The Price Of Civilization: Reawakening American Virtue And Prosperity

by Jeffrey D. Sachs

For more than three decades, Jeffrey D. Sachs has been at the forefront of international economic problem solving. But Sachs turns his attention back home in "The Price of Civilization, "a book that is essential reading for every American. In a forceful, impassioned, and personal voice, he offers not only a searing and incisive diagnosis of our country's economic ills but also an urgent call for Americans to restore the virtues of fairness, honesty, and foresight as the foundations of national prosperity.
As he has done in dozens of countries around the world in the midst of economic crises, Sachs turns his unique diagnostic skills to what ails the American economy. He finds that both political parties--and many leading economists--have missed the big picture, offering shortsighted solutions such as stimulus spending or tax cuts to address complex economic problems that require deeper solutions. Sachs argues that we have profoundly underestimated globalization's long-term effects on our country, which create deep and largely unmet challenges with regard to jobs, incomes, poverty, and the environment. America's single biggest economic failure, Sachs argues, is its inability to come to grips with the new global economic realities.
Yet Sachs goes deeper than an economic diagnosis. By taking a broad, holistic approach--looking at domestic politics, geopolitics, social psychology, and the natural environment as well--Sachs reveals the larger fissures underlying our country's current crisis. He shows how Washington has consistently failed to address America's economic needs. He describes a political system that has lost its ethical moorings, in which ever-rising campaign contributions and lobbying outlays overpower the voice of the citizenry. He also looks at the crisis in our culture, in which an overstimulated and consumption-driven populace in a ferocious quest for wealth now suffers shortfalls of social trust, honesty, and compassion.
Finally, Sachs offers a plan to turn the crisis around. He argues persuasively that the problem is not America's abiding values, which remain generous and pragmatic, but the ease with which political spin and consumerism run circles around those values. He bids the reader to reclaim the virtues of good citizenship and mindfulness toward the economy and one another. Most important, he bids each of us to accept the price of civilization, so that together we can restore America to its great promise.
"The Price of Civilization" is a masterly road map for prosperity, founded on America's deepest values and on a rigorous understanding of the twenty-first-century world economy. "From the Hardcover edition."

Genres: Economics, Nonfiction, Politics, History, Sociology, Business, Political Science

336 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2010

About the author

Jeffrey David Sachs, is an American economist, public policy analyst, and former director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, where he holds the title of University Professor, the highest rank Columbia bestows on its faculty. He is known as one of the world's leading experts on economic development and the fight against poverty.

Sachs is the Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs and a professor of health policy and management at Columbia's School of Public Health. As of 2017, he serves as special adviser to the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of 17 global goals adopted at a UN summit meeting in September 2015. He held the same position under the previous UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and prior to 2016 a similar advisory position related to the earlier Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eight internationally sanctioned objectives to reduce extreme poverty, hunger and disease by the year 2015. In connection with the MDGs, he had first been appointed special adviser to the UN Secretary-General in 2002 during the term of Kofi Annan.

In 1995, Sachs became a member of the International Advisory Council of the Center for Social and Economic Research (CASE). He is co-founder and chief strategist of Millennium Promise Alliance, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ending extreme poverty and hunger. From 2002 to 2006, he was director of the United Nations Millennium Project's work on the MDGs. He is director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and co-editor of the World Happiness Report with John F. Helliwell and Richard Layard. In 2010, he became a commissioner for the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, whose stated aim is to boost the importance of broadband in international policy. Sachs has written several books and received many awards.

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sachs acts as if he is exposing problems for the first time, but actually, he's ended up preaching to the crowd. Not really sure who'll read this and find out new things about problems in America, although he is a master of using graphs to try to prove his arguments.

The biggest problem here is the disconnect between parts I and II. Part I is spent explaining why and how the system (systems?) is broken, and part II is Sachs's advice on fixing it. But the solutions often seem to gloss over political realities. In part I, Sachs complains about the policies that make sense from his macroeconomic perspective not being passed, and attributes it to Congressional fealty to big corporate donors. Then, in part II, he recommends political and economic solutions. How are these policies supposed to be put in effect when the system is at the mercy of the big corporations, as he alleges? While I don't disagree with him totally, I think his time spent abroad with other governments has made him forget how politics in America works. With this in mind, I wonder how realistic any of his policy advocacy is.

(Also, I have to admit the mindfulness parts referencing Buddhism made me roll me eyes a little bit.)

That being said, I agreed with a large part of what he said, which is why I rated it 3 and not lower.

[Harold · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is by far the best book on current US economics and political theory that I have read. Detailed, clear and persuasive. Starts with an economic history of the past 50 years to show how we have gotten here, and then details why the current political process and economic policy are wrong-headed and destined (if we don't change them) to lead to a serious decline in America's leadership role in the world, and its standard of living. Every member of Occupy Wall Street should read it so they know what they are protesting for, and about. Every Tea Party member should read it and reflect on how realistically to achieve their goals of smaller government, a balanced budget and less taxes. In fact every American should read it and consider where we are, how we got here, and what to do about it. Unless we take its message to heart, we are in for a very rough and disappointing ride as a nation.

PS. Don't expect any humor, or even interesting tangents. The prose, while clear, is as interesting as a pie graph.

[David Rubenstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first half of this book is scary. Jeffrey Sachs seems to list all of the ills of our civilization. The state of politics, our economy, national values and consumer trends are falling into a deep dive. This book puts all these trends together, and it is very depressing.

Much of this book is about the shared social responsibility of the wealthy, and of corporations. Sachs is strongly against the huge political influence of large corporations. He is definitely a liberal--but that does not mean he is pro-Democrat party. He finds the Democrats to be the cause of almost as many problems as Republicans. The parties are actually very similar, as both are run by the wealthy and by corporations.

The second half of the book is a fountain of suggestions for how to improve our nation. He very much would like congressional terms to be increased, as two-year terms are too short. Sachs shows how our national deficit is increasing every year, and that there is not all that much room for reduction of spending by cutting out waste. He shows how much additional revenue is required, and lists a number of tax increases to help make ends meet.

This is an excellent book. I'm doubtful that many of the recommendations will be followed in the future. However, Sachs is a very well-known economist, with a great deal of experience in helping numerous countries establish market economies. We should listen to him.

[Athan Tolis · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to take Jeff Sachs's course in college, but he was never there to teach it. He was too busy saving the world, and the Eastern Block countries in particular, to turn up for his fall semester class in International Economics.

If this book is any guide, that's quite lucky for me.

The book has two parts. In the first, all 175 pages of it, the author exposes what's wrong with the world. In the second part, a mere 90 pages, he offers his solutions.

