The Price of Civilization
Economics and Ethics After the Fall
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- £5.99
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
One of the world's most brilliant economists and the bestselling author of The End of Poverty and Common Wealth, Jeffrey Sachs has written a book that is essential reading for everyone.
In this time of crisis, The Price of Civilization sets out a bold and provocative, yet responsible and achievable, plan; and reveals why we must - and how we can - change our economic culture in this time of crisis.
This is a masterful roadmap for prosperity, a programme designed to bridge divides and provide a way forward that we - and our leaders - ignore at our peril.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Best known for advising postcommunist and impoverished countries on development strategies, economist Sachs (Common Wealth) takes on the cesspool of debt, backwardness, and corruption that is the United States in this hard-hitting brief for a humane economy. Sachs surveys an America where the rich get richer and the rest grow poorer, less secure, and less prepared for a modern economy; where a fixation by both parties on cutting taxes and coddling corporate donors Sachs issues stinging rebukes of Obama's policies creates insupportable federal deficits and stymies critical reforms and spending programs; and where an electorate stupefied by mass media and advertising ignores its better instincts and pursues a mindless consumerism. The author's straightforward exposition, buttressed by a wealth of revealing tables and charts, sharply rebuts reigning free market orthodoxies and makes a compelling case for an activist state that redistributes wealth and makes life fairer and more productive for everyone. Sachs's remedies are less focused than his critique, and his pinning of all hope on the 15- to 29-year-old "Millennial Generation," aka "the children of the Internet," feels na ve and ageist. Still, his stimulating, staunchly progressive take on America's dysfunctions is a must-read for every concerned citizen.
