Book description
In recent years, economic growth has been regarded as a self-evident
good, with political debate focussed on the best means to achieve it.
But there are now signs that this shared assumption is weakening.
Anger at 'greedy' bankers and their 'obscene' bonuses has given way to
a deeper dissatisfaction with an economic system geared overwhelmingly
to the accumulation of wealth. Huge income disparities and an
ever-growing gap between the richest and the rest has brought us to
one of those rare moments when the underlying assumptions of society,
are changing.
In How Much is Enough? Robert and Edward Skidelsky argue that
wealth is not an end in itself but a means to the achievement and
maintenance of a 'good life', and that our economy should be organised
to reflect this fact. The book includes a definition of the 'good
life', discusses the relevance of 'Happiness Studies' and the
environmental impact of our ever-growing need to consume. In doing so,
it offers an escape from the trap of excessive specialization and a
way to reinvigorate the idea of economics as a 'moral science'. It
concludes by offering a radical new model for income redistribution -
and a consideration of what human beings might really want from their lives.
Robert Skidelsky is Emeritus Professor of Political Economy at the
University of Warwick. His three volume biography of John Maynard
Keynes (1983, 1992, 2000) received numerous prizes, including the
Lionel Gelber Prize for International Relations and the Council on
Foreign Relations Prize for International Relations. ('This
three-volume life of the British economist should be given a Nobel
Prize for History if there was such a thing' - Norman Stone.) He was
made a life peer in 1991, and aFellow of the British Academy in 1994.
Edward Skidelsky is a lecturer in the Philosophy Department of the
University of Exeter. He contributes regularly to the New
Statesman, Telegraph, Spectator and Prospect.
His previous books include The Conditions of Goodness and
Ernst Cassirer: The Last Philosopher of Culture.