One star is probably too generous for part one. If it had been written by a Zen Buddhist monk, I'd have been more lenient, I might even be half-impressed. But if this is the best one of the rock star economists of our planet can do, we're in deep trouble. I'm rather liberal in my leanings, this ought to have been right up my alley. Instead, I found myself thinking I need to take my losses and start reading something else.

EVERYBODY knows there's a case to be made for government, everybody knows CEOs are overpaid, everybody knows politicians can be bought, and quite frankly nobody really agrees with some of the weirder stuff Sachs talks about. I know that giants like John Kenneth Galbraith shared the author's aversion for advertizing, but nine out of ten people you ask would not put the advertizing model in their top 100 problems with today's capitalism. Hell, I like ads! And I have no patience for a globetrotting professor telling me I need to worship Gandhi or Buddah. Not if the book is advertised as an economics book. Jeff Sachs has his place in the pantheon of economists, but for my money (which I forked out to buy this opus) he's a crumby philosopher.

But I finished part one of the book and got to part two and my persistence was rewarded. First, somewhere around page 180 (give or take 20 pages, I haven't got the book here) the author tells you what "the price of civilization" is. It's taxes. Hats off to him for keeping that under wraps that long. Even better, his laundry list of solutions / propositions / answers to the world's ills is thorough and clearly presented and, frankly, at odds with the weirdness of the first part of the book. It comprises a list of necessary areas where we need to spend more, places where we can make cuts and ways to raise revenue, all with estimated numbers attached. I'd give four stars to the second 90 pages, with the fifth star missing because he does not back up the proposals with anywhere near as much oomph as they deserve.

Overall, though, I can't help thinking there's some type of ulterior motive to this book. Don't know if Jeff Sachs is trying to move from Economics to Philosophy or from problem solver to Zen master, but what he's doing here is attempting some type of transformation. Two stars.

[Cassandra Kay Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite the fact that I completely disagreed with his "painting" regarding the outcome of some of these scenarios I do think the delivery was sharp and to the point. I loved the way he presented the data and tried to engage the reading audience with a myrid of examples and different topics and how they fit in to the current picture of Americas economy and policy. I am not sure if I agree with all of his views, but many of them need to be brought up. I though his information on the collective lack of knowledge of Americans regarding what is really going on in the country is dead on,whether or not his solutions to it are completely valid. I can not tell you how many people I know, that have a greater handle on the ins and outs of the Osbourne family than they do of our economic climate or what is actually going on. I hear so often people "blaming" welfare and government handouts for our massive accumulating debt, when in fact it makes us such a tiny fraction of the GDP budget as to not even be mentionable. Good insights if somewhat pushy.

[Doug · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been reading enough of these books that the problem is going to be come combination of:

Inequality
Special interests
Climate change
Entitlements
Debt

At the end of the day, it all boils down to greed and doing things today without any thought as to the consequences tomorrow. I am really wary of anyone who relies on some cultural awakening by young people to right the ship, didn't we go through this with the Baby Boomers and aren't they the ones causing a lot of the mess? The thing is, the author is not wrong, but whenever I read about what needs to be done, the fundamental changes in our worldview that needs to happen, the pessimistic side of me thinks of this quote from Ghostbusters II: "What do you want me to do, go on television and tell 10 million people they have to be *nice* to each other? Being miserable and treating other people like dirt is every New Yorker's god-given right. Your 2 minutes are up, good night gentlemen." And yet, as Robert Kennedy reminds us, in order for us to see what is truly important in our lives, we have to stop being greedy and focusing on material possessions:

Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product ... if we should judge America by that - counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them. It counts the destruction of our redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead, and armored cars for police who fight riots in our streets. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.

Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it tells us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now I understand what a political economist is. Jeffrey Sachs is an outstanding example of one. This is a superb analysis of the current state of the US economy with an impressive list of suggestions on how to fix it. Prof. Sachs pulls no punches in his critique of both ends of the political spectrum and the damage that they have done to the American political system. He likewise indicts the media and the American people for their short attention span and their dangerous habit of kicking the significant issues down the road, rather than dealing with them.

His thorough-going explanation of the true nature of the threat of the deficit (hint: no deficit is not the answer)plus his analysis of current spending are right on target. He clearly identifies the logically opportunities for spending cuts while arguing for the need for significant revenue enhancement as well. Most compelling is his argument that if we want the good things of civilization, we all need to be prepared to pay for them, most especially the wealthy in much greater proportion than they have been.

I agreed with his emphasis on where we need to increase - that's right, increase - spending: education, research, infrastructure, a forward-thinking energy policy. Our priorities have gotten seriously out of whack in the last 30 years and we need to reorient them to the point where we can all (all - not just the wealthy) enjoy the fruits of our labors.

Prof. Sachs is direct and explicit in his criticisms, so if you are easily offended or seriously on one extremity or other of the political spectrum, you probably will be offended or not agree. But those of us with a balanced view of the world and an eagerness to find workable solutions should all hail this book as a work of genius. And pass it along to our less-enlightened friends.

Thank you, Professor Sachs.

[Graham Mulligan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Price of Civilization – Economics and Ethics After the Fall
Jeffrey Sachs, Random House, 2011

Sachs says, “Much of this book is about the social responsibility of the rich” and about society’s shared values and the need to plan ahead to achieve common goals. The book is also a diagnosis of the failure of the American economy to achieve society’s common goals since the 1970’s and makes recommendations for future economic reforms. Sachs argues that there is a consensus on some key beliefs about how the economy should work. Equality of opportunity accompanied by individual responsibility to make the maximum effort to help themselves are central beliefs in America, along with a broad agreement that the rich should pay more taxes. There is also consensus around environmental protection and a belief that big business is too powerful. Sachs argues, however, that there is are gaps between what Americans believe and what the mass media selects to tell about these issues and finally, what politicians decide to do about them.

The American political system usually thought of, as the two-party system of Republicans and Democrats, is really a single system run by and for the wealthiest in America. Sachs describes how the first successful corporate takeover of the political system was the ‘military-industrial establishment’ identified by Eisenhower in the 1960’s. Through four converging trends, the American political stage has evolved to the perfect feedback loop of wealth begetting power, power-begetting wealth. The four trends are identified by Sachs as first, the overly strong representation of individual districts versus a weak national level party system; second, the growth of mega-lobbies, like the military-industrial complex, but now many fold; third, the direct financing of election campaigns by corporate interests (Big Oil for Republicans versus Wall Street for Democrats); and fourth, globalization and the race to the bottom for workers, while power concentrates at the top.

Public opinion doesn’t matter. The evidence is clear in the actual behaviour of the US government. In an incredible list of big issues the point is made. The decisions to act or not act are stunning: the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy ‘extended’ and now still in negotiation as the Fiscal Cliff approaches (I am writing this in Dec. 2012); the war in Afghanistan continues; the public option for healthcare dropped; the alternative energy technologies undeveloped; the bank bailouts continue while they pay out mega bonuses to top executives.

