Book: Economics for Everyone – A short guide to the Economics of Capitalism
March 25th, 2009 | Published in Economics idea, Interesting Books
I just finished skimming through the book “Economics for Everyone - A short guide to the Economics of Capitalism” by Jim Stanford. It’s primary goal is to explain capitalism in concrete terms that are easy to understand. I like this because I believe that economics shouldn’t be complicated.
What I found particularly interesting was a chapter towards the end of the book where he evaluates capitalism. He identifies 7 attributes an economy should have and subjectively grades capitalism on each attribute. His attributes and the grades are:
- Prosperity: C
- Security: D
- Innovation: A-
- Choice: B-
- Equality: F
- Sustainability: D
- Democracy & Accountability: D+
Overall, He gives Capitalism a C-, a barely passing grade.
I’m not going to go into the details of what exactly each category means or why he chose the grades he did. You can find the details in his book. What I find refreshing is that he isn’t touting capitalism as a perfect system.
Incidentally, I came across his book while thinking about possible titles for the book I am working on. I thought the title “Economics for Everyone” was promising because I am trying to design an economic system that can meet everyone’s needs. Unfortunately, Jim Stanford got the title first. I’ll have to keep looking.
