Beyond Poverty and Affluence: Toward an Economy of Care with a Twelve-Step Program for Economic Recovery
by Bob Goudzwaard (Author), H. M. de Lange (Author)
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Beyond Poverty and Affluence argues that, like a virus which has developed an immunity to the cure, the problems of poverty, environmental degeneration, and unemployment today successfully resist the remedy of growth in industrial production. Bob Goudzwaard and Harry de Lange demonstrate that over the last several decades the solutions used by industrialized nations either have not helped or have dramatically exacerbated these problems. Instead, these predicaments have become structural show more features of today's economic practice. The authors formulate an alternative, which they call the economics of care, and propose a twelve-step program for economic recovery in Canada.Goudzwaard and de Lange contend that poverty, environmental damage, and unemployment have a common origin: they emerge from structural flaws in classical and contemporary neoclassical economic thought, including that of Adam Smith and Karl Marx. Drawing on thinkers as diverse as RenT Girard and Hannah Arendt, on numerous Canadian sources, and on their own Christian tradition, the authors propose a `pre-care' economy, which places care needs first on its list of priorities and only then addresses the scope of production, rather than a 'post-care' economy, which pursues maximum consumption and production above all else. They also describe in detail structural changes the Canadian economy will need to undergo to become an economy of pre-care. Included in their discussion is an assessment of the progress of `sustainable development' in Canada, including the work of the federal and provincial roundtables on environment and economy, and a proposed framework for setting Canadian government finances on a durable foundation. The twelve economic proposals the authors put forward deal with such issues as international currency creation, the environment, the foundation of labour/management relations, the funding of social programs, wage and salary development, the scope of production and technological development, the structure of economic decision-making, the direction of government funding, and the dropping of trade barriers in North America and Europe. show lessTags
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Although this book and some of its statistics are now dated, the message and the call is still quite relevant. It would be great if an updated version of this book would be written.
Beyond Poverty and Affluence makes an urgent appeal for a bold new economic practice. In the face of distressing societal realities - poverty, pollution and environmental degradation, ongoing losses in both the quantity and the quality of work - eminent Dutch economists Bob Goudzwaard and Harry de Lange argue that the foundations of our local, national, and international economic order need renewal, and they provide a provocative twelve-step program for economic recovery based on an "economy of care" for the earth and its people.
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Author Information
Bob Goudzwaard is professor emeritus of economics and social philosophy at the Free University of Amsterdam.
Some Editions
Common Knowledge
- Original title
- Genoeg van te veel, genoeg van te weinig : wissels omzetten in de economie
- Original publication date
- 1986
Classifications
- Genres
- Economics, Nonfiction, Politics and Government, Religion & Spirituality, General Nonfiction, Business
- DDC/MDS
- 338.9 — Society, government, & culture Economics Production Economic Development And Growth
- LCC
- HD87 .G6813 — Social sciences Industries. Land use. Labor Industries. Land use. Labor Economic growth, development, planning
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 55
- Popularity
- 557,735
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.50)
- Languages
- Dutch, English, German
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 8
