風蕭蕭_Frank
以文會友
自由之路：經濟學與美好社會
https://www.amazon.ca/Road-Freedom-Economics-Good-Society/dp/132407437X
作者：約瑟夫·斯蒂格利茨 – 2024 年 4 月 23 日
來自世界領先經濟學家之一的關於個人和經濟自由的令人信服的新願景。
我們的國家誕生於人們必須自由的信念。 但自上世紀中葉以來，這一想法已被采納。 政治右翼勢力通過用自由的言辭來掩蓋剝削行為，從而導致製藥公司隨意收取過高的藥品費用、不受監管的大型科技公司、政客隨意煽動叛亂、企業隨意汙染等等。 我們是怎麽來到這裏的？ 我們應該考慮誰的自由？
在《自由之路》中，諾貝爾獎獲得者約瑟夫·E·斯蒂格利茨剖析了美國當前的經濟體係和創造該體係的政治意識形態，揭露了它們的雙重失敗。 “自由”和不受約束的市場隻會成功地引發一係列危機：金融危機、阿片類藥物危機和不平等危機。 盡管一小部分人積累了可觀的財富，但大多數人的工資卻停滯不前。 自由和不受約束的市場剝削了消費者、工人和環境。 這些失敗催生了民粹主義運動，這些運動相信自由意味著放棄公民彼此之間的任何義務。 隨著這些運動的力量不斷增強，它們現在對真正的經濟和政治自由構成了真正的威脅。
作為總統經濟顧問和世界銀行首席經濟學家，斯蒂格利茨親眼目睹了這些深刻的變化。 正如他所說，失敗源於精英們對“新自由主義實驗”堅定不移的奉獻。 斯蒂格利茨明確地挑戰了弗裏德裏希·哈耶克和米爾頓·弗裏德曼等巨人，揭露了我們政治和經濟生活中公認的觀念的本質：扭曲的願景撕裂了社會結構，同時卻讓極少數人富裕起來。
《自由之路》開辟了新天地，展示了經濟學——包括斯蒂格利茨在其中發揮如此重要作用的最新進展——如何重新構建了如何思考自由和國家在二十一世紀社會中的作用。 斯蒂格利茨借鑒當代哲學家的著作，解釋了一種更深刻、更人道的評估自由的方法，即仔細考慮當一個人的自由與另一個人的自由發生衝突時該怎麽辦。 如果我們要創建一個人人都能蓬勃發展的創新社會，我們就必須重新構想現有的經濟和法律體係，並采取各種形式的集體行動，包括監管和投資。 這項任務再緊迫不過了，斯蒂格利茨的最新著作對於那些致力於為所有人提供福祉、機會和有意義的自由的美國經濟和政治體係理想的人來說是必讀之作。
The Road To Freedom: Economics and the Good Society
https://www.amazon.ca/Road-Freedom-Economics-Good-Society/dp/132407437X
by Joseph E. Stiglitz – April 23 2024
We are a nation born from the conviction that people must be free. But since the middle of the last century, that idea has been co-opted. Forces on the political Right have justified exploitation by cloaking it in the rhetoric of freedom, leading to pharmaceutical companies freely overcharging for medication, a Big Tech free from oversight, politicians free to incite rebellion, corporations free to pollute, and more. How did we get here? Whose freedom are we—and should we—be thinking about?
In The Road to Freedom, Nobel prize winner Joseph E. Stiglitz dissects America’s current economic system and the political ideology that created it, laying bare their twinned failure. “Free” and unfettered markets have only succeeded in delivering a series of crises: the financial crisis, the opioid crisis, and the crisis of inequality. While a small portion of the population has amassed considerable wealth, wages for most people have stagnated. Free and unfettered markets have exploited consumers, workers, and the environment alike. Such failures have fed populist movements that believe being free means abandoning any obligations citizens have to one another. As they grow in strength, these movements now pose a real threat to true economic and political freedom.
As an economic advisor to presidents and as chief economist at the World Bank, Stiglitz has witnessed these profound changes firsthand. As he argues, the failures follow from the elites’ unshakeable dedication to “the neoliberal experiment.” Explicitly taking on giants such as Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman, Stiglitz exposes accepted ideas about our political and economic life for what they are: twisted visions that tear at the social fabric while they enrich the very few.
The Road to Freedom breaks new ground, showing how economics—including recent advances in which Stiglitz has played such an important role—reframes how to think about freedom and the role of the state in a twenty-first century society. Drawing on the work of contemporary philosophers, Stiglitz explains a deeper, more humane way to assess freedoms—one that considers with care what to do when one person’s freedom conflicts with another’s. We must reimagine our existing economic and legal systems and embrace forms of collective action, including regulation and investment, if we are to create an innovative society in which everyone can flourish. The task could not be more urgent, and Stiglitz’s latest book is essential reading for those committed to the American ideal of an economic and political system that delivers well-being, opportunity, and meaningful freedoms for all.