The rise of consumerism across society and its concomitant, advertising, underlies the shift from ‘needs’ to ‘wants’ in Americans’ psychological makeup. Economists habitually misread how markets really work when they ignore the influence of manipulation. We were warned about this shift many times. Sachs lists such warnings coming from George Orwell (1940’s), Vance Packard (1950’s), John Kenneth Galbraith and Marshall McLuhan (1960’s), Noam Chomsky (1990’s). But who’s listening?

In 1996, the Telecommunications Act in the US completely deregulated the mass media. Formerly, under the FCC, the rules required some programming not supported by advertising and required alternative points of view (the Fairness Doctrine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairness...). It also limited ownership to prevent monopolizing local access through joint control of print, radio and TV. All that is gone and we are left with corporate media giants like Disney, Comcast, Westinghouse, Viacom, Time-Warner, and News Corporation. Sachs concludes Part One of the book with this: “We are a technology-rich, advertising-fed, knowledge-poor society”.
In Part two of the book Sachs addresses what can be done to regain prosperity and civic health in America. He starts with a Buddhist-like proposal for more ‘mindfulness’ regarding needs as individuals and as a society. (The Buddhist belief system includes: self, work, knowledge, others, nature, future, politics and the world.) He goes on to make specific proposals for setting new economic goals in the areas of employment and quality of work-life, education, poverty reduction, the environment, the federal budget, governance, national security, and happiness/satisfaction.

To achieve these goals a mixed economy of government and the marketplace must be respected with a commitment to both efficiency and fairness and sustainability.

Interventions in key areas are needed to accomplish the change. The link between education and better paying jobs is an obvious area for improvement. Subsidizing the return to school, at all levels of education, for those under 25, can reduce immediate unemployment numbers. Job sharing would also increase employment and rebalance work and leisure. A more active intervention stance in the marketplace with respect to specific job training needs to be accepted as the proper role of government. Similarly, ECD (Early Childhood Development) needs to be a focus for intervention. Improved schooling at the early to middle grades and publicly funded quality daycare, as is done in Sweden and Quebec, will help lift people out of the poverty cycle.

Health Care reform continues to be stalled in America with only partial success under Obama, extending basic coverage to the poor. Costs remain excessively high as the corporate interests of private health care insurers; pharmaceutical companies and the AMA (American Medical Association) successfully blocked further public entry into the lucrative market they control.

Energy security is discussed as well as military spending. 5 percent of GDP or approximately US$1 trillion is spent on the military. In 2011 government debt was 36 percent of GDP and projected at 75 percent by 2015. It costs 1.5 percent of GDP to pay the interest, projected to be 4 percent by 2020.

In order to reduce the deficit, cuts in spending are proposed, especially by Republicans, but also by Democrats. Favourite targets are foreign aid and government waste. Sachs analyzes these and demonstrates that the proposed savings would be a very small percent of GDP. (Foreign aid = 0.2 percent of GDP; waste, identified by the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform = 0.6 percent of GDP http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National...).

True healthcare reform and military spending cuts, on the other hand, could save up to 3 percent of GDP. Going back to his previous analysis of how to rebuild America in a positive way (investing in health care, education and infrastructure) Sachs arrives at a budget with cuts equaling new spending (-3 percent; +3 percent). This leaves projected federal spending of 24 percent of GDP by 2015 (revenues = 18 percent of GDP).

Tax revenue in the US is suppressed by the ideological opposition to government spending. Yet spending is out of control. There is no Value Added tax in the US whereas in all European countries and Canada there is. Sachs details his proposals for reversing the pattern of the last 30 years that saw the richest part of society paying less than their fair share in taxes. By re-organizing tax payments and closing loopholes it would be possible to reduce the debt-to-GDP to a sustainable level. He insists that this is not ‘class warfare’ but rather sharing of prosperity.

In the closing chapters of the book Sachs, echoing Stephen Covey’s book ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’, recommends 7 habits for government:

- set clear goals and benchmarks
- mobilize experts
- make multiyear plans
- be mindful of the future
- end the corporatocracy
- restore public management
- decentralize

Sachs calls for a third party to emerge in America to lead with these goals and he calls for a constitutional change to proportional representation and a mixed presidential-parliamentary system that sits a longer term of four to six years. His final hope is that the millennial generation will drive this change.

[Danna]

The author explains to Tavis Smiley (PBS) that 99% of us need to wake up and realize our power (like some of us are beginning to do), and that both Democrats and Republicans are simply catering to the rich, for campaign contributions to get re-elected. We need publicly funded elections and accountability, with elected officials who work for the people, not the wealthiest Wall Street investors and brokers. When opposition politicians accuse Obama of class warfare and bailout Wall Street with little regulation, and politicians in the president's own party refuse to recognize the economic plight of their own constituents, this is simply a ridiculous and outrageous claim. An economic war has been raging against the poor for 30 years.

[Toni]

(Opening paragraph) "At the root of America's economic crisis lies a moral crisis: the decline of civic virtue among America's political and economic elite. A society of markets, laws, and elections is not enough if the rich and powerful fail to behave with respect, honesty, and compassion toward the rest of society and toward the world... Without restoring an ethos of social responsibility, there can be no meaningful and sustained economic recovery."

(http://www.randomhouse.com/book/15957...)

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the finest books I have read in diagnosing our current economic, social, and political crisis, but it is even more important as it contains suggestions for changing our current dismal and deteriorating condition.

What follows are extensive excerpts from this book in Sachs’ own words, with the page(s) from which they are taken indicated in parenthesis. As Goodreads sets a maximum of 20,000 characters, some of my review was cut off.

