The Price of CivilizationThe Price of Civilization
Reawakening American Virtue and Prosperity
Title rated 3.05 out of 5 stars, based on 16 ratings(16 ratings)
Book, 2011
Current format, Book, 2011, 1st ed, Available .Offers a diagnosis of the country's economic ills and argues that Americans can restore the virtues of fairness, honesty, and foresight as the foundations of national prosperity.
Veteran macro-economist Sachs directs the Earth Institute at Columbia University and has served as a special adviser to the United Nations. In this book for general readers, he uses the concept of 'clinical economics,' which he coined and developed in his book The End of Poverty, to diagnose America's current economic crisis. Sachs argues that we are not facing a short-term business cycle downturn, but the working out of long-term social, political, and economic trends perpetuated by both political parties (although the author notes that the process of undermining the government's capacity to steer the economy began with the Reagan administration). Sachs gives ideas for deep reform of America's political and economic institutions, such as ending the corporatocracy, banning campaign contributions from lobbying firms, and decentralizing government. He also recommends that we as citizens embrace moderation and develop compassion for others. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
For more than three decades, Jeffrey D. Sachs has been at the forefront of international economic problem solving. But Sachs turns his attention back home in The Price of Civilization, a book that is essential reading for every American. In a forceful, impassioned, and personal voice, he offers not only a searing and incisive diagnosis of our country’s economic ills but also an urgent call for Americans to restore the virtues of fairness, honesty, and foresight as the foundations of national prosperity.
As he has done in dozens of countries around the world in the midst of economic crises, Sachs turns his unique diagnostic skills to what ails the American economy. He finds that both political parties—and many leading economists—have missed the big picture, offering shortsighted solutions such as stimulus spending or tax cuts to address complex economic problems that require deeper solutions. Sachs argues that we have profoundly underestimated globalization’s long-term effects on our country, which create deep and largely unmet challenges with regard to jobs, incomes, poverty, and the environment. America’s single biggest economic failure, Sachs argues, is its inability to come to grips with the new global economic realities.
Yet Sachs goes deeper than an economic diagnosis. By taking a broad, holistic approach—looking at domestic politics, geopolitics, social psychology, and the natural environment as well—Sachs reveals the larger fissures underlying our country’s current crisis. He shows how Washington has consistently failed to address America’s economic needs. He describes a political system that has lost its ethical moorings, in which ever-rising campaign contributions and lobbying outlays overpower the voice of the citizenry. He also looks at the crisis in our culture, in which an overstimulated and consumption-driven populace in a ferocious quest for wealth now suffers shortfalls of social trust, honesty, and compassion.
Finally, Sachs offers a plan to turn the crisis around. He argues persuasively that the problem is not America’s abiding values, which remain generous and pragmatic, but the ease with which political spin and consumerism run circles around those values. He bids the reader to reclaim the virtues of good citizenship and mindfulness toward the economy and one another. Most important, he bids each of us to accept the price of civilization, so that together we can restore America to its great promise.
The Price of Civilization is a masterly road map for prosperity, founded on America’s deepest values and on a rigorous understanding of the twenty-first-century world economy.
Veteran macro-economist Sachs directs the Earth Institute at Columbia University and has served as a special adviser to the United Nations. In this book for general readers, he uses the concept of 'clinical economics,' which he coined and developed in his book The End of Poverty, to diagnose America's current economic crisis. Sachs argues that we are not facing a short-term business cycle downturn, but the working out of long-term social, political, and economic trends perpetuated by both political parties (although the author notes that the process of undermining the government's capacity to steer the economy began with the Reagan administration). Sachs gives ideas for deep reform of America's political and economic institutions, such as ending the corporatocracy, banning campaign contributions from lobbying firms, and decentralizing government. He also recommends that we as citizens embrace moderation and develop compassion for others. Annotation ©2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
For more than three decades, Jeffrey D. Sachs has been at the forefront of international economic problem solving. But Sachs turns his attention back home in The Price of Civilization, a book that is essential reading for every American. In a forceful, impassioned, and personal voice, he offers not only a searing and incisive diagnosis of our country’s economic ills but also an urgent call for Americans to restore the virtues of fairness, honesty, and foresight as the foundations of national prosperity.
As he has done in dozens of countries around the world in the midst of economic crises, Sachs turns his unique diagnostic skills to what ails the American economy. He finds that both political parties—and many leading economists—have missed the big picture, offering shortsighted solutions such as stimulus spending or tax cuts to address complex economic problems that require deeper solutions. Sachs argues that we have profoundly underestimated globalization’s long-term effects on our country, which create deep and largely unmet challenges with regard to jobs, incomes, poverty, and the environment. America’s single biggest economic failure, Sachs argues, is its inability to come to grips with the new global economic realities.
Yet Sachs goes deeper than an economic diagnosis. By taking a broad, holistic approach—looking at domestic politics, geopolitics, social psychology, and the natural environment as well—Sachs reveals the larger fissures underlying our country’s current crisis. He shows how Washington has consistently failed to address America’s economic needs. He describes a political system that has lost its ethical moorings, in which ever-rising campaign contributions and lobbying outlays overpower the voice of the citizenry. He also looks at the crisis in our culture, in which an overstimulated and consumption-driven populace in a ferocious quest for wealth now suffers shortfalls of social trust, honesty, and compassion.
Finally, Sachs offers a plan to turn the crisis around. He argues persuasively that the problem is not America’s abiding values, which remain generous and pragmatic, but the ease with which political spin and consumerism run circles around those values. He bids the reader to reclaim the virtues of good citizenship and mindfulness toward the economy and one another. Most important, he bids each of us to accept the price of civilization, so that together we can restore America to its great promise.
The Price of Civilization is a masterly road map for prosperity, founded on America’s deepest values and on a rigorous understanding of the twenty-first-century world economy.
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- New York, NY : Random House, c2011.
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