The Economists' Hour: False Prophets, Free Markets, and the Fracture of Society

"Binyamin’s book provides the intellectual backstory for how we got to where we are today. Community life has frayed. Instead, we pursue prosperity individually believing that striving individually will provide greater prosperity for the entire society. That belief is the organizing principle for government and the private sector alike. This fraying is destabilizing society. That’s what we’re grappling with right now. Binyamin writes about how people like Milton Friedman popularized shareholder capitalism, the belief that American corporations should be responsive almost exclusively to the people who own them, rather than the communities where they operate. That was a landmark shift. He also explains how market principles, efficiency principles, influence a wide range of other spheres of American life, such as the question of whether we should have a draft or an all-volunteer army during or after the Vietnam Era. He documents the pervasive and profound influence of market principles on American life. That influence has upsides: increased global prosperity has reduced poverty around the world. But within industrial societies, it has immiserated the people with less opportunity, who are pushed aside as the most fortunate move ahead."