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In this book, Nobel Prize-winning economist Edmund Phelps draws on a lifetime of thinking to make a sweeping new argument about what makes nations prosper--and why the sources of that prosperity are under threat today. Why did prosperity explode in some nations between the 1820s and 1960s, creating not just unprecedented material wealth but "flourishing"--meaningful work, self-expression, and personal growth for more people than ever before? Phelps makes the case that the wellspring of this flourishing was modern values such as the desire to create, explore, and meet challenges. These values fueled the grassroots dynamism that was necessary for widespread, indigenous innovation. Most innovation wasn't driven by a few isolated visionaries like Henry Ford and Steve Jobs; rather, it was driven by millions of people empowered to think of, develop, and market innumerable new products and processes, and improvements to existing ones. Mass flourishing--a combination of material well-being and the "good life" in a broader sense--was created by this mass innovation.
Yet indigenous innovation and flourishing weakened decades ago. In America, evidence indicates that innovation and job satisfaction have decreased since the late 1960s, while postwar Europe has never recaptured its former dynamism. The reason, Phelps argues, is that the modern values underlying the modern economy are under threat by a resurgence of traditional, corporatist values that put the community and state over the individual. The ultimate fate of modern values is now the most pressing question for the West: will Western nations recommit themselves to modernity, grassroots dynamism, indigenous innovation, and widespread personal fulfillment, or will we go on with a narrowed innovation that limits flourishing to a few?
A book of immense practical and intellectual importance, Mass Flourishing is essential reading for anyone who cares about the sources of prosperity and the future of the West.
- Sales Rank: #658062 in Books
- Published on: 2013-08-25
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.50" h x 6.25" w x 1.25" l, 1.50 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 392 pages
Review
Winner of the 2014 Gold Medal in Economics, Axiom Business Book Awards
One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2014
One of Bloomberg Businessweek's Best Books of 2014, chosen by chosen by Bjorn Wahlroos
One of Financial Times (FT.com) Best Economics Books of 2013
A "Best Business Book of the Year for 2013" selected on LinkedIn by Matthew Bishop, Economics Editor of The Economist
"The book eloquently discusses the culture of innovation, which can refer to both an entrepreneurial mind-set and the cultural achievements during an age of change. . . . The dismal science becomes a little brighter when Mr. Phelps draws the connections between the economic ferment of the industrial age and the art of Beethoven, Verdi and Rodin."--Edward Glaeser, Wall Street Journal
"[I]nquiring readers, not just academics and social scientists, will enjoy the vast learning in Phelps's sophisticated, sometimes sardonic, look at homo economicus."--Publishers Weekly
"Phelps, a Nobel laureate in economics, defies categorisation. In this extraordinary book--part history, part economics and part philosophy--he proclaims individual enterprise as the defining characteristic of modernity. But he fears this dynamism is lost. One does not have to agree to recognise that Phelps has addressed some of the big questions about our future."--Martin Wolf, Financial Times
"Phelps has written a book that transcends the materialist walls of standard economics. . . . It is a book J.M. Keynes would have admired."--Paul DeRosa, American Interest
"[F]ascinating, versatile and profound."--Felix Martin, New Statesman
"A great book that will annoy big business and absolutely infuriate the left. I loved it."--Diana Hunter, Financial World
"Nobel laureate Edmund Phelps' latest book should be read by those seeking a broader context to the challenges currently facing the global economies. In his wide-ranging and insightful book, Professor Phelps draws on historical trends and cultural shifts to present his hypothesis that a lack of dynamism in modern economies lies at the root of the current malaise. . . . Indeed, this remarkable book addresses the central economic question of why some economies thrive while others languish."--Declan Jordan, London School of Economics Review of Books
"Few leading economists . . . have tried to develop Marx's contention that there is an ineluctable relationship between human psychology and market participation. This relationship is what Phelps describes as human 'flourishing.'"--Andrew Godley, International Journal of the Economics of Business
"Phelps has produced an insightful work that bridges gaps among economics, sociology, and philosophy to identify countries that have the capabilities to prosper and flourish. This book is an essential read for individuals interested in better assessing countries' economies and competitive advantages."--Library Journal
"The author ranges extremely widely and any student of any age will gain something from it, irrespective of political views."--Samuel Brittan, Financial Times
