Social Science Popular Culture
Filthy Lucre
Economics for People Who Hate Capitalism
- Publisher
- HarperCollins Canada
- Initial publish date
- Jun 2010
- Category
- Popular Culture
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781554687695
- Publish Date
- Jun 2010
- List Price
- $11.99
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Description
Economists have a bad reputation. Not only do they assume that everyone is self-interested and amoral, they are almost always cheerleaders for the free market. As a result, most people who do not already share their beliefs ignore everything that economists have to say. This is a problem. Even among the highly educated, economics is a minefield of fallacies and errors. Among those who know little about the subject—a group that includes the average taxpayer and consumer, as well as most journalists, political activists and politicians—almost every widely held belief is false. The level of economic illiteracy is stunning.
Filthy Lucre aims to level the playing field and, in this time of enormous market volatility and unprecedented instability, raise our level of economic literacy. Drawing on everyday examples to skewer the six favourite economic fallacies of the right and then the left, we learn why the right wing so wrongly believes that capitalism is the natural order of things, that any tax cut is a good tax cut, and that personal responsibility can solve any problem. And, contrary to how the left feels, why we must resist the urge to fiddle with prices, why the pursuit of profit is not such a bad thing, and why, despite efforts to improve or even fix wages, some jobs will always suck.
About the author
JOSEPH HEATH is the director of the Centre for Ethics at the University of Toronto, as well as a professor in the department of philosophy and the School of Public Policy and Governance. He is the author of five books, including The Rebel Sell: Why the Culture Can’t Be Jammed (with Andrew Potter) and Filthy Lucre: Economics for People Who Hate Capitalism. He lives in Toronto.
Other titles by
Cooperation and Social Justice
Philosophical Foundations of Climate Change Policy
The Machinery of Government
Public Administration and the Liberal State
Morality, Competition, and the Firm
Enlightenment 2.0
Morality, Competition, and the Firm
The Market Failures Approach to Business Ethics
Following the Rules
Practical Reasoning and Deontic Constraint
Rebel Sell
Why The Culture Can't Be Jammed
Filthy Lucre