• At the root of America’s economic crisis lies a moral crisis: the decline of civic virtue among America’s political and economic elite. A society of markets, laws and elections is not enough if the rich and powerful fail to behave with respect, honesty, and compassion toward the rest of society and toward the world. America has …squandered its civic virtue…. Without restoring an ethos of social responsibility, there can be no meaningful and sustained economic recovery. (3)

• The crisis…developed gradually over the course of several decades. We are not facing a short-term business cycle downturn, but the working out of long-term social, political, and economic trends. (4)

• We need to reconceive the idea of a good society in the early twenty-first century and to find a creative path toward it. Most important, we need to be ready to pay the price of civilization through multiple acts of good citizenship: bearing our fair share of taxes, educating ourselves deeply about society’s needs, acting as vigilant stewards for future generations, and remembering that compassion is the glue that holds society together. I would suggest that a majority of the public understands this challenge and accepts it. (5)

• When the U.S. economy hit the skids in the 1970s, the political Right, represented by Ronald Reagan, claimed that government was to blame for its growing ills. This diagnosis, although incorrect, had a plausible ring to it to enough Americans to enable the Reagan coalition to begin a process of dismantling effective government programs and undermining the government’s capacity to help steer the economy. (7)

• The two main political parties are not showing a way out of the crisis. Even with the fights between them are vicious…they actually hew to a fairly narrow range of policies, and not ones that are solving America’s problems. We are paralyzed, but not mainly by disagreements between the two parties… We are paralyzed, rather, by a shared lack of serious attention to our future. We increasingly drift between elections without serious resolution of a long list of deep problems, whether it’s the gargantuan budget deficit, wars, health care, education, energy policy, immigration reform, campaign finance reform, and much more. Each election is an occasion to promise to reverse whatever small steps the preceding government has taken. (11)

• …America began in the 1980s to forget the basic lessons of economics… One of the most basic and important ideas of economics – that business and government have complementary roles as part of a “mixed economy” – has been increasingly ignored…. (27)

• [He was a student of the economist Paul Samuelson.] Samuelson’s great synthesis called on market forces to allocate most good n the economy, while calling on governments to perform three essential tasks: redistributing income to protect the poor and the unlucky; providing public goods such as infrastructure and scientific research; and stabilizing the macroeconomy.(29)
• [The economic crises of the 1970s turned this understanding of economics on its head. A new school of economic thought, led by Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayek,] deemphasized the mixed economy and played up the functioning of the market system… [and] expressed greatly increased skepticism about the role of government in the economy… Reagan and Thatcher launched a rollback of government the likes of which had not been seen in decades. (30)

• The main effect of the Reagan Revolution, however, was not the specific policies but a new antipathy to the role of government, a new disdain for the poor who depended on government for income support, and a new invitation to the rich to shed their moral responsibilities to the rest of society. Reagan helped plant the notion that society could benefit most not by insisting on the civic virtue of the wealthy, but by cutting their tax rates and thereby unleashing their entrepreneurial zeal. Whether such…zeal was released is debatable, but there is little doubt that a lot of pent-up greed was released, greed that infected the political system and that still haunts America today. (30-31)

• Though efficiency is a great virtue, it is not the only economic goal of interest to the society. Economic fairness is also crucial. Fairness refers to the distribution of income and well-being, as well as to the ways that government treats the citizenry (including fairness in levying taxes, awarding contracts, and distributing transfers). (35)

• Fairness entails not only the distribution of income within society at a point of time but also the distribution of income across generations, a concept that economists also call “sustainability.” If the current generation depletes the earth’s scare natural resources, for example by using up its fossil fuel an freshwater aquifers…it severely diminishes the well-being of the generations to come… Sustainability, or fairness to the future, therefore involves the concept of stewardship, the idea that the living generation must be stewards of the earth’s resources for the generations that will come later. (36)

• …Scandinavian social democracies…believe that even extensive redistribution can and should be carried out by government and that such a redistribution can be accomplished with very little inefficiency…. Promoting fairness also promotes efficiency. …government-supported investment in “human capital” [is a specific] way for a poor household to raise its long-term productivity. Taxing the rich to hel the poor can then mean cutting lavish consumption spending by the rich to support high-return human investments by the poor. The outcome is not only fairer but also more efficient. (43)

• [What is the proper balance between markets and government?] Here are five of my own conclusions regarding this debate… First, in productive sectors of many producers and consumers, and therefore where strong market competition applies we should rely on market forces…. Second, we should turn to government to ensure the fairness and sustainability of market outcomes, including the broad distribution of income in the society… The government should therefore use its powers to tax and transfer incomes, on a prudent and targeted basis, to help those who can’t help themselves and to protect the well-being of future…generations. Third, we should recognize that the knowledge of science and technology is a public good that should be promoted actively by government alongside the private sector. Markets alone will not create the twenty-first-century knowledge society…. Fourth, as economic life becomes more complex, we should expect the role of government to become more extensive… We need fresh thinking about our circumstances, especially at a time of rapid globalization, environmental threats, and a knowledge-based economy. Fifth, we should appreciate that circumstances as to the appropriate role of markets and government differ across countries. (44-45)
• To recap…the market by itself is not equipped to achieve the triple bottom line of efficiency, fairness, and sustainability. (46)

• During the 1980s and onward, the instruments of federal power were increasingly handed over to vested corporate interests to be used for private advantage. The new corporatocracy was under way… The overarching reversal of Washington’s role, from defender of the common man to the enabler of narrow interests, is the most important political change during the eight decades since the Great Depression in the 1930s. (48)

• After [Bill] Clinton, the United States no longer had a center-right Republican Party and a center-left Democratic Party, but rather two center-right parties whose heated differences on the surface mask a common agenda at the core. Washington’s obeisance to the rich while squeezing the poor has so far proved to be bipartisan and durable. (49)

• [Sachs calls the period form the 1940s into at least the middle of the 1960s the “Era of Consensus” when the public broadly supported the government’s programs and in which government] was widely trusted and seen as a guarantor of national prosperity. It was not seen as a tribune of special interest, and particularly not the interests of the rich, who paid stiff income taxes, with top tax rates soaring to 80 percent or higher after 1940. (52)

• One more crucial factor made possible the surge in social programs during the period of the 1960s: the availability of existing government revenues to pay for them… the federal tax system that emerged from World War II and the Korean War was able to collect 18 to 19 percent of GDP in revenues… (53)

• [Sachs calls the post ‘60s the “Great Reversal,” the government’s “retreat from public purpose.”] The deepest political impact of the Reagan era was the demonization of taxes. (57) [The consequent tax cuts] led to large budget deficits and to pressures to cut government spending on domestic discretionary programs, all the more because spending on the military rose. (58) [Consequent cuts occurred in spending on the infrastructure, as well as] education, job training, and employment programs, all vital areas of investment in human capital, especially in the context of globalization. (59-60)

• [Despite great hype then, and continuing into our own day,] the Reagan Revolution failed to put America back on its previous path of growth, high employment, and shared prosperity. (65)

• The retreat of government after 1980 partly reflected Reagan’s incorrect diagnosis that “big government” had caused the economic crisis of the 1970s. Another cause was globalization… A third factor was the rise of social tensions in America that made it more difficult to acknowledge, and act upon, shared principles and values. From the 1980s until now, America has seen itself as a tensely divided society, and we’ve dissipated tremendous national energies on our social divisions rather than focusing on the important values that unite most Americans that can and should be the basis of economic policies. (67)

