Alternative Economics
Economics, Culture and Society
The essayists in this volume are united in their
deep dissatisfaction with neoclassical economics and the dominance of
the market as they explore alternative approaches to economics in its
social and cultural context. Their essays cover a broad range of ideas
and schools of thought from the European cultural-historical approach,
reflected in the work of Karl Planyi and Fernand Braudel, to the “human
economy” school in the United States and the “green” view of economic
development, with roots in Northern Europe. The concluding essay reaches
beyond economics to project a “new heresy” in the respiritualization of
society. More >
GAIA Atlas of Green Economics
Every day, all over the world, billions of people
play their part in humanity’s global growth economy. Money is the god,
material wealth the principal virtue, and market economics the ruler of
our times. But this economics of consumption is full of hidden costs. It
is drawing us ever deeper into social, ecological, and economic crisis.
We are trading the health of the Earth and our communities for freeways
and the free market. This pioneering work in “green” economics shows us
a way out of this destructive obsession with economic growth. It
explores a new concept of wealth and wealth creation; it describes a new
economics synthesis between the market, state, families, and
communities; it sets out what governments and people can do to build a
sustainable society – to create prosperity and a fairer world in a
healthy environment. More >
Greed & Good
Should we care that wealth in the United States is
unequally distributed — and getting more so every year? Should we worry
that America’s most wealthy, in just a generation, have more than
doubled their share of the nation’s wealth? More >
Washington’s New Poor Law
The authors argue that the personal Responsibility
and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, popularly known as welfare
“reform”, offers neither work opportunity nor real reform. In repealing
the entitlement to welfare and failing to create an entitlement to work -
at the same time as it imposes strict, time-limited work requirements -
Washington has, in effect, written a new Poor Law. More >
Global Aggression
An expose by INFACT (now Corporate Accountability
International) of the role of the US-based tobacco corporations Philip
Morris and RJR Nabisco in aggressively promoting tobacco
internationally, contributing to the deaths of 3.5 million people
worldwide per year. Filled with examples of manipulation of public
policy and big Tobacco’s disregard for advertising restrictions in other
countries, Global Aggression builds a case for a combination of
consumer pressure and world standards to stop the spread of
tobacco-related diseases and hold tobacco transnationals accountable. More >
Jobs for All
Chronic unemployment, underemployment and declining
wages appear to be the defining characteristics of the “New World
Order”, according to the authors of Jobs For All. Drawing upon an
impressive array of research, the authors develop a powerful analysis of
the impact of domestic and global economic restructuring on American
workers, families and communities and propose a comprehensive program of
Jobs For All as a solution to the many social, economic and
environmental problems plaguing American Society. More >
The Maximum Wage
More than 5 decades ago, in 1942, President Franklin
D. Roosevelt advanced the most daring legislative proposal of the
entire New Deal era: a maximum wage on the incomes of America’s wealthy.
Roosevelt’s maximum wage proposal, argues author Sam Pizzigatti,
deserves a careful reconsideration. A maximum wage may be just what
America needs to re-energize our lackluster democracy, jump start an
ailing economy, and throttle the envy and grasping that so characterize
contemporary American Life. More >
Humanistic Economics
Economics has long been imprisoned by a
one-dimensional view of the person and the narrow assumption of
self-interest that this entails. Humanistic Economics breaks out of this
paradigm by proposing an alternative framework that is no longer
incompatible with actions undertaken for the sake of deeply held values,
compelling reasons, and higher interests.More >
