Escape from Capitalism
An Intervention
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Capitalism isn’t inevitable, scientific, or natural—it's a relatively young system that can be replaced.
We live in a world where cuts to social programs are deemed necessary, unemployment is considered natural, and rising living costs are accepted as normal. We’re told that change isn’t possible—the markets know best and there’s no alternative to capitalism. But what if mainstream economics itself is the problem?
In this groundbreaking manifesto, economist Clara E. Mattei shows us how the dogma that rules our economies is not only delusional but also detrimental to our societies and livelihoods and fundamentally hostile to working people. Pseudoscientific models are used to justify enduring problems such as poverty and inequality in order to support a system that unfairly rewards people who already have the most resources.
Today’s economic institutions, from the Federal Reserve to the International Monetary Fund, wield immense power over monetary policy yet are shielded from democratic scrutiny. All the major problems we face—from a health care system that prioritizes profits over well-being to the rise of ultranationalism—are rooted in an economic system that fails to serve the common good.
Why should we accept this? In this urgent intervention against capitalism, Mattei shows how escaping this system begins with understanding the economy from a fundamentally different perspective. The time has come to challenge the broken economics of our modern age—to achieve true economic freedom and finally escape from capitalism.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"The decisions of economic institutions, from the Fed to the Treasury in the US to the International Monetary Fund, are not neutral, scientific, or necessarily moral. They have long failed to serve the common good," asserts economist Mattei (The Capital Order) in this precise and cutting condemnation of capitalism. The aim of her "intervention" is to convince readers that capitalism is not the only, best, or most "natural" path forward for humanity—that it is in fact a highly "political" system propped up to serve particular elite interests. Mattei concisely and elegantly runs through common claims in capitalism's favor—the notion that it is the only viable economic system, that it promotes political and financial freedom, that it leads to social progress—and presents counterexamples, among them the international aid that has disproportionately flowed to and propped up the modern state of Israel and the Federal Reserve's efforts to increase unemployment for the "health" of the economic system. While some readers may wish for more time spent on the promised methods for "escape from capitalism"—an intriguing but brief chapter spotlights economic decisions made by social democratic leaders in countries like Brazil and Mexico as a model for how to disconnect from capitalism's agenda—it's nevertheless a persuasive takedown. Readers will come away ready for change.