• [Sachs identifies four trends] that I believe have also played a deep and lasting role [in social division] and are even more directly related to the changes in Washington: [ the civil rights movement, the rise in Hispanic immigration, the] perhaps deepest, change… the demographic and economic rise of the Sunbelt, which brought new regions and values to the forefront of American politics. Finally, the suburbanization of America, including the residential sorting of Americans by class, contributed to polarized politics. (68-69)

• The civil rights movement marked the moment in which political power shifted from the Snowbelt to the Sunbelt [and directly contributed to] the anti-government and anti-tax revolt that culminated in Regan’s election in 1980… Before the civil rights era, federal social spending was largely for white voters [farmers, home owners, and retirees]. With the success of the civil rights movement and the rise of anti-poverty programs in the 1960s, federal benefits increasingly flowed to minority communities. The political reaction was a sharp turn of many white voters away from government’s leadership role. (69-70)

• The surge in Hispanic immigration [following liberalizing immigration policy in the ‘60s] exacerbated racial tensions and put immigration policy back at the forefront of national politics, feeding directly and powerfully into the growing anti-tax sentiments of the 1970s and afterward. [Proposition 13 in California in 1978] was strongly influenced by the surge in the state’s Hispanic population and the opposition in much of the white community to the added property taxes being levied to provide schooling for an increasingly Hispanic student population. [Social programs that involve taxing white people to assist people of color make it especially hard to create, let alone maintain, a sense of shared purpose without which the solidarity of will to sustain such programs cannot be created.] (71-72)

• [The civil rights movement and the surge of non-white immigration] not only divided Americans according to race and ethnicity but also helped to change the geography of political power… Between 1900 and 1960, the Snowbelt states provided every U.S. president but one. But between 1964 and Obama’s election in 2008, the Sunbelt states provided every one! …The rise of the Sunbelt to president power…was far more than merely a civil rights backlash, however. It also reflected the gradual rise in economic power of the South after World War II [as many industries moved South away from the] highly unionized Northeast to the low-cost, nonunionized South. [This shift in the locus of economic power presaged the accompanying shift of political power from North to South. Also, this geographic] shift in industries [within the United States]…was, in many ways, a dry run of the later transfer of industry from the high-wage United States to the low-wage Asia. (73-74)

• The real issue about consensus is not whether Americans can agree on everything important to their lives – clearly the answer to that is no – but whether Americans can agree on a set of national economic policies to promote overall efficiency, fairness, and sustainability. Here, then are some things on which Americans broadly agree… equality of opportunity for American citizens…that individuals should make the maximum effort to help themselves…that government should help those in real need, as long as they are trying to help themselves. And they broadly agree that the rich should pay more in taxes. These core values can form the basis of a broad and effective consensus on the basic direction of economic policy. (emphasis added) (79-80)

• The flip side of the view supporting public responsibility toward the poor is an equally strong consensus that big business has been allowed to run away with the prize… [Americans also continue to place] high importance [on caring for] the natural environment. (81)

• There would be also be many few disagreements if the electorate was helped to be better informed. [For example, the very states that tend to be most vocal in resisting government and government aid are the very states that are the net beneficiaries of tax and spending programs: the red Sunbelt states!] (82)

• Our politics feel divisive not because of a raging battle in middle America but because there is a vast gap between (1) what Americans believe; (2) what the mass media tells us Americans believe; and (3) what politicians actually decide, no matter what Americans believe… the media tend to emphasize and even promote the extremes. And the politicians vote along with the rich and the special interests. We thereby end up with a very biased view of our own country. American can be much better than it is today if public policies begin to follow American values, not the values that corporate-driven media pretend to be American values. [emphasis added] (84)

• Here’s the conundrum: A healthy economy is a mixed economy, in which government and the marketplace both play their role. Yet the federal government has neglected its role for three decades… it turned the levers of power over to the corporate lobbies… the politics of America’s corporatocracy, a political system in which powerful corporate interest groups dominate the policy agenda. (105)

• We can see how the corporatocracy arose as the confluence of four big trends. First, the American political system has weak national parties and strong political representation of individual districts… allow[ing] special interest to have a great say in politics through local representatives. Second, the large U.S. military establishment after World War II created the first of the megalobbies, the military-industrial complex. Third, big corporate money finances America’s election campaigns. And fourth, globalization and the race to the bottom have tilted the balance of power toward corporations and away from workers. (105)

• We can consider America’s political system today to be not so much a true democracy as a stable duopoly of two ruling parties…which basically stand for many of the same things when it comes to issues touching the interest of business, the rich, and the military…(114)

• [There is a] fairly stable bipartisan consensus among politicians…on five major points of policy in the past thirty years… [1] low marginal tax rates for the rich… [2] contracting of public services to well-connected private interests; [3] neglect of the budget deficit when voting on tax and spending issues, leaving the debt to future generations; [4] the favoring of large military outlays even as domestic spending is squeezed; and [5] the lack of serious long-term budget planning. (1140

• The power of corporatocracy is supported not only by campaign financing and lobbying, but also by relentless public relations spin…[via] public relations firms and disinformation campaigns …[and] major corporate media outlets…. (129)

• Americans have allowed themselves to be manipulated by corporate propaganda. And Americans have behaved in a very shortsighted way with their own budget management, falling dangerously into debt and eventually into bankruptcy. (133)

• Though I can’t prove that America’s mass-media culture, ubiquitous advertising, and long hours of daily TV watching are the fundamental causes of its tendency to let markets run rampant over social values, I can show that America represents the unhappy extreme of commercialism among the leading economies…. [Using his ‘commercialization index,’ he concludes that] The United State is by far the most commercialized country in the sample [with the Scandinavian countries at the opposite end]. Highly commercialized societies like America are more likely to leave the poor behind. (147)

• …in the highly commercialized countries, market values trump social values: the poor, both those at home and abroad, are more or less forgotten. I would surmise that in such societies, individuals are so overwhelmed by market values (bargaining, self-interest, competitions) that they lose touch with other values (compassion, trust, honesty). Whatever the cause, the United States is privately rich but socially poor. (150)

• …America has become a media-saturated society, the first in history… We are a technology-rich, advertising-fed, knowledge-poor society. (157)

• Americans urgently need to regain our footing. The starting point is that we must recognize the snares that the economy has set for our own psyches. We must begin by reclaiming our balance as individuals, consumers, citizens, and members of society. (158)

• We need a mindful society, in which we once again take seriously our own well-being, our relations with others, and the operation of our politics. [Emphasis added.] The essential teaching of both Buddha and Aristotle is that the path of moderation is the key to fulfillment but is hard won and must be pursued through lifelong diligence, training, and reflection…

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

(This was the first book I read entirely on an e-reader and I'm surprised how different that was for me than reading a "real" book. I don't think I retained as much about the book as I usually do, but I really liked using the highlight and bookmark features, which made it easy for me to find certain quotes again.)

