Bourgeois Equality: How Ideas, Not Capital or Institutions, Enriched the World
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.14 (539 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 022652793X |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 768 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-07-19 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
"An Economic Historian Explains Why the World is Much Wealthier Since 1800" according to DonL2507. I've often thought that the bourgeois (middle class) values of thrift, diligence, and self-restraint leavened with risk-taking are too often mocked and underappreciated. For that matter, how many Hollywood films can you name where a businessman is portrayed as honest and valuable to society? A business person who uses an economy's scarce resources and transforms them into a product worth more to voluntary buyers than the cost of those resources is earning a well-deserved profit in competitive . What & Why said Important, but with a glaring omission.. This book describes and claims to explain the vast improvement in well-being of most of the world's population since about 1800. The author debunks the importance of several factors which various experts have claimed to be crucial to this improvement. She proposes that far more important to this improvement were two changes in public opinion, namely, increased regard for the liberty and dignity of ordinary people, and decreased disdain for trade-tested innovations and the profits therefrom. I . Henry Oliner said Brilliant analysis of the great enrichment that has expanded human. Brilliant analysis of the great enrichment that has expanded human wealth 70 fold in less than "Brilliant analysis of the great enrichment that has expanded human" according to Henry Oliner. Brilliant analysis of the great enrichment that has expanded human wealth 70 fold in less than 2 centuries. This is more amazing when we note it occurred in the face of devastating wars and economic crisis. Opens up the field of cultural economics, which can be very useful in examining the potential and weaknesses of current policy. McCloskey examines literature, history, religion, and government institutions to trace this overlooked power of the unleashing of the economic and innovative power. centuries. This is more amazing when we note it occurred in the face of devastating wars and economic crisis. Opens up the field of cultural economics, which can be very useful in examining the potential and weaknesses of current policy. McCloskey examines literature, history, religion, and government institutions to trace this overlooked power of the unleashing of the economic and innovative power
McCloskey builds a powerful case for the initiating role of ideas—ideas for electric motors and free elections, of course, but more deeply the bizarre and liberal ideas of equal liberty and dignity for ordinary folk. The poorest of humanity, McCloskey shows, will soon be joining the comparative riches of Japan and Sweden and Botswana. “Our riches,” she argues, “were made not by piling brick on brick, bank balance on bank balance, but by piling idea on idea.” Capital was necessary, but so was the presence of oxygen. Why? Most economists—from Adam Smith and Karl Marx to Thomas Piketty—say the Great Enrichment since 1800 came from accumulated capital. Not matter, but ideas. She summarizes modern economics and modern economic history with verve and lucidity, yet sees through to the really big scie
I wanted to savour every sentence of this remarkable feast of prose. It is a giant of a book about a giant of a topic: the ‘great enrichment’ of humanity over the past 300 years. If that sounds like faint praise, it's not. Dump your copy of Thomas Piketty and put Deirdre McCloskey on the bookshelf instead.". "It took me two months to read this 650-page, small-type book, the third volume in a trilogy. In that time I read several other books, absorbing Bourgeois Equality in small doses on trains, ships, Tubes, sofas and beds. It is so rich in vocabulary, allusion and fact as to be a contender for the great book of the great book of our age