"Phelps's book deserves credit for showing that the strength of an economy doesn't depend on small differences in the tax rate, or the tactics of a country's central bank. Phelps rightly points out that economic dynamism depends on much deeper issues like a culture's affinity for risk taking and respect for individual achievement. And he wields convincing statistics that suggest actors in our political economy, from our government, to corporations, to workers, have to some extent lost their reverence for these values."--Chris Matthews, Time.com Money & Business
"I . . . find his values-driven view of national prosperity fascinating--and applicable to corporate and personal prosperity. If innovation and the prosperity it yields stem from the values to which we subscribe as individuals, organizations, and nations, it stands to reason that we should be paying a great deal of attention to the particular values we adopt and espouse."--Theodore Kinni, Strategy-Business.com
"[E]xciting."--William Watson, National Post
"[W]ide-ranging. . . . Mass Flourishing: How Grassroots Innovation Created Jobs, Challenge and Change, a distillation of years of research and thought about the changes in values and attitudes that once unleashed wide-scale creativity and risk-taking and which are under severe threat today."--Brian Milner, Globe & Mail
"The book is wide-ranging and highly eclectic: in just two pages (pp. 280-281) you'll find references to Cervantes, Shakespeare, Hume, Voltaire, Jefferson, Keats, William Earnest Henley, William James, Walt Whitman, Abraham Maslow, Rawls, Nietzsche, and Lady Gaga! . . . Anyone interested in the synthesis of free markets and social justice will find this eminent thinker's distinctive version of that synthesis both illuminating and thought-provoking."--Brink Lindsey, Bleeding Heart Libertarians blog
"Phelps has given us a clear warning of the dangers of corporatism. I hope that more people hear and heed the warning."--Arnold Kling, Econlog
"[I]t wasn't until today that I started looking at Mass Flourishing by Edmund Phelps, about the central role of innovation in modern growth and, more, in the enabling of the good life. Obviously I should have read it last week. It looks right on theme, and it is pleasing to pick up an economics book that has a chapter on Aristotle."--Enlightened Economist
"One does not have to agree to recognise that Phelps has addressed some of the big questions about our future."--Financial Times
"Mass Flourishing offers a brilliant dissection of the origins, causes, and eventual decline of modern capitalism--an inclusive economy characterized by the complex unfettered interactions among diverse indigenous innovators, entrepreneurs, financiers, and consumers. . . . This book should be accessible to general readers and is especially stimulating for graduate students and those interested in economics, sociology, history, political science, and psychology."--Choice
"It applies many important aspects of Virginia political economy, making a contribution to understanding not only the positive, but also the normative implications of the rules of the game."--Rosolino Candela, Public Choice
"It challenges many of our prized assumptions about what makes economies succeed."--David P Goldman, Standpoint
"This is a recommended read, not only because it was written by Edmund Phelps, the 2006 Nobel Laureate in economics, but for encouraging reflection on fundamental issues related to modern life and the contemporary interpretation of Aristotle's 'the good life'. The author is such an experienced and iconic guide that it makes the journey through the subjects covered in the book an excellent read for anyone."--Jacek Klich, Central Banking Journal
"It is a marvelous book that deserves to be read by everyone, but particularly those entrusted with the design of the European future."--Bjorn Wahlroos, Bloomberg Businessweek
"Phelps masterfully utilizes aggregate data on cross-comparative national economic productivity and adeptly complements it with international individual employee satisfaction survey results give the reader a rich empirical tapestry that support his theme."--Thomas A. Hemphill, Cato Journal
From the Back Cover
"Anyone who finds today's economic debates too small-minded for the immense challenges we face should be drawn to this important work. Only Edmund Phelps would place ultimate blame for the Great Recession on the loss of the right concept of the good life. Phelps has been ahead of his time as an economic thinker for a half century. This may be his deepest, boldest, and most important work."--Lawrence H. Summers, Harvard University
"Few scholars have had the capacity to place the concept of the 'good life' in the context of both philosophical and economic thought. That is what Edmund Phelps has done in his masterly analysis of what he terms a 'modern economy,' once exemplified by Americans' capacity to innovate, to challenge, to dream--and to grow. But he warns that this model needs to be refreshed and changed to restore its potential."--Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve
