Social Costs And Public Action In Modern Capitalism

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Social Costs and Public Action in Modern Capitalism

Author : Wolfram Elsner
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 113412435X
Total Pages : 440 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (341 download)

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Book Synopsis Social Costs and Public Action in Modern Capitalism by : Wolfram Elsner

Download or read book Social Costs and Public Action in Modern Capitalism written by Wolfram Elsner and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007-01-24 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Social Costs approach to the globalised capitalist market economy has gained new relevance in recent years. The present situation is one of widespread and increasing deterioration of the social, cultural, democratic, and environmental frameworks of advanced capitalist market societies. This deterioration is indicated by the threats of unemployment, precarious working conditions and increasing income/status inequality, uneven geographical developments, and the exploitation and undermining of the institutional fabric of the society. It is aggravated by the rapid extension - at local, national, regional and global scales - of ecological disruption. So the global capitalist market economy is characterised by a great deal of instability and so-called true uncertainty, which largely undermine its coordinating and welfare-enhancing capacity. The view suggested by Karl William Kapp’s seminal evolutionary open-systems approach is that these processes and problems are the outcome of a widening gap between private individualist economic, and societal values or, to use Karl Polanyi’s terms, of the ever increasing disembeddedness of the economy from society and of the subjugation of society to the economy. The key actor in this process is business or, more specifically, it is the increasingly dominant, globalised, deregulated and disembedded hierarchical and power system of business enterprise. Current analyses of the global capitalist market economy are overdue to be undertaken making use of the powerful analytic frame of Karl William Kapp’s open systems economics. ‘Social Costs and Public Action in Modern Capitalism’ examines this approach from a theoretical, conceptual, empirical, policy and case study level.

At What Cost

Author : Nicholas Freudenberg
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN 13 : 0190078626
Total Pages : 417 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (9 download)

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Book Synopsis At What Cost by : Nicholas Freudenberg

Download or read book At What Cost written by Nicholas Freudenberg and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2021 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An incisive and powerful investigation of corporate impact on human and planetary well-being Freedom of choice lies at the heart of American society. Every day, individuals decide what to eat, which doctors to see, who to connect with online, and where to educate their children. Yet, many Americans don't realize that these choices are illusory at best. By the start of the 21st century, every major industrial sector in the global economy was controlled by no more than five transnational corporations, and in about a third of these sectors, a single company accounted for more than 40 percent of global sales. The available options in food, healthcare, education, transportation, and even online presence are largely constructed by corporations, whose sweeping influence have made them the public face and executive agents of 21st-century capitalism. At What Cost confronts how globalization, financial speculation, monopolies, and control of science and technology have enhanced the ability of corporations and their allies to overwhelm influences of government, family, community, and faith. As corporations manipulate demand through skillful marketing and veto the choices that undermine their bottom line, free consumer choice has all but disappeared, and with it, the personal protections guarding our collective health. At What Cost argues that the world created by 21st-century capitalism is simply not fit to solve our most serious public health problems, from climate change to opioid addiction. However, author and public health expert Nicholas Freudenberg also shows that though the road is steep, human and planetary well-being constitute a powerful mobilizing idea for a new social movement, one that will restore the power of individual voice to our democracy. With impeccably detailed research and an eye towards a better future, At What Cost arms ordinary citizens, activists, and health professionals with an understanding of how we've arrived at the precipice, and what we can do to ensure a healthier collective future.

Capitalism on Edge

Author : Albena Azmanova
Publisher : Columbia University Press
ISBN 13 : 0231530609
Total Pages : 130 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (315 download)

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Book Synopsis Capitalism on Edge by : Albena Azmanova

Download or read book Capitalism on Edge written by Albena Azmanova and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2020-01-14 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The wake of the financial crisis has inspired hopes for dramatic change and stirred visions of capitalism’s terminal collapse. Yet capitalism is not on its deathbed, utopia is not in our future, and revolution is not in the cards. In Capitalism on Edge, Albena Azmanova demonstrates that radical progressive change is still attainable, but it must come from an unexpected direction. Azmanova’s new critique of capitalism focuses on the competitive pursuit of profit rather than on forms of ownership and patterns of wealth distribution. She contends that neoliberal capitalism has mutated into a new form—precarity capitalism—marked by the emergence of a precarious multitude. Widespread economic insecurity ails the 99 percent across differences in income, education, and professional occupation; it is the underlying cause of such diverse hardships as work-related stress and chronic unemployment. In response, Azmanova calls for forging a broad alliance of strange bedfellows whose discontent would challenge not only capitalism’s unfair outcomes but also the drive for profit at its core. To achieve this synthesis, progressive forces need to go beyond the old ideological certitudes of, on the left, fighting inequality and, on the right, increasing competition. Azmanova details reforms that would enable a dramatic transformation of the current system without a revolutionary break. An iconoclastic critique of left orthodoxy, Capitalism on Edge confronts the intellectual and political impasses of our time to discern a new path of emancipation.

