The Infinite Desire for Growth, Daniel Cohen
The Infinite Desire for Growth, Daniel Cohen
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The Infinite Desire for Growth

Author: Daniel Cohen, Jane Marie Todd

Narrator: Liam Gerrard

Unabridged: 4 hr 13 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/21/2019


Synopsis

The Infinite Desire for Growth spotlights the obsession with wanting more, and the global tensions that have arisen as a result. Amid finite resources, increasing populations, environmental degradation, and political unrest, the quest for new social and individual goals has never been so critical.

Leading economist Daniel Cohen provides a whirlwind tour of the history of economic growth, from the early days of civilization to modern times, underscoring what is so unsettling today. The new digital economy is establishing a "zero-cost" production model, inexpensive software is taking over basic tasks, and years of exploiting the natural world have begun to backfire with deadly consequences. Working hard no longer guarantees social inclusion or income. Drawing on economics, anthropology, and psychology, and thinkers ranging from Rousseau to Keynes and Easterlin, Cohen examines how a future less dependent on material gain might be considered and, how, in a culture of competition, individual desires might be better attuned to the greater needs of society.

At a time when wanting what we haven't got has become an obsession, The Infinite Desire for Growth explores the ways we might reinvent, for the twenty-first century, the old ideal of social progress.

About Daniel Cohen

Daniel Cohen is director of the Economics Department at the École Normale Superieure in Paris and a founding member of the Paris School of Economics. A former adviser to the World Bank, Cohen was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 2001. His many books include Globalization and Its Enemies and The Prosperity of Vice.


Reviews

Goodreads review by William

I don't know if it is the translation or the author is just scattered and confused, but this book did not illuminate much of anything for me. Is is a short work, and virtually every paragraph cited by name the ideas of someone else (this was very annoying). These ideas were then not put together coh......more

Goodreads review by James

In these times, the title of the book attracted me. And I was attracted by the fact that it was written by a French economist (having been impressed by Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century). But I was greatly disappointed. The book reads like it was written by a journalist--other people's w......more

Goodreads review by Martin

For a book of only 154 pages it is astonishing that I want to call it rambling - but it is. There is little or no coherence or structure - and it is mostly comprises summaries of work that is either French (sometimes interesting) and by authors that, so far as I can tell, not terribly well known out......more

Goodreads review by Michael

This book offered some interesting takes and thought-provoking discussions, but overall, I found the depth of analysis to be lacking. Furthermore, the structure of the book appeared confusing for me (it seems to go off on tangents without a clear explanation of the purpose of doing so), and despite......more

Goodreads review by Sara

This book gave me a lot of points and general ideas that I developped and I’ll keep developping. It’s a good read if you’re a beginner in these notions as it gives you general ideas that will, most probably, blow your mind. I read the french version and I loved the use of certain words the writer us......more