Mr. Sachs writes passionately and persuasively. "A society of markets, laws, and elections is not enough if the rich and powerful fail to behave with respect, honesty, and compassion toward the rest of society and toward the world." No argument there. We've certainly seen enough lately of the results of the rich and powerful failing to behave with respect, honesty, and compassion. (Not that the poor and powerless are necessarily any more virtuous by nature of their lack of funds and influence, but moral failings in high places certainly seem to have wider consequences.) We are living, he claims, through a "new Gilded Age" where there is "an inequality of income and wealth unprecedented in American history" and while he has no quarrel with wealth itself, he does with poverty.

Mr. Sachs advocates "government planning, government investments, and clear long-term policy objectives that are based on the society's shared values." Yes! So many of our ills today are due to the short-term blinders that are handed out to many, if not all, business executives and legislators that only look at far as the next quarter's profits or the next election, which comes around every two years. When only short-term results are rewarded, guess where the focus is going to be?

He decries the lack of consequences for those who participate in dishonest behavior, and is particularly harsh on those who lie and cover up failures, errors or mistakes and points to the almost constant focus on PR rather than "truth" as an evidence of this loss of virtue in business and public life. And I got plain old angry reading about the details of Google's complicated system of corporate tax havens and tax shelters where money is funneled through Ireland and Bermuda with the knowledge and cooperation of the Internal Revenue Service in order to avoid paying taxes on their profits.

Mr. Sachs is not anti-capitalism at all. In fact, he emphasizes that market forces are well equipped "to allocate most goods in the economy." However, he is firm in his belief that government is necessary to reign in some of capitalism's most short-sighted and self-interested tendencies. Governments, he says, should have three aims when working in conjunction with the free market - "efficiency (prosperity), fairness (opportunity for all) and sustainability (a safe environment for today and the future)" - which free markets can not obtain on their own. "A combination of market forces and government actions is needed to achieve these three simultaneous goals."

Government should step in to promote market efficiency "when supply and demand stop functioning effectively." He illustrates situations where this occurs including public goods, or when "economic logic calls for a single supplier," for example, for highways, police, fire department, a court system, etc. And also "when producers cause adverse spillovers to the rest of society," such as pollution. Interestingly, he also argues this to be the case for scientific research. "One of humanity's most important activities - scientific discovery - needs to be promoted in ways other than the pure profit motive." Another instance when government should be involved "to help regulate the marketplace [is] when information between buyers and sellers is 'asymmetric.'" He quotes Keynes, Samuelson, Hayek and Friedman liberally in support of this mixed economy.

Economic fairness should be another role of government, Mr. Sachs states. While "the marketplace does have some elements of basic fairness...the fairness of the marketplace should not be exaggerated. Many people are simply unlucky." Elements outside of an individual's control, such as foreign competition, disabilities, and natural disasters, can have drastic effects on that individual's prosperity. Mr. Sachs points out that "just as there are many people who don't deserve their poverty, there are many others who don't deserve their wealth." This fairness applies to "the ways that government treats the citizenry" including the rule of law, due process, and levying taxes in a "just" and "equitable" way so that even the poor have the "basic resources...such as food, shelter, safe water, and access to health care." He includes programs such as Social Security in this as "distribution of income across generations." This concept rolls neatly into the third aim of government involvement in markets: sustainability, or "fairness to the future." As stewards of the earth's resources for later generations, the government should intercede to protect their interests in a clean environment.

Ronald Reagan is not held in high esteem in this book. Mr. Sachs feels that Mr. Reagan's call for "smaller government" because "government is the problem" completely missed the boat on the actual causes of the struggling economy in the 1970s and, in fact, "turned the levers of power over to the highest bidder." Mr. Sachs labels Mr. Reagan's legacy as "a new antipathy to the role of government, a new disdain for the poor who depended on government for income support, and a new invitation to the rich to shed their moral responsibilities to the rest of society." Rather than "unleashing...entrepreneurial zeal" with tax cuts for the wealthy, Mr. Reagan succeeded in releasing "a lot of pent-up greed...that infected the political system and...still haunts America today."

Alan Greenspan is also the target of much of Mr. Sachs's ire. "By treating the United States as a closed economy, he continually overlooked the severe risks of his own policies and thereby helped stoke several financial crises, including the megameltdown of 2008." A major lesson of Greenspan's reign is that "ignorance or neglect of globalization repeatedly comes back to haunt us."

"Our greatest national illusion," Mr. Sachs states, "is that a healthy society can be organized around the single-minded pursuit of wealth." Rather, the "ultimate purpose of economic policy [is] the life satisfaction of the population." He goes on to illustrate the virtues of moderation drawing on both Buddha and Aristotle for support of what he terms a "mindful society" which is "one that promotes the personal virtues of self-awareness and moderation, and the civic virtues of compassion for others and the ability to cooperate across the divides of class, race, religion, and geography." To that end, he concludes the book with suggestions for how individuals and our society as a whole can become more mindful, virtuous and prosperous.

Despite the overweening forces of corporations, special interests, the media, and self-serving politicians, eventually, Mr. Sachs lays the responsibility right in our laps. "The problems of America begin at home, with the choices we are making as individuals." We have succumbed to "a shocking array of addictive behaviors (smoking, overeating, TV watching, gambling, shopping, borrowing, and much more) and loss of self-control)." It is up to each citizen to educate him- or herself and hold our elected officials to a higher standard. "The public will have to exercise a new and higher level of political responsibility. Special interests dominate our politics not only because they have more money but also because much of the general public has disengaged itself from public deliberations." Ultimately, Mr. Sachs asserts that we need to increase our mindfulness and realize that "our well-being depends fundamentally on our recognizing and nurturing our basic duality: as individuals, with distinctive tastes and aspirations, and as members of a society, with responsibilities to and values shared with others."

For more book reviews, come visit my blog, Build Enough Bookshelves.

[Jud Barry · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I like to pay taxes," said Oliver Wendell Holmes. "With them I buy civilization." Economist Sachs (Earth Institute, Columbia) says the U.S. badly needs a new governing majority with Holmes's attitude.

At present, however, it appears things are going the other way. Surveying the American civic landscape, Sachs finds the commitment to public values fast eroding, with predictable results: a widening income gap, huge inequities of opportunity, an increasingly divided nation, a "corporatocracy" concerned only about short-term profits controlling the levers of power at all levels, and a feckless government unable to engage the nation's or the world's problems.

Sachs's view is that this is a fairly recent development. At least through the presidency of Carter there was a sense that large-scale problems could find public solutions. But when globalization threatened American economic hegemony, the American response was and continues to be an endorsement of Ronald Reagan's prescription that government is the problem and markets are the answer.

