|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
|
Product Description
Review
Stanford is that rare breed: the teacher who changed your life. He has written a book - both pragmatic and idealistic - with the power to change the world. -- Naomi Klein, author of No Logo and The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Jim Stanford has a unique ability to explain economics in ways that average working people can totally relate to. -- Bob White, Former President, Canadian Labour Congress, and Former President, OECD Trade Union Advisory Committee. I have been waiting all my adult life for this book. Jim Stanford, brilliant economist himself, wrote a terrific book that demystifies economics and makes the subject accessible to us all. Now there's going to be trouble! -- Maude Barlow, Voluntary Chairperson, Council of Canadians, and international water rights campaigner. Is economics the 'dismal science'? Not in Jim Stanford's capable hands. If we are to have better economic policies in the future, 'everyone' needs a guide, and this one is short but sweet. -- Lars Osberg, Chair of Economics, Dalhousie University, and Former President, Canadian Economics Association. Economics For Everyone is a marvelous tool for activists. It is simple but by no means simplistic, with clear explanations and clever cartoons -- Cy Gonick, Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Manitoba, and publisher, Canadian Dimension. This book is a timely and important contribution to the intellectual fightback against economic fundamentalism. Written in Jim's incisive and practical style, this book is a 'must have' for anyone engaged in the fight for a good society. -- Doug Cameron, Australian Senator, and Former National Secretary, Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union. Jim Stanford has provided a highly readable yet rigorous guide to the economics of capitalism. It is to be highly commended for its comprehensive yet critical coverage - from work to globalisation, the environment to high finance. -- Malcolm Sawyer, Professor of Economics, Leeds University, U.K. Jim Stanford has written a wonderfully accessible and useful book for union activists or anyone else who wants to learn about how the economy works in order to change it. -- Thea Lee, Economist, AFL-CIO, Washington DC. This book fell on my doorstep alongside newspapers reporting (another) financial crisis. It helps us understand what the newspapers never explain: these crises are a product of the inequalities and incapacity for social foresight that is capitalism's everyday economics. This understanding helps turn these crises into opportunities for change. -- Hilary Wainwright, Editor, Red Pepper
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Product Description
--A highly readable guide to how the economy really works--
Economics is too important to be left to the economists. This brilliantly concise and readable book provides non-specialist readers with all the information they need to understand how capitalism works (and how it doesn't).
Jim Stanford's book is an antidote to the abstract and ideological way that economics is normally taught and reported. Key concepts such as finance, competition and wage labor are explored, and their importance to everyday life is revealed. Stanford answers questions such as "Do workers need capitalists?", "Why does capitalism harm the environment?", and "What really happens on the stock market?" He offers both a realistic assessment of capitalism's strengths, and a robust critique of its many failures.
This book will appeal to those working for a fairer world, and students of social sciences who need to engage with economics. The book is illustrated with humorous and educational cartoons by Tony Biddle, and is supported with a comprehensive set of web-based course materials for popular economics courses.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.ca
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.6 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A primer on heterodox economics, Aug 5 2009
By Jimbo - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Economics for Everyone: A Short Guide to the Economics of Capitalism (Paperback)
Of all the books I have bought for myself over the years, this is definitely one of the most useful ones I have read. Rather than being one of those books that try to present economics as a universal science, capable of explaining everything from a few absolute truths, "Economics for Everyone" showed me a side of economics I had never experimented. All of the economics courses I took as an undergrad focused on neoclassical economics. The problem, however, is that I was never told that neoclassical economics is just one possible explanation of economic phenomena. "Economics for Everyone" made me understand this.From the very beginning, Jim Stanford (a New School graduate and trade union economist) approaches the subject in a critical manner, emphasising the fact that economics should be a more democratic subject of study, where the visions of all segments of society ought to be meaningful for the purpose of seeking solutions to everyday problems. Economics is not just the sacred knowledge of a caste of economic gurus. Instead, Stanford advocates a more grassroots approach to economics and a more critical stance vis-à-vis capitalism, as - may I add - capitalism is there to try and make our lives more prosperous, not vice versa: if it doesn't work, we must have the courage to challenge it, and advocate its reform.