"In this magisterial sweep of historical storytelling, Edmund Phelps draws upon his rich and deep cultural hinterland--from Robin Hood to Karl Marx to Friedrich Hayek--to explore why some countries develop dynamic economies driven by incessant innovation and inspiration while others still lag far behind. Economic history has rarely been more penetratingly understood and engagingly told."--Nicholas Wapshott, author of Keynes Hayek: The Clash That Defined Modern Economics
"This extraordinary, paradigm-shifting book provides fascinating and fresh insights into the relationship between economic systems, innovation, and creativity. Drawing from a dazzling array of historical and contemporary evidence, Edmund Phelps shows that misguided economic ideas have fractured societies and stifled well-being, and he provides a framework for going beyond the current predicament to create a better world. This book should be read by the widest possible audience."--Ian Goldin, director of the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford
"In this powerful book, Edmund Phelps disrupts lines of debate between right and left. He shows how human initiative and creativity hold the key to future economic prosperity and social progress, and argues that what is holding us back are not the demands of the needy, but rather the stranglehold of conservative attitudes and entrenched privileges, which have steadily narrowed the field for individual innovation and accomplishment."--Philip K. Howard, author of The Death of Common Sense
"This book is what Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations should have been about, if it were to have been an even more important book. Mass Flourishing contains much history, but it focuses more on what society should do today, and it provides a call to action."--Robert J. Shiller, author of Finance and the Good Society
"This book is very good indeed, drawing on a lifetime of thought and experience and a wide knowledge outside economics as well as, of course, in it. Phelps's argument about the relationship between personal flourishing, the dynamism of a society, and the innovative capacity of that society is well argued and clearly enunciated."--John Kay, author of Obliquity: Why Our Goals Are Best Achieved Indirectly
About the Author
Edmund Phelps was the 2006 Nobel Laureate in economics. He is director of the Center on Capitalism and Society at Columbia University. His many books include Designing Inclusion, Rewarding Work, and Seven Schools of Macroeconomic Thought.
Most helpful customer reviews
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful.
A Genuine Classic
By Bartley J. Madden
Edmund Phelps has delivered a hugely important book destined to become a genuine classic and, for sure, a "must read" for anyone interested in why economies work and don't work. It contains unique insights about economic progress in the past and the public, private, and cultural changes needed to restore dynamism which is reflected in people at the grassroots level with the will and capacity to pursue the "good life" of working to develop and commercialize new ideas.
What particularly struck me is the enjoyable learning experience from reading how the author unpacks the core ideas of important thinkers, ranging from Aristotle to Schumpeter, in such a condensed and revealing way.
Phelps has a gift for open-minded inquiry of the past that applies hard-nosed, constructive skepticism to alternative explanations of the historical record and for plainly describing the logic of his own conclusions.
If your reaction to reading this book is similar to mine, you will want every politician, federal and state, to study pages 310 to 324 that explain how best to enable dynamism on a large scale. This is not about any political ideology ---- simply superb research and persuasive logic.
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
Investigation into what drives inspiration and the entrepreneurial spirit
By A. Menon
Mass Flourishing: How Grassroots Innovation Created Jobs, Challenge and Change is an investigation of what drives inspiration and entrepreneurial spirit at the level of the individual. In this work, the author attempts to analyze what institutional arrangements foster the creative process and ability to capitalize on them for the benefits of society. The author looks at various economic regimes and focuses on socialism, corporatism and modern capitalism and compares their merits with respect to nurturing the population's creative talents. This work measures fairly objective functions like productivity growth but gets into the bold philosophical territory of happiness and what drives it in people. In particular work satisfaction and its impact on overall happiness as well as innovation.
The author starts by debunking aspects of classical economic growth theory in which economic growth is exogenously determined through accumulation scientific knowledge and its permeativity within the population at large. The author disputes the idea that scientific frontier knowledge drives innovation in terms of productivity growth and notes the inventors of the 19th century often had no scientific training. The author describes the importanice of local knowledge that citizens all accumulate and the ability of them to use that knowledge to drive innovation and take risks that is far more important in driving productivity than abstract knowledge at the academic frontier. The author focuses on the UK and the US in terms of best environments that fostered innovation.