The problem, says Sachs, is that this extreme turning away from government as being part of a solution fails to recognize what most economists (including such laissez-fairists as Adam Smith and F. A. Hayek) understand, which is that where fairness, efficiency, and sustainability are desired, a governmental role is essential. Markets under-perform when it comes to providing such public goods as infrastructure, education, and scientific research.

Sachs lays out a comprehensive platform for reform, including an end to the federal deficit and the power of corporate lobbies. The solution to the deficit will require that Americans (the wealthier ones, anyway) accept higher levels of taxation. But why not? Scandinavians pay higher taxes, and self-report higher levels of happiness than Americans.

Since the Boomer generation is largely responsible for getting us into the present mess, Sachs places his hopes in the Millennial generation. Also, he doesn't expect either major party to accomplish the change necessary without a considerable nudge from a large third party.

Goodreads members will be glad to know that they are part of the solution. In his final benediction to his readers Sachs writes, "Let each of us commit first to be good to ourselves and our long-term happiness by disconnecting from TV and the media long enough each to to regain our bearings, to read more books, to ensure that we are well-informed citizens." I don't know if he has zombie fiction or mommy porn in mind, though ...

[Jonathan Hockey · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the most part a good diagnosis of some of America's problems, but from what I can see a very naive take on how to turn things around. He simply is not understanding how deep some of these problems go. He says he wants to fight against the consumerist society, exploitation by TV media. Yet his suggestion for how to do this is for state run TV to promote certain free air time for certain programmes, which no doubt will be agenda driven, and he thinks the new millenial generation is somehow magically and spontaneously going to lead the charge in fighting consumerism when they are the ones who are its most severely crippled victims.

I don't see an awakening coming from a state sponsored agenda and narrative somehow. From that I see a brainwashing endgame where the human spirit is completely destroyed. If an awakening is going to come, it won't come from an elite oligarchy who think they know what is best for us, it will come from a new freedom experienced in alternative media. In counter to the mainstream media, much alternative media is actually happy to promote things that are healthy for people, and not just to hook people up to buy more products from them.

Not all human beings are badly, and manipulatively motivated. We cannot force people to be better people with government controlled agendas, this will only makes things worse, taking more life out of humanity and civilisation. We have to give people some freedom to find a natural path. Yes, extreme individualism has caused a lot of problems for the US specifically in certain areas, and took away civic responsibility and community feeling in many cases. But the solution lies in people, not in something operating above people, telling people what to do.

In areas I feel Sachs might agree with this, but in other areas I feel he would side with the globalist narrative and agenda. My impression is that he would be quite happy with merely an appearance of freedom for the masses, actually due to mass manipulation and herding of people, and only real freedom for the oligarchy elite. Soma for the masses, brave new world style.

[Susan Paxton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I originally read Dr. Sachs' book when it was published in paperback in 2012. It's the kind of book that probably is intended to be read once, but it's sat on my shelves since and now, as I'm sorting through books to get rid of, I thought I'd re-read it as I recalled that the thesis of the book and the suggestions the author made were often good even if I didn't agree with some of them.

Needless to say, nothing was done. In Barack Obama the US had a competent, intelligent president who was very slightly to the left of George W Bush, who like his predecessor drifted along overly interested in war and placating the giant banks and corporations and the rich, and who in addition felt he had to endlessly kowtow to the right wing to keep the peace by cutting taxes. Obama did little to fix any of the problems we as a nation faced, many of them pointed out in Dr Sachs' book, published two years into his first term. Obama has been replaced by a yahoo backed by a mob of wreckers, and we are as a nation probably out of time (Sachs' book looked forward to 2020 - next year).

What Sachs wrote almost ten years ago echoes now: "Yet once in awhile, political drift ends up in disaster. When the political and economic situation is as dangerous as it is today, cynicism and loss of time are far more dangerous than they look. History plays cruel tricks on the unserious." No kidding.

Obviously out of date, but much of the first part in particular ("The Great Crash") remains useful reading particularly for those too young to remember the period leading up to 2008.

[Mishehu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Feeling drunk with excess? Need to sober up pronto? A few hours with Jeffrey Sachs should do the trick. What a dismal, depressing state of the union this book presents. In all, though, a completely convincing one. Sachs nails the diagnosis: ours is a failing political economy, spectacularly so on measure after measure. Can we, the masses, be at the mercy of more incompetent leaders or a more venal system of governance? To read this book is to oscillate between righteous anger and despair. But Sachs would have us feel hope as well. I'm not sure I share his cautiously optimistic view that the "millennials" have it within their power (let alone their will) to wrest our country from its civic malaise, and shake some sense back into it. But I hope he's right. Here's cheering the best and brightest of any generation who devote themselves not simply to one-upping the Joneses, but rather to making a better world. Should they fail, and the many interlocking problems that Sachs so eloquently elucidates in this fine book worsen, then the price of civilization may just be...the end of civilization as we know it...

[Brit Cheung · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author prescribed not a few insights in favor of a just social system and a more effective governance. These prescriptions are penetrating and illuminating , but not penetrating enough to pierce a hole to cure all the predicaments us facing. The prescription is good even to the plain eye. The problem is "Will these methods be fully completed by the government"? This plunged me into a strong suspicion.
However, these analysis and prescriptions can provide some food for thought for other governments.
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Government could be reference for other nations in accordance with their practical conditions.
Approches prescribed encapsulate the following seven:
Set clear goals and benchmarks;
Mobilize expertise;
Make multiyear plans;
Be mindful of the far future;
End the corporatocracy;
Restore public management and Decentralize.
All these measures should lead to careful contemplation

All the results shall be quantified with 10~20 years. Set goals and set a deadline. So the time table in the last chaper could be the quintessence of the book.

[H Wesselius · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent analysis of the current economic and political crisis in the United States. Correctly labeling the current American system a corporatocracy, he identifies various lobby groups who have a lock on both parties, leading to a decline of what he calls a civic virtue. In response he cites the need to view gov't as part of the solution and a partner with a market economic system resulting in a mixed economy. Several times he cites the Nordic model as an example for the US to realize that taxes and an active gov't are needed for a society to flourish -- that is, the price of civilization. A well researched and practical guide to the present situation.

[Michael Berman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I completely agreed with the author's diagnosis of the US circa 2011 (growing wealth inequality coupled with the wealthy increasingly detaching themselves from any sense of the common good, combined with the pernicious influence of money in politics). The book fell flat, though, in his suggestions for improvement. They were big on the "what" (i.e., "reduce the influence of money in politics") but dramatically lacking in the "how".