Content-wise, the book presents an incredibly accessible overview of macroeconomic topics. In particular, it starts from presenting a basic "closed" economy featuring just workers and firms, and later goes on adding players to this picture, such as governments, the environment, the financial sector and foreign trade. In so doing, however, Stanford puts his education as a heterodox economics to good use, bring to bear on the various problems a wealth of different perspectives: Keynesian, Marxist and feminist, to name those I was able explicitly to recognise myself.
Stanford offers a very strong and credible voice in favor of a more participatory and democratic approach in suggesting policy conclusions vis-à-vis the economic problems of the modern world. Highly recommended!
7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Because understanding of economics is too important to be left to politicans and economists, Sep 24 2008
By Sky - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Economics for Everyone: A Short Guide to the Economics of Capitalism (Paperback)
Excellent text for individuals seeking for a source introducing and critically examining the key economic concepts and issues. The format is very accessible and enjoyable. It will be suitable for high school students and adults without a background in critical theory. This is much more than a standard textbook in economic theory and if you are choosing between this text and a textbook, this one should be the one you read first. If you do have a basic background in economics but not critical theory, this is still a required reading for you.
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good intro to how capitalism works (or not), Dec 8 2009
By William Podmore - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Economics for Everyone: A Short Guide to the Economics of Capitalism (Paperback)
Jim Stanford, who is economist for the Canadian Auto Workers union, has produced a useful introduction to the economics of capitalism. He shows us capitalism's basics: work, tools and profit; how it works (or doesn't) as a system; its complexity; and various challenges to capitalism. He shows up capitalism's inherent failings and proposes policies that would be in the interests of the working class, the vast majority of the population in industrial countries.He points out, "Most modern jobs and careers fall into the category of wage labour - whether they are in private companies or public agencies, blue-collar or white-collar. The stereotype of a `worker' as someone who performs menial tasks on an assembly line is badly outdated. Workers today perform a wide variety of functions, many of them requiring advanced skills. But they are still workers, so long as they perform that work for somebody else, in return for a wage or salary. Scientists in a research laboratory; surgeons in a large hospital; engineers in a construction firm - these are all workers (although culturally, they may not like to define themselves as such). They perform their labour in return for a salary, and they do not own or significantly control the organization which they work for."
He shows that the capitalist class is just two per cent of the population, and note, "Many of these rich individuals work; but the key distinction here is that they don't have to work, since they own enough business wealth to support themselves very comfortably without working."
He praises Cuba: "Socialist Cuba - where average health outcomes are superior to those in the US - manages to do more, given its GDP, to improve human welfare than any other country in the world. ... Cuba's admirable social achievements (its education, health, and cultural indicators outrank most developing countries, and even many developed countries) demonstrate the potential of socialism to leverage the maximum possible well-being from a given amount of material production."
He also points out how employers gain from the free movement of labour: "employers are permitted to re-create abundant supplies of cheap, desperate labour by exploiting vulnerable immigrants ... Capitalists may encourage these migrations when they face uncomfortably tight labour market conditions in particular countries (in which case immigration is a convenient way to keep a lid on wages)."
As he observes, "Migrants are treated as temporary, second-class citizens, often forced to return to their country of origin when their jobs are finished, and subjected to social and legal abuses in the interim. Their migration can also harm the countries they leave - especially since it is usually the best-educated, most capable people who are allowed to migrate to better-paying opportunities in other countries."
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Business & Investing > Economics > Economic Conditions
- Books > Business & Investing > Economics > Theory
- Books > Business & Investing > Popular Economics
- Books > Nonfiction > Economics > Economic Conditions
- Books > Nonfiction > Economics > Theory
- Books > Professional & Technical > Accounting & Finance > Economics > Economic Conditions
- Books > Professional & Technical > Accounting & Finance > Economics > Theory
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
