The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth

• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 592
• Publisher: Knopf
• Pub. Date: October 2005

Benjamin Friedman examines the political and social histories of the large Western democracies-particularly of the United States since the Civil War-distinguishing times of generally rising living standards from those of pervasive stagnation to illustrate how rising incomes render a society more open and democratic. He shows, too, how our attitudes toward economic growth and its consequences have roots in the thinking of prior centuries, especially the Enlightenment, and also include significant strands of religious influence. Features Friedman delineates the role of economic growth in determining which developing nations extend the broadest freedoms to their citizenry. He makes clear that growth, rather than just the level of living standards, is key to effecting political and social liberalization in the third world. But he also warns that the democratic values of countries even as wealthy as our own are at risk whenever incomes stagnate for extended periods. Merely being rich is no protection against a society's retreat into rigidity and intolerance once enough of its citizens lose the sense that they are getting ahead. Friedman shows us why, if America is to strengthen democratic institutions around the world as a bulwark against terrorism and social unrest, we must aggressively pursue growth at home and promote worldwide economic expansion beyond what purely market-driven forces would create. And for the United States, he offers concrete suggestions for policy steps to achieve those objectives.

Benjamin Friedman

One of America's leading experts on economic policy, Benjamin Friedman has helped to shape economic thinking at the highest levels through his scholarship and professional activities. His books include Day of Reckoning: The Consequences of Economic Policy Under Reagan and After, which won the George S. Eccles Prize from Columbia University and was a Book-of-the-Month Club first-alternate selection. His newest book is The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth. In addition to writing many books and articles, he has served as a director of the Private Export Funding Corporation, a trustee of the Standish Mellon Investment Trust, and an advisor to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and in advisory positions with the National Bureau of Economic Research, the National Science Foundation Subcommittee on Economics, and the Congressional Budget Office. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Brookings Panel on Economic Activity.

Besides his extensive scholarly writing, Friedman contributes regularly to The New York Review of Books. He is the William Joseph Maier Professor of Political Economy at Harvard University and a former chairman of the university's economics department. Friedman holds bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees from Harvard and a masters from King's College, University of Cambridge.

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