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https://theconversation.com/a-superficial-and-misguided-version-of-freedom-has-captured-the-american-right-joseph-stiglitz-considers-the-alternatives-236407>
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Review: The Road to Freedom: Economics and the Good Society – Joseph
Stiglitz (Allen Lane)
“Freedom is a core human value,” writes Joseph Stiglitz in his new book
The
Road to Freedom: Economics and the Good Society. “But many of freedom’s
advocates seldom ask what the idea really means. Freedom for whom? What happens
when one person’s freedom comes at the expense of another’s?”
Reflecting on the famous slogan of American jurist James Otis – “taxation
without representation is tyranny” – Stiglitz observes with concern that many
on the contemporary US right seem to have arrived at the view that “taxation
with representation is also tyranny”.
This type of thinking has increased over the decades, extending from Ronald
Reagan’s claim that “markets are the solution, government is the problem” to
Ted Cruz’s call to abolish entire government departments – including the IRS,
the Department of Education and the Department of Energy – and Ron Paul’s
assertion that “the more government spends the more freedom is lost”.
Something, argues Stiglitz, has gone awry with the conception of freedom here.
In
The Road to Freedom, Stiglitz critiques what he sees as the “superficial”
and “misguided” interpretation of freedom that has gained ascendancy in the
period of neoliberal globalisation. This view, he says, is held in common by
the assortment of conservatives, libertarians and other right-of-centre people
that make up the US right.
Focusing on the US, he argues that the way the idea has been defined and
pursued has led to the opposite of “meaningful freedom”. It has failed “to give
due recognition to how interdependent people are in a modern economy” and led
to a vast reduction in the “freedoms of most citizens”."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
