While the title may seem patronizing, the text is pure dynamite! Shaw explains that if this book is in the house, the husband will pick it up and read it, as well, because it deals with the basic questions that all people living in capitalism ask, and need answers for. This book was reviewed and not for the first time since its publication in 1928, on Friday October 12, 2012, in the "Guardian" newspaper in Britain.
After every major economic downturn, this book is reviewed somewhere, because it s still relevant, 87 years after publication. We haven't fixed Capitalism to meet the critique mounted in this book, and if capitalism is the answer to all the world's problems, as we are constantly told, we should have. if you are looking for a very clear and concise explanation of how the world works even in 2014, this is the book. Most Americans should read the chapter on banking first. After that, you won't put the book down. And your worldview will have changed.
I reread the book in September 2020, and though some of Shaw's solutions did not work out in practice, the bulk of the work still has possibilities. And the prose is crisp and literate. ( )

This timeless book, published in 1927, is the solution to rising college tuition fees. For a complete liberal arts education, look no further than this 500 page treatise in economics, political science, history, sociology, ethics; in short all of what constitutes a basic college education. It is all delivered to you with engaging Shavian wit and makes your college experience brief, economical, and utterly painless. For your diploma you can simply print out and post your review of this awesome work on the www for all to see and then mail out copies of your resume with the absolute confidence that you’ll ace every job interview with erudition and grace. Shaw purportedly spent 5 years in compiling and organizing this analysis of the society we live in, what has kept it moving along, and how we can live within it to our advantage and even change it for the better. It is an astonishing literary achievement, quite as accessible to intelligent gentlemen as it is to the intelligent ladies to whom it is affectionately addressed. High school grads! Forget about years of loan payments, midnight oil, and eight-o’clocks. Just read this book, and apply for those jobs miles ahead of your plodding and soon-to-be impoverished peers. ( )

As a Fabian and lifelong socialist, Shaw believed that economic inequality was a poison destroying every aspect of our lives. Family affections and relations between the sexes were perverted by it. From Parliament to eduction our institutions were "corrupted at the root by pecuniary interest". Idealism, integrity and piecemeal attempts at political reform were all futile in the face of the gross injustice built into our economic system. And because a capitalist economy could never function smoothly, private property was not merely a form of robbery, but robbery with violence. Published in 1928 when Shaw was 72, this book draws on decades of political activity and remains one of his brilliant exercises in propoganda.

Funniest index of all time. ( )

You don't have to understand shaw to enjoy him. ( )