Adam Smith’s Sociability and the American Dream

Adam Smith’s Sociability and the American Dream PDF Author: John E. Hill
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1666946834
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 161

Book Description
John E. Hill’s Adam Smith’s Sociability and the American Dream seeks to correct the three misunderstandings that have hindered the pursuit of the American dream and contributed to excessive individualism at the expense of community. Market fundamentalists ignore the importance of Adam Smith’s impartial spectator for capitalism; his ideal economy was not a free market but a sociable and fair one. A fair market would promote individuality within vibrant communities and would be consistent with Smith’s “justice, liberty, and equality” formula. Such a sociable market would also be more productive. Second, many Christians misunderstand the love your neighbor commandment, excluding the outsider, so explicit in the parable. Failure to follow John Adams’s warnings that aristocrats are dangerous in a republic. Free market advocates devalue the immense contributions communities make to the economy. Greater sociability would also facilitate the pursuit of happiness. It would not be necessary to reinvent the wheel to move to this more ideal society. Cooperative organizations already exist in the United States and in other countries as models for reform.

Adam Smith’s America

Adam Smith’s America PDF Author: Glory M. Liu
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691240876
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 384

Book Description
The unlikely story of how Americans canonized Adam Smith as the patron saint of free markets Originally published in 1776, Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations was lauded by America’s founders as a landmark work of Enlightenment thinking about national wealth, statecraft, and moral virtue. Today, Smith is one of the most influential icons of economic thought in America. Glory Liu traces how generations of Americans have read, reinterpreted, and weaponized Smith’s ideas, revealing how his popular image as a champion of American-style capitalism and free markets is a historical invention. Drawing on a trove of illuminating archival materials, Liu tells the story of how an unassuming Scottish philosopher captured the American imagination and played a leading role in shaping American economic and political ideas. She shows how Smith became known as the father of political economy in the nineteenth century and was firmly associated with free trade, and how, in the aftermath of the Great Depression, the Chicago School of Economics transformed him into the preeminent theorist of self-interest and the miracle of free markets. Liu explores how a new generation of political theorists and public intellectuals has sought to recover Smith’s original intentions and restore his reputation as a moral philosopher. Charting the enduring fascination that this humble philosopher from Scotland has held for American readers over more than two centuries, Adam Smith’s America shows how Smith continues to be a vehicle for articulating perennial moral and political anxieties about modern capitalism.

Requiem for the American Dream

Requiem for the American Dream PDF Author: Noam Chomsky
Publisher: Seven Stories Press
ISBN: 1609807375
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 170

Book Description
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! In his first major book on the subject of income inequality, Noam Chomsky skewers the fundamental tenets of neoliberalism and casts a clear, cold, patient eye on the economic facts of life. What are the ten principles of concentration of wealth and power at work in America today? They're simple enough: reduce democracy, shape ideology, redesign the economy, shift the burden onto the poor and middle classes, attack the solidarity of the people, let special interests run the regulators, engineer election results, use fear and the power of the state to keep the rabble in line, manufacture consent, marginalize the population. In Requiem for the American Dream, Chomsky devotes a chapter to each of these ten principles, and adds readings from some of the core texts that have influenced his thinking to bolster his argument. To create Requiem for the American Dream, Chomsky and his editors, the filmmakers Peter Hutchison, Kelly Nyks, and Jared P. Scott, spent countless hours together over the course of five years, from 2011 to 2016. After the release of the film version, Chomsky and the editors returned to the many hours of tape and transcript and created a document that included three times as much text as was used in the film. The book that has resulted is nonetheless arguably the most succinct and tightly woven of Chomsky's long career, a beautiful vessel--including old-fashioned ligatures in the typeface--in which to carry Chomsky's bold and uncompromising vision, his perspective on the economic reality and its impact on our political and moral well-being as a nation. "During the Great Depression, which I'm old enough to remember, it was bad–much worse subjectively than today. But there was a sense that we'll get out of this somehow, an expectation that things were going to get better . . ." —from Requiem for the American Dream

Travel as a Political Act

Travel as a Political Act PDF Author: Rick Steves
Publisher: Rick Steves
ISBN: 1641710470
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 581