The Future of Capitalism

Author : Paul Collier
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 0062748661
Total Pages : 369 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (627 download)

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Book Synopsis The Future of Capitalism by : Paul Collier

Download or read book The Future of Capitalism written by Paul Collier and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2018-12-04 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Bill Gates's Five Books for Summer Reading 2019 From world-renowned economist Paul Collier, a candid diagnosis of the failures of capitalism and a pragmatic and realistic vision for how we can repair it. Deep new rifts are tearing apart the fabric of the United States and other Western societies: thriving cities versus rural counties, the highly skilled elite versus the less educated, wealthy versus developing countries. As these divides deepen, we have lost the sense of ethical obligation to others that was crucial to the rise of post-war social democracy. So far these rifts have been answered only by the revivalist ideologies of populism and socialism, leading to the seismic upheavals of Trump, Brexit, and the return of the far-right in Germany. We have heard many critiques of capitalism but no one has laid out a realistic way to fix it, until now. In a passionate and polemical book, celebrated economist Paul Collier outlines brilliantly original and ethical ways of healing these rifts—economic, social and cultural—with the cool head of pragmatism, rather than the fervor of ideological revivalism. He reveals how he has personally lived across these three divides, moving from working-class Sheffield to hyper-competitive Oxford, and working between Britain and Africa, and acknowledges some of the failings of his profession. Drawing on his own solutions as well as ideas from some of the world’s most distinguished social scientists, he shows us how to save capitalism from itself—and free ourselves from the intellectual baggage of the twentieth century.

Social Costs Today

Author : Wolfram Elsner
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1136285717
Total Pages : 322 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (362 download)

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Book Synopsis Social Costs Today by : Wolfram Elsner

Download or read book Social Costs Today written by Wolfram Elsner and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-06-25 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book deals with the current crises from a somewhat different the usual perspectives. It claims that causes and policy implications of these crises cannot be properly assessed by focusing on allocative efficiency or income growth alone; it requires a more general approach, based on social costs. It does not deal with social costs according to the Pigouvian or the Coasian traditions. It draws on the work of Original Institutional Economics (OIE) such as Thorstein Veblen, Karl William Kapp, and Karl Polanyi, on Post-Keynesians such as Hyman Minsky and, in general, on authors who have provided insights beyond the conventional wisdom of economic thought.

The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism

Author : Gosta Esping-Andersen
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 13 : 0745666752
Total Pages : 322 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (456 download)

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Book Synopsis The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism by : Gosta Esping-Andersen

Download or read book The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism written by Gosta Esping-Andersen and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2013-05-29 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few discussions in modern social science have occupied as much attention as the changing nature of welfare states in western societies. Gosta Esping-Andersen, one of the most distinguished contributors to current debates on this issue, here provides a new analysis of the character and role of welfare states in the functioning of contemporary advanced western societies. Esping-Andersen distinguishes several major types of welfare state, connecting these with variations in the historical development of different western countries. Current economic processes, the author argues, such as those moving towards a post-industrial order, are not shaped by autonomous market forces but by the nature of states and state differences. Fully informed by comparative materials, this book will have great appeal to everyone working on issues of economic development and post-industrialism. Its audience will include students and academics in sociology, economics and politics.

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism

Author : Shoshana Zuboff
Publisher : PublicAffairs
ISBN 13 : 1610395700
Total Pages : 683 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (13 download)

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Book Synopsis The Age of Surveillance Capitalism by : Shoshana Zuboff

