legacy. It assesses not only the texts for which he is famous – prepared during his spells in American academia – but also his journalistic articles written in his first exile in Vienna, and lectures and pamphlets from his second exile, in Britain. It provides a detailed critical analysis of The Great Transformation, but also surveys Polanyi’s seminal writings in economic anthropology, the economic history of ancient and archaic societies, and political and economic theory. Its primary source base includes interviews with Polanyi’s daughter, Kari Polanyi-Levitt, as well as the entire compass of his own published and unpublished writings in English and German. This engaging and accessible introduction to Polanyi’s thinking will appeal to students and scholars across the social sciences, providing a refreshing perspective on the roots of our current economic crisis.