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The Future of Capitalism: Facing the New Anxieties [2019, PDF/EPUB, ENG]

by Paul Collier

(720 ratings)
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*FEATURED IN BILL GATES'S 2019 SUMMER READING RECOMMENDATIONS*

'This is a beautifully written and important book. Read it' Martin Wolf, Financial Times

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 Britain and other Western societies: thriving cities versus the provinces, 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 fervour 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 20th century.

These times are in desperate need of Paul Collier's insights. The Future of Capitalism restores common sense to our views of morality, as it also describes their critical role in what makes families, organizations, and nations work. It is the most revolutionary work of social science since Keynes. Let's hope it will also be the most influential - George Akerlof, Nobel Laureate in Economics, 2001

In this bold work of intellectual trespass, Paul Collier, a distinguished economist, ventures onto the terrain of ethics to explain what's gone wrong with capitalism, and how to fix it. To heal the divide between metropolitan elites and the left-behind, he argues, we need to rediscover an ethic of belonging, patriotism, and reciprocity. Offering inventive solutions to our current impasse, Collier shows how economics at its best is inseparable from moral and political philosophy' - Michael Sandel, author of What Money Can't Buy and Justice

For thirty years, the centre left of politics has been searching for a narrative that makes sense of the market economy. This book provides it - John Kay, Fellow of St John's College, Oxford and the author of Obliquity and Other People's Money

For well-to-do metropolitans, capitalism is the gift that goes on giving. For others, capitalism is not working. Paul Collier deploys passion, pragmatism and good economics in equal measure to chart an alternative to the divisions tearing apart so many western countries. -Mervyn King, former Governor of the Bank of England

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Book details


  • Author : Paul Collier
  • Publisher : Penguin
  • Published : 07-03-2019
  • Language : English
  • Pages : 256
  • ISBN-10 : 0141987251
  • ISBN-13 : 978-0141987255
  • Reader Reviews : 720 (4.3)
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About the Author


Paul Collier


Paul Collier is Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for the Study of African Economies at Oxford University and a former director of Development Research at the World Bank. In addition to the award-winning The Bottom Billion, he is the author of Wars, Guns, and Votes: Democracy in Dangerous Places.

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Reader Reviews

J
wsmrer
A way back …
Reviewed in the United States on 12-23-2018
Paul Colliers’ title is a poor rendering of the book it covers, it bespeaks a dusty edifice and this is a bedazzling erection of possible solutions to the troubles of modern times. Backing up to Colliers’ favorite time ‘the social democratic era from 1945 to 1970’* there were a collection of ‘wise men’ who slowly hammered out social institutions build upon the social democratic systems of western European countries and the FDR New Deal policies in America to cover the interactions of local governments for their citizens and affairs among nations. The characteristics they shared were reciprocity and generosity. For the citizen some form of support and concern from birth to death, and for nations a willingness to care for the disadvantaged – America’s Marshall Plan being one proud example. Then things changed. The institutions became dictatorial and lost their initial purpose the philosophical under-structure destroyed.

Collier list Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone as a reference but there are many noting where the collective disappeared and individualism became the ruling ideology; in the extreme case governments became agents for corporations and the financial centers and their lobbyists.
The results: inequalities arising among the highly educated successful and the bulk of society, wealthy metropolitan centers and failing cities and towns, and the fracturing of such elementary units as the family. Collier is an economist and his presentation flows from utilitarian based price theory but he knows its shortcomings and aims to speak to the general citizen not to the politicians. There is a sociological undertone where he imagines the redeeming characteristic of mankind and views a way to reactivate these and use them to solve existing dystopian natures of capitalism, governments, and individuals.
One can take that with a grain of salt and still find exciting ideas for communities to redo their failed states of existence bringing in core conditions for new developing industries, educational systems to turn to the child at kindergarten as the most important developmental age, link businesses and workers using the TVET** methods of Germany and Switzerland, and states recapturing economic rent seekers as major taxing possibilities. These and other are the high points of the presentation and there are many.

There likely will never be a Collierism to replace other lingering ideology that he despises, but there surely will be people finding exciting notions to pursue where they can enlist like-minded individuals to good effect.*** He is right it is time for ‘Facing the New Anxieties.’ Leadership will be needed. It can happen.
“We can do better: we once did so, and we can do it again.” p.223
4 stars
*There is not a good name for this period in America the right has hung the ungracious title of ‘Welfare Liberalism’ on it, but ‘Post-War Prosperity’ is also seen.
**Technical, vocational, education and training; an idea that seems to be spreading. See: The once and Future Worker, Oren Cass.
***”We have never had an ethical world, but in the period from 1945 to 1970 we made more progress towards this goal than during any other period of history, progress that has been unravelling. In restoring forward momentum we need to return to the realistic approach of prudent pragmatism. Providing effective redress for those in need of rescue is affordable and feasible; the looming global anxieties are best met not by Utilitarian moralizing, but through clubs that build new reciprocal obligations among the affluent societies to meet the duties of rescue.” p. 218.
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J
Eviatar Frankel
Excellent ideas and information on highly relevant political economy and philosophy
Reviewed in the United States on 06-04-2023
Loved this book. Thankfully I wasn’t dissuaded by some lack luster reviews that seemed to have been merely disappointed by a good book that didn’t exactly satisfy the topic and structure the reviewer was seeking. With a little less unreasonably inflexible and specific scopes of interest, it seems to me that many reviewers would have been thrilled to discover, as I was, that this book provides excellent insight from historical philosophy through current experience. If the generic description up top piques your interest, get this profound and insightful book and just read it..
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J
Debora Shimura
Faz pensar
Reviewed in Brazil on 07-05-2020
Considera muitos aspectos do capitalismo e de uma sociedade economicamente mais justa que nunca pensamos.
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