I just completed a nearly final version of The Invisible Handcuffs of Capitalism: How Market Tyranny Stifles the Economy by Stunting Workers. I have put earlier versions here, but this one is very different. The second half is totally new.
I would very much appreciate any comments. Thanks in advance.
25 – The Confiscation of American Prosperity: From Right-Wing Extremism and Economic Ideology to the Next Great Depression
30 – Manufacturing Discontent: The Trap of Individualism in Corporate Society
Class Warfare in the Information Age
Railroading Economics: The Creation of the Free Market Mythology
Steal This Idea: Intellectual Property Rights and the Corporate Confiscation of Creativity
The Invention of Capitalism: Classical Political Economy and the Secret History of Primitive Accumulation
The Perverse Economy: The Impact of Markets on People and the Environment
I like it. Just a few points: the term “excess poverty”. When is poverty not excess?
You refer to the absence of Institutionalists but not Marxists.
The notion of efficiency itself is constructed to try to make markets look efficient. But historically its meaning has evolved. For instance in agriculture in the Bible it meant seeds harvested per seed planted; in land-hungry Europe it was yield per hectare; in labor-short US it was yield per labor day, now ecologists talk of energy harvested per energy invested. Some students of human development use the UN’s HDI modified for ‘efficiency’ or equity.More generally, critique indicators that pose as objective. Although you focus on the US, there should be some refernce to ‘best case” capitalisms–cogovernance, social-democratic redistribution of consumption but not ownership, new ‘horizontal’ business structures…
So, handcuffs are accompanied by braincuffs!
Michael,
I have just one minor comment on your introduction. It may be, perhaps, useful to mention for general readers that AS’s invisible hand of the market replaced the visible hand of the monarch.
Seth
The intro was a good read. IANAE; it seems to me that the great majority of economists will need to be addressed to some extent on their own terms — mathematical models that will compel the honest scholars among them to look at what you’re proposing seriously. Perhaps that work is not this particular book. It is one hammer blow after all.
My only comment is that the intro ends rather abruptly for me. The Michaelangelo image is fantastic. I am a little less thrilled with the metaphor applying to the economists rather than the workers, but that makes sense as it appears to address the overall point of the work. I would like you to add a few more thoughts about your hope for economics and where one can look for economic thinkers that are more or less on the same path as you or how it relates to your effort in your other books (providing more hope for success before we forever destroy this planet).
Best,
Dennis
Your are Great. And so is your site! Awesome content. Good job guys! Interesting article, adding it to my favourites!