Warren
Buffett is worth nearly $50 billion. Does he “deserve” all
this money? Buffett himself will tell you that “society is
responsible for a very significant percentage of what I’ve
earned.”
Unjust Deserts
offers an entirely new approach to the wealth question. In a lively
synthesis of modern economic, technological, and cultural research, Gar
Alperovitz and Lew Daly demonstrate that up to 90 percent (and perhaps
more) of current economic output derives not from individual ingenuity,
effort, or investment but from our collective inheritance of scientific
and technological knowledge: an inheritance we all receive as a
“free lunch.”
Alperovitz and Daly then pursue the implications of this research,
persuasively arguing that there is no reason any one person should be
entitled to that inheritance. Recognizing the true dimensions of our
unearned inheritance leads inevitably to a new and powerful moral case
for wealth redistribution—and to a series of practical policies
to achieve it in an era when the disparities have become untenable.
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Unjust Deserts
How The Rich Are Taking Our Common Inheritance and Why We Should Take
It Back
by Gar Alperovitz and Lew Daly
New Press,
2008
Order
a copy
A
fundamental implication of modern research on economic growth is that
past advances contribute far more to today's economy than current
activities.
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