Beyond Poverty and Affluence: Towards an Economy of Care By Bob Goudzwaard, Harry de Lange
Originally published in Dutch in 1986, this groundbreaking book is more relevant than ever given our current economic climate and a perfect companion to Johnson’s Privilege, Power, and Difference. Distinguished economists, Goudzwaard and de Lange discuss how traditional economic policies create and exacerbate poverty, environmental degradation, the ever widening divide between communities with privilege and access to resource and those without. They argue that our unquestioning faith in the ability of increasing industrial production to alleviate social and economic problems is unfounded and even destructive.
The authors urge that it is time to create a system that values the contribution of human labor in a radically different way. They propose a 12 step program for recovery based on an economy of care and abundance. They outline six paradoxes (time, care, poverty, health, labor, and scarcity) that highlight how current economic practices leave so many people behind. Despite a rising need for labor, unemployment continues to skyrocket. Given the preponderance of wealth, many people remain deep in poverty without the time activities related to the care of children, the elderly and other members of our communities.
This book is a radical departure from commonly accepted economic policy. The authors argue, “A renewed economic paradigm must proceed from the assumption that people need to advance the interests of others. People must be willing to think inclusively. They much choose to be led by considerations other than self-interest, a principle that belongs inextricably to the thought patterns of our society’s current economic paradigm.” Given the economic climate in the US and globally, it is a timely call to rethink how we view production and how we assign value.
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