The Future of Capitalism: Facing the New Anxieties – Bill Gates Recommendation: Realistic Solutions to Inequality and Populism

This is an excellent analysis of what's wrong with today's economy, society, and politics. A far-ranging argument that covers history and global affairs (but mostly focusing on the US & UK) with an assessment of current status as well as suggestions for making things better. Not a light read or for someone who reads mostly fiction. This is for the person who has a strong interest in current affairs.

Paul Colliers’ title is a poor rendering of the book it covers, it bespeaks a dusty edifice and this is a bedazzling erection of possible solutions to the troubles of modern times. Backing up to Colliers’ favorite time ‘the social democratic era from 1945 to 1970’* there were a collection of ‘wise men’ who slowly hammered out social institutions build upon the social democratic systems of western European countries and the FDR New Deal policies in America to cover the interactions of local governments for their citizens and affairs among nations. The characteristics they shared were reciprocity and generosity. For the citizen some form of support and concern from birth to death, and for nations a willingness to care for the disadvantaged – America’s Marshall Plan being one proud example. Then things changed. The institutions became dictatorial and lost their initial purpose the philosophical under-structure destroyed. Collier list Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone as a reference but there are many noting where the collective disappeared and individualism became the ruling ideology; in the extreme case governments became agents for corporations and the financial centers and their lobbyists. The results: inequalities arising among the highly educated successful and the bulk of society, wealthy metropolitan centers and failing cities and towns, and the fracturing of such elementary units as the family. Collier is an economist and his presentation flows from utilitarian based price theory but he knows its shortcomings and aims to speak to the general citizen not to the politicians. There is a sociological undertone where he imagines the redeeming characteristic of mankind and views a way to reactivate these and use them to solve existing dystopian natures of capitalism, governments, and individuals. One can take that with a grain of salt and still find exciting ideas for communities to redo their failed states of existence bringing in core conditions for new developing industries, educational systems to turn to the child at kindergarten as the most important developmental age, link businesses and workers using the TVET** methods of Germany and Switzerland, and states recapturing economic rent seekers as major taxing possibilities. These and other are the high points of the presentation and there are many. There likely will never be a Collierism to replace other lingering ideology that he despises, but there surely will be people finding exciting notions to pursue where they can enlist like-minded individuals to good effect.*** He is right it is time for ‘Facing the New Anxieties.’ Leadership will be needed. It can happen. “We can do better: we once did so, and we can do it again.” p.223 4 stars *There is not a good name for this period in America the right has hung the ungracious title of ‘Welfare Liberalism’ on it, but ‘Post-War Prosperity’ is also seen. **Technical, vocational, education and training; an idea that seems to be spreading. See: The once and Future Worker, Oren Cass. ***”We have never had an ethical world, but in the period from 1945 to 1970 we made more progress towards this goal than during any other period of history, progress that has been unravelling. In restoring forward momentum we need to return to the realistic approach of prudent pragmatism. Providing effective redress for those in need of rescue is affordable and feasible; the looming global anxieties are best met not by Utilitarian moralizing, but through clubs that build new reciprocal obligations among the affluent societies to meet the duties of rescue.” p. 218

The Future of Capitalism is an immensely ambitious book. Written for an educated but non-technical audience, Collier explicitly states that he wants the ideas in this book to heal the current socio-economic crisis and ground capitalist states for the next generation. Instead of trying to argue about whether Collier’s effort is successful, something impossible to achieve in a brief review, I would rather summarize Collier’s major ideas. In this way the prospective reader can judge for himself/herself whether the book’s project is something they would entertain reading. Collier’s primary diagnosis of the ills confronting capitalism is that it relies on an oversimplified understanding of the individual. Based on the ideas of Bentham and Mill, economists have tended to view human beings as simply making rational decisions to maximize utility. By doing so, they’ve left out key dimensions of human psychology, primarily the need for social esteem or respect. Because of this highly individualistic philosophy Western societies have lost the social cohesion that marked the period from 1945-1970. Added to this is an increasingly simplified notion of the firm. Based on the ideas of Milton Friedman, the firm is supposed to solely maximize profits. Any responsibilities outside of this to its employees/consumers is ignored. In keeping with these two fallacious notions, conservatives have increasingly viewed their task as simply removing government from the market. Liberals have tended to see themselves as an enlightened elite who must steer the economy to monetarily compensate those whom the market hasn’t sufficiently rewarded. In place of this Collier calls for social maternalism. A state which, eschewing ideology, makes pragmatic policy choices to build a true national community and makes certain that all citizens have the possibility for a life resulting in social respect. Collier’s analysis is, of course, much more detailed and his pragmatic policy recommendations are manifold. But I hope I’ve given the prospective reader an idea of how ambitious this book is and whether the type of ideas conveyed would be of interest. Personally, for what it’s worth, I found myself agreeing with Collier’s depiction of the current socio-economic climate but doubtful as to whether his policy prescriptions would be enough to provide a remedy. But I still gave the book five stars because, to my knowledge, there are few academics willing to write for a non-technical audience a book with ambitions such as these. Relatively easy to read, with clear prose and ample examples to drive the narrative, I hope the book is given the serious consideration it deserves. In short, for those who worry about the future of capitalist societies a must read.