[Son Tung · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just a note for my friends who do not frequently use GR: Many well-presented social ills in the first part for US society and politics are transferable to a whole other countries as well (ofcourse to a lesser extent, better examemplary ones also mentioned in the book). This is one of those important book one should read to see "what's wrong with the world" (although the second part left me nothing much to pay high attention to)

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.0) Little to unrealistic in proposals. And a little less academic/objective in his tone.

Preferred reading Piketty, cover similar ground. I did make a lot of notes and highlights though, so there's stuff worth discussing here.

[Itay · Rating 1 out of 5]

Complete, unadulterated garbage. I may be dumber for having read this book

[Rohith Desikan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was decent.

Good:
- Explanation of how corporatocracy influences American politics and why it is so hard to get rid of it
- A good breakdown of the big 4 corporate lobbies in America that prevent Congress from actually doing anything: Military Industrial Complex, Pharma Companies, Big Oil and Wall Street.

Bad:
- Too preachy in the chapters about people in developed countries becoming fat or spending too much time on TV.

Also a little bit dated as it was written in 2010 but most of the political issues (aka Washington's lobbies) still rings true.

Skip Chapters 6/7 but otherwise a good read backed up with solid evidence.

[Matthew · Rating 2 out of 5]

In 2010, the world looked a bright place in the eyes of Jeffrey Sachs. Almost all of the hopeful predictions and dreams outlined in this book have turned into opposite-scale nightmares. I've read few books that got more wrong about the future.

[Kathryn Bashaar · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title describes what this book is about. I am really alarmed about the direction this country seems to be going, and like to read about potential solutions. This writer was a bit to the left of me. He makes assumptions about what government must do that I think aren't always correct. But I agree with him that markets won't do everything, either, and I agreed with most of his suggestions. What I liked best about this book was that his section on solutions started with individuals. I forget whether it was Adams of Franklin who said that a republic is only fit for virtuous people. Sachs talks about what individual citizens ought to change about ourselves, if we expect the government to change (someone also said we usually get the government we deserve). He starts with reading instead of getting our news from TV and internet sources, which are often very biased. He makes the really good point that most of us already have enough stuff, or way more than enough. Could we start measuring our well-being by something other than income in the case of the individual and GNP in the case of a nation? Could we measure our individual wealth instead by leisure time, spiritual and family life, the sense of satisfaction we get in our work? Could we measure our wealth as a nation by clean air and water, educated, healthy children, the number and quality of public parks and libraries? And could we please please please measure our quality of government by its civility? This author cites polls that show that the vast majority of Americans are centrists, but he claims that the far right has bought and paid for our government. Super scary. Not comforting at all.

[Tanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like to read books that challenge my opinions, and The Price of Civilization definitely did that. I felt immediately that I could trust Sach's credentials; he's a clinical macroeconomist who has spent his career advising foreign governments about how to build and improve their economies. He states that in his early years he felt that America was doing well and didn't need his expertise, but our recent financial crises have changed his mind. This book is basically his diagnosis and prescription for what ails our country's economy. He is thorough, detailed, and convincing! I now believe (though I'm not excited about paying them) that my (and your!) taxes need to be raised now or we will all regret our fiscal irresponsibility in the future. We need to have public funding for election campaigns, regulations on the revolving door between political appointees and lobbyists, etc etc etc. What we really need is Sachs as the president's chief fiscal advisor, though I don't think he wants the job. He knows the reality that special interest groups run the country and will resist doing anything for the greater good. He knows that both political parties are more interested in maintaining their own immediate power than making sustained progress. Unfortunately the patient is non-compliant with the doctor's prescription.

I don't claim to be an expert on economic policy, but I'm trying to at least have an opinion based on real knowledge, rather than reactionary emotion.

4 1/2 stars.

[Ali Khan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The more one learns of Jeffrey Sachs, the more odd this book's message becomes. He lays out it in a richly detailed and accessible book the benefits of the European style social democratic state and makes a compelling case to adopt reforms that would be utterly revolutionary in the USA. He is scathing about organised corruption under the guise of lobbying.

Yet he cannot name the beast. He cannot admit that the issues he highlights are innate to capitalist economic organisation, indeed a sign that the system is working as designed (even if nobody wants to admit it was intended). And then he pushes new benchmarks that he thinks would be much better compared to GDP to guide policymaking. A book, in the end, that believes in the virtuousness of wonkery.

The book informs with one hand and then does a disservice to its readers by promoting apolitical solutions. Yet still, it is worth reading solely for the richness of the research that it presents. A gateway book to a better political consciousness if read critically.

[David Wink · Rating 4 out of 5]

First off, I think Jeffrey Sachs is a brilliant guy, and the message of this book is certainly worth reading. The book's greatest shortfall is that it is a bit simplistic. It even has a paragraph that explains the basic principle of supply and demand. I've read Sachs' other books, and he's always readable, but he's an economist. I go to him because I want data thrown at me. This book is strongest when he is explaining problems with the American economy, and debunking stories told about the economy, through data. It comes off as a bit wishy-washy when he eschews math in favor of political philosophy. Again, it's not that I disagree with him, but he isn't my go-to guy for that sort of analysis. For instance, he lumps the Koch brothers and Fox news under the libertarian banner, and so, I'm not sure if he really understands the various stratifications of that definition. Still, the data he provides is illuminating, and I'd definitely recommend that people read it.

[Sabrine Cutting · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic synopsis of the current political and financial state of the US, although the ironic part of Sachs' analysis is that the folks who NEED to read his book before the next election, are still stuck in front of the TV watching distorted media news stations as their primary source of information.

Sach's proposals are too idealistic for practical adoption. The by-gone era's he nostalgically recalls, the New Deal years and the Kennedy years, were the result of a generation devastated by two World wars and a massive economic Depression. I also felt he puts too much faith on Millennials, who are apathetic to politics and are even more susceptible the same fate as their parents in getting sucked into the media machine of information or through social networks.

Perhaps the current economic climate, the Euro chaos, the "Arab Spring, Summer, and Fall", and the embarrassing Congressional debacle over the debt ceiling has left me rather cynical of any hope of a solution.

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The kind of unrestrained greed that is now loose in America,” writes economist Jeffrey Sachs, “is leading not to real liberty but to corporate criminality and deceit; not to democracy but to politics dominated by special interests; and not to prosperity but to income stagnation for much of the population and untold riches at the very top.” Sachs explains how we got into this deplorable state and then outlines a plan for getting the country back on track. Diehard righties will not find much to like about this book, and the author’s glorification of John F. Kennedy will probably start them twitching. But I have to say, having flirted with libertarianism and having recently read Milton Friedman’s Capitalism and Freedom, I found Sachs’s argument…well, logical. He’s done his homework, he’s reasonable, he’s humane. I’m sorry to say that I think his warnings about our future are valid. And that they’re likely to go unheeded.