The Price of Civilization: Reawakening American Virtue and Prosperity
Written by Jeffrey D. Sachs
Narrated by Richard McGonagle
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About this audiobook
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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Reviews for The Price of Civilization
38 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a better understanding of what happened to America and is interested in positive suggestions for making changes and improvements. Economist, Jeffrey D. Sachs, did an outstanding job of describing the situation and laying out suggestions for changes that must be made in the years ahead.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This is an excellent book that I highly recommend. It has a liberal bent to it but it really takes no prisoners in terms of assigning blame for our current state of affairs. It uses data to support its' thesis. What works best is a combination of government and free markets to address our American economic and social needs. It shows that since the Reagan presidency, the top 1% have doubled their share of both net income and net worth. It also says that our current relationship between Wall Street and Washington does not reflect the will of the people. It many cases the media does little to question that relationship. One telling point. We constantly hear that our 35% corporate income tax is the 2nd highest in the developed world. What is never said when this is mentioned is that the actual rate that is paid as a % of Gross Domestic Product(DNP) is the lowest in the developed world. The actual rate is not the real rate!!! Why doesn't the media point this out when this come up? The bottom line is that this is a book that should be read. You may not agree with the basic assumptions and premises but it should get you thinking about what is needed to get our leaders to reflect the will of the majority of the people.
1 person found this helpful