Download or read book The Age of Surveillance Capitalism written by Shoshana Zuboff and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2019-01-15 with total page 683 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The challenges to humanity posed by the digital future, the first detailed examination of the unprecedented form of power called "surveillance capitalism," and the quest by powerful corporations to predict and control our behavior. In this masterwork of original thinking and research, Shoshana Zuboff provides startling insights into the phenomenon that she has named surveillance capitalism. The stakes could not be higher: a global architecture of behavior modification threatens human nature in the twenty-first century just as industrial capitalism disfigured the natural world in the twentieth. Zuboff vividly brings to life the consequences as surveillance capitalism advances from Silicon Valley into every economic sector. Vast wealth and power are accumulated in ominous new "behavioral futures markets," where predictions about our behavior are bought and sold, and the production of goods and services is subordinated to a new "means of behavioral modification." The threat has shifted from a totalitarian Big Brother state to a ubiquitous digital architecture: a "Big Other" operating in the interests of surveillance capital. Here is the crucible of an unprecedented form of power marked by extreme concentrations of knowledge and free from democratic oversight. Zuboff's comprehensive and moving analysis lays bare the threats to twenty-first century society: a controlled "hive" of total connection that seduces with promises of total certainty for maximum profit -- at the expense of democracy, freedom, and our human future. With little resistance from law or society, surveillance capitalism is on the verge of dominating the social order and shaping the digital future -- if we let it.

Filthy Lucre

Author : Joseph Heath
Publisher : HarperCollins Canada
ISBN 13 : 1554687691
Total Pages : 390 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (546 download)

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Book Synopsis Filthy Lucre by : Joseph Heath

Download or read book Filthy Lucre written by Joseph Heath and published by HarperCollins Canada. This book was released on 2010-06-01 with total page 390 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Economists have a bad reputation. Not only do they assume that everyone is self-interested and amoral, they are almost always cheerleaders for the free market. As a result, most people who do not already share their beliefs ignore everything that economists have to say. This is a problem. Even among the highly educated, economics is a minefield of fallacies and errors. Among those who know little about the subject—a group that includes the average taxpayer and consumer, as well as most journalists, political activists and politicians—almost every widely held belief is false. The level of economic illiteracy is stunning. Filthy Lucre aims to level the playing field and, in this time of enormous market volatility and unprecedented instability, raise our level of economic literacy. Drawing on everyday examples to skewer the six favourite economic fallacies of the right and then the left, we learn why the right wing so wrongly believes that capitalism is the natural order of things, that any tax cut is a good tax cut, and that personal responsibility can solve any problem. And, contrary to how the left feels, why we must resist the urge to fiddle with prices, why the pursuit of profit is not such a bad thing, and why, despite efforts to improve or even fix wages, some jobs will always suck.

The Dark Places of Business Enterprise

Author : Pietro Frigato
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1000006867
Total Pages : 247 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis The Dark Places of Business Enterprise by : Pietro Frigato

Download or read book The Dark Places of Business Enterprise written by Pietro Frigato and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-04-05 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book considers Thorstein Veblen’s central preoccupation with the dark places of business enterprise, an integral part of the old institutional economics. Combining the contributions made by Karl William Kapp and Philip Mirowski, it proposes the systematization of an adjourned institutional theory of social costs of business enterprise useful for the analysis of contemporary crises. The Dark Places of Business Enterprise explores the research potential of the theory of social costs for the analysis of actual business behavior in the current globalized privatization regime. It begins with a detailed outline of Veblen’s critique of business enterprise and market competition before illustrating the methodical enrichment of this approach through Kapp’s work. Finally, it concludes by proposing the integration of the Veblenian-Kappian approach with Mirowski’s theory of markets and business doubt manufacture. The resulting theory of social costs will shed light on the ubiquitous business control of society under the now dominant computer-based technological infrastructure. This interdisciplinary foundation of the theory of social costs, encompassing knowledge from computer science and engineering to natural sciences, provides the tools required to analyze this great transformation.

The Capitalism Paradox

Author : Paul H. Rubin
Publisher : Bombardier Books
ISBN 13 : 1642931403
Total Pages : 172 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (429 download)

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Book Synopsis The Capitalism Paradox by : Paul H. Rubin

Download or read book The Capitalism Paradox written by Paul H. Rubin and published by Bombardier Books. This book was released on 2019-07-30 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In spite of its numerous obvious failures, many presidential candidates and voters are in favor of a socialist system for the United States. Socialism is consistent with our primitive evolved preferences, but not with a modern complex economy. One reason for the desire for socialism is the misinterpretation of capitalism. The standard definition of free market capitalism is that it’s a system based on unbridled competition. But this oversimplification is incredibly misleading—capitalism exists because human beings have organically developed an elaborate system based on trust and collaboration that allows consumers, producers, distributors, financiers, and the rest of the players in the capitalist system to thrive. Paul Rubin, the world’s leading expert on cooperative capitalism, explains simply and powerfully how we should think about markets, economics, and business—making this book an indispensable tool for understanding and communicating the vast benefits the free market bestows upon societies and individuals.

