The costs of living: how market freedom erodes the best things in life
Schwartz, Barry
The costs of living: how market freedom erodes the best things in life Schwartz, Barry - USA Xlibris Corporation 2000 - 399 p.
Table of contents:
1. The iron cage
2. Business is business
3. And professions are business too
4. And games are business too
5. What we are and what we value
6. Consumed by consumption
7. Economizing on love
8. The "demeaning" of work
9. The debasing of education: turning play into work
10. The selling of democracy: public life and private interests
11. From profits to prophets
12. The name of the game
In this book, psychologist Barry Schwartz unravels how market freedom has insidiously expanded its reach into domains where it does not belong. He shows how this trend developed from a misguided application of the American value of individuality and self-pursuit, and how it was aided by our turning away from the basic social institutions that once offered traditional community values. These developments have left us within an overall framework for living where worth is measured entirely by usefulness in the marketplace. The more we allow market considerations to guide our lives, the more we will continue to incur the real costs of living, among them disappointment and loneliness.We all value freedom, family, friends, work, education, health, and leisure—“the best things in life.” But the pressure we experience to chase the dollar in order to satisfy both the demands of the bottom line and the demands of our seemingly insatiable desire to consume are eroding these best things in life. Our children now value profit centers, not sports heroes. Our educational system is fast becoming nothing more than a financial investment where students are encouraged to expend more energy on making the grade than on learning about their world. Our business leaders are turning young idealists into cynics when they cut corners and explain that “everybody’s doing it.” The need to achieve in our careers intrudes so greatly on our personal world that we find ourselves weighing the “costs” of enjoying friendships rather than working.
(http://bookstore.xlibris.com/AdvancedSearch/Default.aspx?searchterm=9780738852522)
9780738852522
Consumers - United States
Costs - Macroeconomics
Purchasing power - Cost of living
Consumer behaviour
339.420973 / S2C6
The costs of living: how market freedom erodes the best things in life Schwartz, Barry - USA Xlibris Corporation 2000 - 399 p.
Table of contents:
1. The iron cage
2. Business is business
3. And professions are business too
4. And games are business too
5. What we are and what we value
6. Consumed by consumption
7. Economizing on love
8. The "demeaning" of work
9. The debasing of education: turning play into work
10. The selling of democracy: public life and private interests
11. From profits to prophets
12. The name of the game
In this book, psychologist Barry Schwartz unravels how market freedom has insidiously expanded its reach into domains where it does not belong. He shows how this trend developed from a misguided application of the American value of individuality and self-pursuit, and how it was aided by our turning away from the basic social institutions that once offered traditional community values. These developments have left us within an overall framework for living where worth is measured entirely by usefulness in the marketplace. The more we allow market considerations to guide our lives, the more we will continue to incur the real costs of living, among them disappointment and loneliness.We all value freedom, family, friends, work, education, health, and leisure—“the best things in life.” But the pressure we experience to chase the dollar in order to satisfy both the demands of the bottom line and the demands of our seemingly insatiable desire to consume are eroding these best things in life. Our children now value profit centers, not sports heroes. Our educational system is fast becoming nothing more than a financial investment where students are encouraged to expend more energy on making the grade than on learning about their world. Our business leaders are turning young idealists into cynics when they cut corners and explain that “everybody’s doing it.” The need to achieve in our careers intrudes so greatly on our personal world that we find ourselves weighing the “costs” of enjoying friendships rather than working.
(http://bookstore.xlibris.com/AdvancedSearch/Default.aspx?searchterm=9780738852522)
9780738852522
Consumers - United States
Costs - Macroeconomics
Purchasing power - Cost of living
Consumer behaviour
339.420973 / S2C6