I Spend therefore I Am

Resumen del libro

I Spend, Therefore I Am by Philip Roscoe is a radical, inspiring, agenda-setting critique that shows how economics invades our most intimate decisions, and what the real alternatives might be. Is a promotion at work worth more than time with family? Does the price of cheap socks compensate for their being made by children? Might a new lover be better than the one you have? How do you choose when what you want is bad for someone else? Over the course of the 20th century economics has become our most trusted science of decision-making. Government policies are judged according to whether they are good for the economy or not.

More personal decisions - buying a house, educating our children, caring for our sick, meeting a partner - are shaped by economic principles in ways we can neither control nor escape. What was once a radical ideology has become our only agreed means of deciding the right thing to do. But economics is not a science, and it is far from being impartial.

And very often the difficult choices that we face are the product of economics itself. Examining work, shopping, healthcare, house-buying, online dating, politics and daily life, Philip Roscoe explains why economics is so powerful, and shows precisely how its values - ownership, efficiency and self-interest - threaten to usurp all others. At a time when the most urgent problems require collective action, he argues that economics is perhaps our greatest obstacle to change.

Written with humour, wisdom and compassion and drawing on persuasive new research, this timely book exposes the true cost of economic thinking, points the way to some compelling alternatives - co-operatives, local currencies, non-Western finance, community - and draws attention to some other, timeless values that few of us have yet forgotten.