Economics, Accounting and the True Nature of Capitalism

Author : Jacques Richard
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 100048405X
Total Pages : 182 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (4 download)

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Book Synopsis Economics, Accounting and the True Nature of Capitalism by : Jacques Richard

Download or read book Economics, Accounting and the True Nature of Capitalism written by Jacques Richard and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-11-29 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Almost all economists, whether classical, neoclassical or Marxist, have failed in their analyses of capitalism to consider the underpinning systems of accounting. This book draws attention to this lacuna, focusing specifically on the concept of capital: a major concept that dominates all teaching and practice in both economics and management. It is argued that while for the practitioners of capitalism – in accounting and business – the capital in their accounts is a debt to be repaid (or a thing to be kept), for economists, it has been considered a means (or even a resource or an asset) intended to be worn out. This category error has led to economists failing to comprehend the true nature of capitalism. On this basis, this book proposes a new definition of capitalism that brings about considerable changes in the attitude to be had towards this economic system, in particular, the means to bring about its replacement. This book will be of significant interest to readers of political economy, history of economic thought, critical accounting and heterodox economics.

Ages of American Capitalism

Author : Jonathan Levy
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 0812995023
Total Pages : 945 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (129 download)

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Book Synopsis Ages of American Capitalism by : Jonathan Levy

Download or read book Ages of American Capitalism written by Jonathan Levy and published by Random House. This book was released on 2021-04-20 with total page 945 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A leading economic historian traces the evolution of American capitalism from the colonial era to the present—and argues that we’ve reached a turning point that will define the era ahead. “A monumental achievement, sure to become a classic.”—Zachary D. Carter, author of The Price of Peace In this ambitious single-volume history of the United States, economic historian Jonathan Levy reveals how capitalism in America has evolved through four distinct ages and how the country’s economic evolution is inseparable from the nature of American life itself. The Age of Commerce spans the colonial era through the outbreak of the Civil War, and the Age of Capital traces the lasting impact of the industrial revolution. The volatility of the Age of Capital ultimately led to the Great Depression, which sparked the Age of Control, during which the government took on a more active role in the economy, and finally, in the Age of Chaos, deregulation and the growth of the finance industry created a booming economy for some but also striking inequalities and a lack of oversight that led directly to the crash of 2008. In Ages of American Capitalism, Levy proves that capitalism in the United States has never been just one thing. Instead, it has morphed through the country’s history—and it’s likely changing again right now. “A stunning accomplishment . . . an indispensable guide to understanding American history—and what’s happening in today’s economy.”—Christian Science Monitor “The best one-volume history of American capitalism.”—Sven Beckert, author of Empire of Cotton

Urban and Regional Development Trajectories in Contemporary Capitalism

Author : Flavia Martinelli
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 0415608945
Total Pages : 362 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (156 download)

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Book Synopsis Urban and Regional Development Trajectories in Contemporary Capitalism by : Flavia Martinelli

Download or read book Urban and Regional Development Trajectories in Contemporary Capitalism written by Flavia Martinelli and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book re-evaluates a rich scientific heritage of space- and history-sensitive development theories and produces an integrated methodology for the comparative analysis of urban and regional trajectories within a globalized world. The main argument put forward is that current mainstream analyses of urban and regional development have forgotten this rich heritage and fail to address the connections between different dimensions of development, the role of history and the importance of place and scale relations. The proposed methodology integrates elements from different theories - radical economic geography, regulation approach, cultural political economy, old and new institutionalism - that all share a strong concern with time and space dynamics. They are recombined into an interdisciplinary (meta)theoretical framework, capable of articulating the overall problem of socio-economic development and providing methodological anchors for comparative case-study analysis, while recognizing context specificities. The analytical methodology focuses on key dynamics and relations, such as strategic agency and collective action, institutions and structures, culture and discourse, as well as the tension between path-dependency and path-shaping. The methodology is then applied to eight urban and regional cases, mostly from Western Europe, but also from the United States and China. The case studies confirm the relevance of time- and space-sensitive analysis, not only for understanding development trajectories, but also for policy making. They ultimately highlight that, while post-war institutions were able to address systemic contradictions and foster a relatively inclusive development model, the neoliberal turn has led to reductionist policies that not only have resulted in an increase in social and spatial inequalities, but have also undermined growth and democracy.