The author moves on to describing the competing economic regimes of the 20th century. The three major economic regimes are socialism (as pioneered in russia), corporatism (as advocated in Italy and Germany) and modern capitalism (as blueprinted by the US and UK). The author discusses his views on economic philosophy throughout and believes that growth and innovation must be considered as separate. In particular economies replicating productivity increases elsewhere need not be innovative as technology can be transferred instead of innovated hence productivity growth at the efficient frontier is what is the true test of dynamic society. In that respect the author sees socialism and corporatism as failing obviously. There are some tail statistical cases which can be used as examples of the success of corporatism or socialism, but these are the mere statistical anomolies that are inevitably to show up when there is a distribution around a mean. The author begins to discuss the effect on hapiness of an economy's dynamism. They note through questionaires responses that job satisfaction drives life satisfaction and that modern capitalism creates a more satisfied population through their ability to have more self determination.
The author then discusses where we are today. He notes the decline in productivity growth in the 60s and goes through a history of social reformation through the US, UK and Europe. The author then discusses some philosophy about what goes into a good life, using Aristotle as a base. He discusses the idea of self worth and pursuit of knowledge and achieving purpose. Clearly there is a lot of subjective material that reinforces the idea that creative destruction determined from the grassroots level is preferable to a culture of countercyclical economic culture that retards the desire to innovate through diluted returns to risk takers. It does become clear where the authors foundational "axioms" come from that strongly determine why modern capitalism is argued to be superior.
This is a solid work on innovation and what is needed to foster it. Removing the incentives to the entrepreneur come with dire repurcussions to long run vitality and that is an important observation. Given how many US companies remain in the top 50 and how dominant they are in the top 10 (by market cap) is a reminder of the strength of US corporate dynamism and spirit. There are failings within the US system that are marginilizing the impact of potential innovation from the grassroots as more of the workforce is excluded from that process- these must be improved for the US to continue to innovate and be a world leader. This is a philosophical work with a strong message. There are aspects of this kind of thinking in the history of economic and philosophical thought and this is not entirely new. All in all it brings focus to what really drives human progress and that is continued human innovation which the author strongly reminds us- is not a given.
25 of 32 people found the following review helpful.
Profound but Flawed. Not the Classic Some Have Suggested...
By Theodore M. Horesh
Many people have suggested Mass Flourishing is an instant classic. While it possesses many of the trappings of a classic, I do not believe it deserves or will ever attain such a status. The author's observations of society are too counter-intuitive, his engagement with philosophical ideas too undeveloped, and his economic prescriptions too likely to result in mass-suffering, for the depth of his vision to hang together in such a way as to bear the test of time.
Phelps asserts that economists have tended to argue this or that policy will bring growth, while ignoring the purpose of growth. For Phelps, economic development is integral to human development. The point of economic development is not simply to generate wealth, which might be exhausted in leisure. Rather the point is to generate the human capacity to innovate. According to Phelps, innovation is what gives life meaning. But he focuses on a specific kind of innovation, which capitalism inspires: the urge to take on new challenges, to solve new problems, to struggle, and ultimately to create. He refers to a life of such engagement as a flourishing life. And he argues that unrestrained capitalism inspires such experiences. Further, he argues that through work, humans can fully engage their minds in solving new problems as they arise in every area of a business and in so doing they generate wealth, which provides further opportunities for individuals to flourish. His arguments echo those of Schumpeter and libertarians, like Hayek and Von Mises. But he claims they have treated innovation as merely a means to an end, which for them is freedom. For Phelps, innovation and the capacities is brings forth is an end in and of itself. In this sense, his ideas are more close to those of Ayn Rand, whom he fails to reference.
Phelps contrasts what he refers to as "modern values," which he embraces, with "traditional values," which he seeks to cast aside. In the later category, he includes the interest in family, community, service, and contemplation. While he acknowledges that some people value such things, he does not deal with the fact that his version of the good life fails to account for the vast bulk of what humanity has, throughout history, found to be most meaningful. His ideal of innovation, as the engaged and active life, fails to account for the desire to spend time with family, the urge to be part of a community, the pleasures of empathy, of giving, of service, of contemplation, and of philosophy. While he references great thinkers like Aristotle, Nietzsche, William James, John Dewey, Abraham Maslow, and John Rawls to support his argument for a more engaged life, he does not note that these thinkers were deeply interested in many of the so-called "traditional values," which Phelps so denigrates. For Aristotle contemplation was the highest one might attain to; Nietzsche was not interested so much in work but in bringing new values into being, and this often involved long bouts of solitude and a rejection of the engagement with business, which spurred so much of the innovation Phelps values. William James saw mystical experiences as the most meaningful part of many lives and attests to the value of such experiences in great depth in his classic, Varieties of Religious Experience. The list goes on. This does not make Phelps wrong about his intuitions, but it puts him out on a limb. And while he holds his own in his engagement with philosophical thinkers, it is easy to come away with the impression that he has not really given himself to the effort to answer what constitutes the good life.
