Suchergebnisse

For the past twenty-five years, the United States has undergone a retrogression in its socioeconomic policies-facilitated and supported by most economists-thanks to the steady drumbeat of arguments by entrepreneurs and politicians who celebrate the free market for anything and everything and who advocate, among other follies, balanced budgets and reduced social expenditures. The consequences of these developments have already harmed millions of Americans; but in the present climate of opinion and politics, the policy direction is unlikely to be reversed. Against the Conventional Wisdom is a rallying cry against this stampede. It seeks to provide an analytical counterattack, showing that what has become "common sense" is not good sense economically or socially; is neither necessary nor desirable; and will deepen existing troubles, not resolve them. We cannot afford to continue to relive the 1920s-when the same arguments (and lack of disagreement) prevailed, when budgets were balanced, when finance capitalism and speculation took center stage. At that time a large proportion of the workforce found itself pushed aside by the 1920s version of downsizing and outsourcing, and the rich became much richer. In the opening chapters of the book, Douglas Dowd explores the reasoning and the realities of the free market ideology, in its original and present forms. Succeeding chapters treat in detail the human, social, and natural consequences of "rule by the market" over time and the dangers of allowing the market to rule today and tomorrow. The book concludes with suggested alternatives to current tendencies-alternatives that are simultaneously desirable, necessary, and realistic.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Figures and Tables -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Economics and Economies, Past and Present -- Classical and Neoclassical Economics -- Mercantilism, Capitalism, and Political Economy -- Competition, Power, and Property -- Classical Political Economy and Industrial Revolution -- Industrial Capitalism and Neoclassical Economics -- Human Nature and Conduct -- Transformation and Failure of the Market Economy -- Depression, Keynes, and War -- Toward a New Political Economy -- Reading Suggestions -- 2. Capitalism

Cover -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Prologue -- 1. Inequality: An Introduction -- 2. Class Inequality and the Inequality of Political and Social Power -- 3. Inequality Based on Gender, "Race," Nationalism and Religion -- 4. Big Business and Inequality -- 5. Today's Inequality as Worsened by Consumerism and the Media -- 6. Globalization: Unintended Consequences, Inc. -- 7. Financialization: Las Vegas, Inc. -- 8. Militarism and Inequality -- 9: Inequality's Consequences for its Victims and its Victimizers (I) -- Poverty -- Health Care -- 10. Inequality's Consequences for its Victims and its Victimizers (II) -- Education -- Housing and the Homeless -- Nutrition and Hunger -- Opportunity -- Dignity, Morale, Self-Respect, and Family Life -- 11. Inequality's Interacting Consequences for the Economy, Democracy and Social Decency -- 12. Comparisons of Inequality and its Treatment Between the US and Western Europe -- Epilogue -- Bibliography -- Index.

Intro -- Contents -- Prologue What Has Capitalism Done For Us? To Us? -- The Dynamics of Capitalist Development -- Capitalism's nature and nurture -- The heart of the matter: expansion and exploitation -- Oligarchic rule? -- What exploitation? -- Trade and the flag: Which follows which? -- In sum -- The Sociology of Economic Theory -- The economy -- Objectivity and neutrality -- What should economists be expected to do? -- 1 Birth: The Industrial Revolution and Classical Political Economy, 1750-1850 -- The Start of Something Big -- Why Britain took the lead -- Commodification as revolution -- The State: Now You See It, Now You Don't -- Emperor Cotton -- Hell on earth -- Industrialism in the Saddle -- The Brains Trust -- Adam Smith -- Invisible hand or invisible fist? -- David Ricardo -- The gospel of free trade -- Abstract theory versus earthy realities -- Jean- Baptiste Say -- Depression is impossible -- Thomas Robert Malthus -- Jeremy Bentham -- John Stuart Mill -- And Karl Marx -- 2 Maturation: Global Capitalism and Neoclassical Economics: 1850-1914 -- And British Industry Shall Rule the World: For a While -- Politics, the accumulation of capital, and the industrial revolution -- The Second Industrial Revolution -- Industrialization at the gallop -- The Pandoras box of imperialism -- The United States -- The importance of being lucky -- Big, bigger, biggest -- Germany -- Prussian political economy -- German science and technology -- The nation with two faces -- A Digression on the Casting of Stones -- Japan -- Arise, Ye Prisoners of Starvation! -- Don't waste any time in mourning. Organize -- Socialist movements in Europe -- And the United States? -- Japan and Germany ( again) -- A Place in the Sun -- The rat race begins -- - And speeds up -- - Then explodes -- Economists in Wonderland -- Let us now assume -- Recipes for absurdities.

For the past twenty-five years, the United States has undergone a retrogression in its socioeconomic policies-facilitated and supported by most economists-thanks to the steady drumbeat of arguments by entrepreneurs and politicians who celebrate the free market for anything and everything and who advocate, among other follies, balanced budgets and r