A Political Economy of Contemporary Capitalism and its Crisis

Author : Dimitris Sotiropoulos
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1135037922
Total Pages : 289 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (35 download)

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Book Synopsis A Political Economy of Contemporary Capitalism and its Crisis by : Dimitris Sotiropoulos

Download or read book A Political Economy of Contemporary Capitalism and its Crisis written by Dimitris Sotiropoulos and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-06-19 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The recent financial meltdown and the resulting global recession have rekindled debates regarding the nature of contemporary capitalism. This book analyses the ongoing financialization of the economy as a development within capitalism, and explores the ways in which it has changed the organization of capitalist power. The authors offer an interpretation of the role of the financial sphere which displays a striking contrast to the majority of contemporary heterodox approaches. Their interpretation stresses the crucial role of financial derivatives in the contemporary organization of capitalist power relations, arguing that the process of financialization is in fact entirely unthinkable in the absence of derivatives. The book also uses Marx’s concepts and some of the arguments developed in the framework of the historic Marxist controversies on economic crises in order to gain an insight into the modern neoliberal form of capitalism and the recent financial crisis. Employing a series of international case studies, this book will be essential reading for all those with an interest in the financial crisis, and all those seeking to comprehend the workings of capitalism.

Varieties of Capitalism

Author : Peter A. Hall
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199247749
Total Pages : 557 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (992 download)

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Book Synopsis Varieties of Capitalism by : Peter A. Hall

Download or read book Varieties of Capitalism written by Peter A. Hall and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 557 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Applying the new economics of organisation and relational theories of the firm to the problem of understanding cross-national variation in the political economy, this volume elaborates a new understanding of the institutional differences that characterise the 'varieties of capitalism' worldwide.

Capitalism and the Political Economy of Work Time

Author : Christoph Hermann
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 131759634X
Total Pages : 259 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (175 download)

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Book Synopsis Capitalism and the Political Economy of Work Time by : Christoph Hermann

Download or read book Capitalism and the Political Economy of Work Time written by Christoph Hermann and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-10-17 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Maynard Keynes expected that around the year 2030 people would only work 15 hours a week. In the mid-1960s, Jean Fourastié still anticipated the introduction of the 30-hour week in the year 2000, when productivity would continue to grow at an established pace. Productivity growth slowed down somewhat in the 1970s and 1980s, but rebounded in the 1990s with the spread of new information and communication technologies. The knowledge economy, however, did not bring about a jobless future or a world without work, as some scholars had predicted. With few exceptions, work hours of full-time employees have hardly fallen in the advanced capitalist countries in the last three decades, while in a number of countries they have actually increased since the 1980s. This book takes the persistence of long work hours as starting point to investigate the relationship between capitalism and work time. It does so by discussing major theoretical schools and their explanations for the length and distribution of work hours, as well as tracing major changes in production and reproduction systems, and analyzing their consequences for work hours. Furthermore, this volume explores the struggle for shorter work hours, starting from the introduction of the ten-hour work day in the nineteenth century to the introduction of the 35-hour week in France and Germany at the end of the twentieth century. However, the book also shows how neoliberalism has eroded collective work time regulations and resulted in an increase and polarization of work hours since the 1980s. Finally, the book argues that shorter work hours not only means more free time for workers, but also reduces inequality and improves human and ecological sustainability.

Consumer Capitalism

Author : Anastasios Korkotsides
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134187718
Total Pages : 280 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (341 download)

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Book Synopsis Consumer Capitalism by : Anastasios Korkotsides

Download or read book Consumer Capitalism written by Anastasios Korkotsides and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2007-05-07 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An excellent addition to Routledge’s strong tradition of publishing exceptional books in heterodox economics, this innovative and groundbreaking volume draws on the work of Schumpeter, Marx and Sraffa, three of the most influential economists of all time. It bases value on a single, inwardly felt scarcity, the scarcity of life, which consumers scramble to experience more of through private possession of the product of socially contributed human time-space, in the form of knowledge embodied in commodities. This coercive urge, which appears outwardly as ‘commodity fetishism’, sets the context of ‘utility’ and self-interest, implicating consumers in the plunder of each other’s toil and of the earth, showing that capitalistic growth surveys existential distress rather than welfare. Existential motivational uniformity joins the seemingly disparate individualistic pursuits into a race for growth, while markets promote variety and innovation. Markets assist consumption innovations to blend with Schumpeterian production innovations as consumers try to foresee market conditions and structure their expenditures towards gaining positional advantage. These explain the structural dynamics of increased roundaboutness through adjustment of prices and demand to an evolving techno-structure. A valuable resource, this book unfolds a new vision of economic theorizing through the extreme basics of agent behaviour.