Manfred Max-Neef, Philip B. Smith

Economics Unmasked (eBook, PDF)

From power and greed to compassion and the common good

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

An inspiring outline of a new economics system, where justice, human dignity, compassion and reverence for life are the guiding values.

The economic system under which we live not only forces the great majority of humankind to live their lives in indignity and poverty but also threatens all forms of life on Earth. Economics Unmasked presents a cogent critique of the dominant economic system, showing that the theoretical constructions of mainstream economics work mainly to bring about injustice.

The merciless onslaught on the global ecosystem of recent decades, brought about by the massive increase in the production of goods and the consequent depletion of nature's reserves, is not a chance property of the economic system. It is a direct result of neoliberal economic thinking, which recognizes value only in material things. The growth obsession is not a mistaken conception that mainstream economists can unlearn, it is inherent in their view of life. But a socio-economic system based on the growth obsession can never be sustainable.

This book outlines the foundations of a new economics, where we are not ruled by greed and injustice. Contrary to the absurd assumption of mainstream economists that economics is a value-free science, a new economics must make its values explicit.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury UK eBooks
• Seitenzahl: 200
• Erscheinungstermin: 30. August 2011
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780857840318
• Artikelnr.: 68414384

Autorenporträt

Manfred Max-Neef is a Chilean-German economist in the field of international development. His key works are From the Outside Looking in: Experiences in 'Barefoot Economics' and Human Scale Development, the latter declared by the University of Cambridge as one of the 50 most important books on sustainability. He taught in Berkeley in the early 1960s and was visiting professor in several US, Latin American and European universities. He also worked for several UN agencies, and between 1994 and 2002 was Vice-Chancellor of the Universidad Austral de Chile in Valdivia. In 1983 he received the Right Livelihood Award (Alternative Nobel Prize). He holds honorary doctorates from Jordan, Colombia, Argentina and the US, and has been the recipient of the University Award of Highest Honour from Japan. He is the Director of the Economics Institute of the Universidad Austral de Chile.

Inhaltsangabe

Preface
Introduction: the case for a new economics
From knowledge to understanding
The function of economics in society
Keynesianism: its rise and fall
Honesty and value premises
Imitation of the exact sciences: reductionism, mathematical models and
Pareto
Economic growth
Globalization
Compassion
The world on a collision course and the need for a new economics
A humane economics for the twenty-first century
The United States: an underdeveloping nation
A non-toxic teaching of economics
Implementation: from the village to a global order
References and notes
Index