Book Description

With the eclipse of the New Right, politicians now admit that society is in crisis. Something must be done, but, explain the authors, governments will fail again unless they shake off the economic orthodoxy which is now one of the problems rather than the means to a solution. This book investigates the roots of the problem, both historically and theoretically. Dr Michael Hudson draws on archaeology and history, from Bronze Age Mesopotamia through Rome to Byzantium, to show how a destructive virus crept into the body politic. This led to a breakdown in man' s relation to the environment and divided society into a wealthy ruling oligarchy and an impoverished majority. The Welfare State is an attempt to remedy this inequality. However, despite the escalating cost to taxpayers, the Welfare State has failed to stop the widening gap between the rich and the poor. Drawing on medical evidence, Dr George Miller demonstrates that not only have the poorest grown poorer relatively, but their health has suffered disproportionately. Hence people born into the lowest classes still have a greater chance of dying before they can enjoy their pensions. A century ago Henry George, in his world-famous Progress and Poverty, asked why there still was poverty, when the Industrial Revolution had made it possible to make in a day what had taken weeks or months previously. Dr Kris Feder shows how the Georgist paradigm provides an ideal way of tackling the many ills besetting the industrialised and third worlds. Nobel prize-winning economists recommend it as the way forward for Russia. Dr Feder clears away misrepresentations of George' s thesis and explains how it would not only lead to a fairer distribution of wealth, but would also simplify the tax system.