Disparate fields of inquiry brought together for an educating read; Economic thought, political calculation, history, philosophy, social policy. It's all here and brought to bear on today's issues. Mr. Collier kept me interested throughout and left me with a little hope in these hyper-partisan times!

Collier provides an insightful analysis of today's problems and the divisiveness created by the hard left and hard right in politics globally. The book is overly academic in its tone, drawing from multiple academic articles for several chapters, which will make it difficult reading for most people, and highly repetitive. He laments the lost sense of reciprocal obligation that was more common in England and the US in the 20 years following the second world war, where governments, churches, and co-ops were focused on recovery from devastation. Supposedly, having extremely high tax rates for the wealthy in those years was a key to the period's success, but he provides no real evidence that many people actually paid high rates of tax, or that the taxes raised were directly to the right services. He wants us to recreate the sense of shared obligation to each other, which is a noble goal. However, his proposed solutions are unlikely to gain traction. Even the best small-scale examples he cites have all failed when attempts were made to scale them up. He fails to mention the incredible successes of radical organisations like Hezbollah to get commitments from their communities through the sense of shared obligation for health and social services, which should be a major lesson for Western powers when seeking to bring peace and stability to war-torn areas. He wants to encourage the rebuilding of "rust-belt" cities in England and the US which have lost their industrial bases by imposing higher taxes on the major cities like New York and London to be distributed to development zones in the declining cities. Good luck with that! Overall, Collier needs to get a better understanding of behavioural psychology at an individual level to have a chance of reshaping society. BF Skinner provided useful roadmaps in his books 50 years ago, such as Science and Human Behavior, Beyond Freedom and Dignity, and even Walden Two. Skinner's concepts are widely used to make us more likely to gamble in lotteries, join frequent flyer programs, and get addicted to Pokemon Go. Collier needs to find solutions that will address the economic realities as well as individual psychology. This book provides a very useful description of the problems we face, but is very light on plausible solutions.

This book tries to tackle some of the very complex challenges facing the world currently in light of election of Trump, Britexit, refugees, raise of nationalism, wealth inequality., and so on. Author examines the root causes and offers some remedies. Centeral to author argument seems to be the need for creating a society that is based on shared values and reciprocity than one that is based on winner take all and nationalism. Generally a very good and worthwhile reading. Somr of the concepts and arguments tends to be a bit complex and not easy to follow for a casual reader. But still a worthwhile read even if one can grasp only 50%.

The best book out there about how to fix our modern day form of Capitalism and everything that’s gone wrong since Reagan, Thatcher and Kohl ushered in what’s created the most chaotic time in Western Society since Pre WW2.

Well written discussion of the challenges and failures of capitalism; good discussion platform for why capitalism as a monetary system needs strong social regulatory oversight to achieve local and global goals producing safe and equitable living standards-rather than benefiting just corporations and traders.

Es un muy buen libro, definitivamente es un "must read" para todo aquel interesado en la rama económica y el panorama mundial en general. Abarca un buenos puntos, no es lectura ligera pero aprender de él es bastante satisfactorio. Como dato curioso, este libro fue recomendado por Bill Gates como lectura de verano. Compré la versión pasta dura de aprox. $360 y la portada que viene en la imagen es en realidad sólo una cobertura de papel, el libro en sí es completamente liso en color gris (obvio con el título en el lomo). Hubiera sido muy bueno que la cobertura fuera en realidad la portada ya que es muy bonita. Desconozco si en la versión de pasta dura de aprox. $650 sí sea así. También vino un poco manchado por el frente y por detrás pero nada que me afectara en lo personal, sólo a tomar en cuenta que no viene pulcro

Considera muitos aspectos do capitalismo e de uma sociedade economicamente mais justa que nunca pensamos

Rights vs obligations with a correct education , the only way to create an informed electorate, the ultimate public good!

Collier does a quick but thorough review of the most recent (100 years) of capitalism. He thinks the reciprocal obligations that gave rise to a strong sense of shared identity and many good years of growth is now unraveling as class divides, separating the educated from the less educated, and regional divides, separating dense metropolitan areas from smaller cities and towns. Liberated from the moral constraints of earlier generations, families grew more fragmented, employers embraced a simple obligation to generate profit for the shareholder and the big rich cities started to disdain the smaller cities. Then he goes on to propose specific, very concrete meassures that would help recover the reciprocal obligations, the families and the sense of shared identity to bring back capitalism advantages of massive wealth creation without the increased inequalities that derived in most recent years. Definitely worth the read.

Interesting but a little more analysis of capitalism would help. He has written well about development aid but this was a bit one-sided