Book Description
Change the world one trip at a time. In this illuminating collection of stories and lessons from the road, acclaimed travel writer Rick Steves shares a powerful message that resonates now more than ever. With the world facing divisive and often frightening events, from Trump, Brexit, and Erdogan, to climate change, nativism, and populism, there's never been a more important time to travel. Rick believes the risks of travel are widely exaggerated, and that fear is for people who don't get out much. After years of living out of a suitcase, he still marvels at how different cultures find different truths to be self-evident. By sharing his experiences from Europe, Central America, Asia, and the Middle East, Rick shows how we can learn more about own country by viewing it from afar. With gripping stories from Rick's decades of exploration, this fully revised edition of Travel as a Political Act is an antidote to the current climate of xenophobia. When we travel thoughtfully, we bring back the most beautiful souvenir of all: a broader perspective on the world that we all call home. All royalties from the sale of Travel as a Political Act are donated to support the work of Bread for the World, a non-partisan organization working to end hunger at home and abroad.

The American Dream Deferred

The American Dream Deferred PDF Author: Cory Booker
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
ISBN: 0815736762
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 26

Book Description
Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) shares the story of his father's journey from poverty to middle-class prosperity, but says the bargain that helped his father and other workers achieve the American Dream is now broken. Sen. Booker reflects on the trends and practices contributing to stagnant wages in the United States, including a corporate culture that favors shareholder payouts over investments in workers; barriers to worker mobility, like non-compete clauses; and the “fissuring” of the workforce, as companies today are more likely to contract out labor to low-cost vendors rather than employ directly. Senator Booker calls for policies that will address these and related challenges, expand opportunity for all Americans, and restore the bargain for all who seek it.

Adam Smith’s Equality and the Pursuit of Happiness

Adam Smith’s Equality and the Pursuit of Happiness PDF Author: John E. Hill
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137584122
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 260

Book Description
This book examines Adam Smith’s main principles in Wealth of Nations as the basis for effective policymaking. Adam Smith wanted to increase happiness through this formula for a good life: equality, liberty, and justice. Free market interpretations of Smith, the book argues, grossly misrepresent his thought, emphasizing only liberty and not also equality and justice. This book suggests policies that combine all three in order for happiness to be maximized.

The Complacent Class

The Complacent Class PDF Author: Tyler Cowen
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 1250108691
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 254

Book Description
Examines the trend of Americans away from the traditionally mobile, risk-accepting, and adaptable tendencies that defined them for much of recent history, and toward stagnation and comfort, and how this development has the potential to make future changes more disruptive. --Publisher's description.

The Legacy of Richard C. Cornuelle

The Legacy of Richard C. Cornuelle PDF Author: Lenore T. Ealy
Publisher: Philanthropic Enterprise
ISBN: 9780976190493
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description


Spreading the American Dream

Spreading the American Dream PDF Author: Emily Rosenberg
Publisher: Hill and Wang
ISBN: 1429952253
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Book Description
In examining the economic and cultural trs that expressed America's expansionist impulse during the first half of the twentieth century, Emily S. Rosenberg shows how U.S. foreign relations evolved from a largely private system to an increasingly public one and how, soon, the American dream became global.

American Mania: When More is Not Enough

American Mania: When More is Not Enough PDF Author: Peter C. Whybrow
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393348199
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 359

Book Description
A doctor's bold analysis of the cultural disease that afflicts us all. Despite an astonishing appetite for life, more and more Americans are feeling overworked and dissatisfied. In the world's most affluent nation, epidemic rates of stress, anxiety, depression, obesity, and time urgency are now grudgingly accepted as part of everyday existence they signal the American Dream gone awry. Peter C. Whybrow, director of the Neuropsychiatric Institute at UCLA, grounds the extraordinary achievements and excessive consumption of the American nation in an understanding of the biology of the brain's reward system offering for the first time a comprehensive and physical explanation for the addictive mania of consumerism. American Mania presents a clear and novel vantage point from which to understand the most pressing social issues of our time, while offering an informed approach to refocusing our pursuit of happiness. Drawing upon rich scientific case studies and colorful portraits, "this fascinating and important book will change the way you think about American life" (Karen Olson, Utne Reader).