The individual in the economy Book

Lovely sentiments written by a good-hearted Canadian economist. Unfortunately, the book just didn't work for me. Too fuzzy to hold my attention.

The premise of the book is that we should be measuring wealth by how well it helps us and our communities live in concert with our values. No argument there. What I was looking for is how can our economic system be set up so that what needs to be funded gets funded, like healthcare and assistance to the poor. What I got instead were fuzzy sentiments about how true wealth is enjoying your life (perhaps that's revolutionary for economists) and a focus on creating economic indicators to measure how happy we really are.

One interesting chapter towards the end on Money and Genuine Wealth focused on what money really is but even that chapter veers into idealistic language and talks about the banker returning to a more noble role in the community.

Apparently in this new economy, there are no baser instincts and the sub-prime lenders and oil companies are just yearning to become more enlightened members of the community.

Sorry but overly sunny language brings out my cynical side. Even liberals know that not everyone wants to play nice. In fact, that's why we're so rabid about protections and search for practical systems that ensure justice and equality. I wanted something more realistic and insightful.