Mass Flourishing might only be a classic insofar as it ties this deeper vision of the good life into a set of observations concerning the direction in which developing economies and societies are headed and then links this to an economic analysis that accomplishes its goal of bringing about "mass flourishing." But Phelps' observations of society and the economy seem just as unbalanced as his vision of the good life. Phelps argues that it is government regulations that have stifled the innovative spirit. This is a common intuition amongst libertarians and conservatives, of which Phelps does not count himself. He argues that nineteenth century British capitalism has been deeply misunderstood. The prevalence of the "dark Satanic mills," has been exaggerated, and the wages of the Oliver Twists were rising far faster than most historians have previously suggested. For Phelps the spirit of innovation was strongest in the nineteenth century and only declined throughout the twentieth century.
Since Phelps is concerned with "mass flourishing," and not just the flourishing of elites, for his argument to work, it must not only be elites who were innovating in the nineteenth century but also the masses. Oliver Twist needed to be exercising his creativity, drawing on his intelligence, problem solving, embracing challenges, and this needed to bring about his flourishing. While I am well-versed in the economic and social history of this era, I am aware of no other thinker who suggests that this innovative spirit was broadly distributed in the early days of industrialization. Most economists have argued, on the contrary, that economic development was necessary to lift more and more people from the stifling condition of urban, industrial poverty. The debate between socialists and classical economists was over how this should be done. But no one I am aware suggested the factory workers were flourishing. Phelps seems here simply more insensitive to the sufferings of the poor than economists across the political spectrum. But this is in accord with his philosophy: he does not value empathy, community, service, and security.
For Phelps' argument to work, innovation must also have declined since the the early seventies, when regulations began to really grow in America. But this runs against intuitions that seem widely shared across the political spectrum. The Information Age economy has seen an explosion of innovation: cell phones, faxes, computers, the Internet; innovations in wind, solar, nuclear, and biomass; innovations in design, in city planning, in music, and in virtually every field of human endeavor. Phelps ignores the work of Peter Drucker on the rise of the knowledge economy; of Richard Florida on the rise of the creative economy. Scores of sociologists, economists, and management thinkers have written exhaustively on the explosion of innovation and creativity of the information economy. Phelps also ignores more recent developments in mass innovation: crowdsourcing, distributed science, learning through games, etc. Again, his thesis necessitates that innovation has declined, because government regulation has gone up. But his observations of declining innovation seem deeply counter-intuitive.
And he does not really acknowledge the how high the bar he attempting to cross has been set. Instead, he tries to link increases in innovation to productivity growth, as if creativity always increases productivity. Far from it, the eminent management philosopher, Henry Mintzberg, goes so far as to suggests that if a company wants innovation they should be less efficient. Similarly, if you want to write a novel, you do not increase the hours of your work week, but rather live off of accumulated capital. While Phelps might place innovation at the center of his model of the good life and of economic development, he does not really seem to get creativity. Rather, the innovation he speaks of is that of a floor manager being pushed to reduced costs through a better system of tracking merchandise. But this is precisely the sort of innovation which does the least to nurture the development of human capabilities.
Phelps also ignores the massive role government investment has played in spurring innovation. Without government investment, there would have been no cell phones, no Internet, no touch-screen, no GPS tracking, no nuclear power, little solar, wind, and biomass. A devastating review along these lines was published by The Breakthrough Institute [...]. The failure to acknowledge the extent of government involvement in breakthrough innovations is alone enough to negate Phelps' thesis. If the most breakthrough technologies are being funded with government dollars, it is not the private sector which spurs innovation but rather the public sector. Innovation would be thus much more deeply interfused with a public spirit and thus "traditional values," as defined by Phelps.
Similarly, Phelps ignores the fact that the number of patents per capita is highly correlated with income equality, as reported in Wilkinson and Picket, "The Spirit Level." In short, the higher the level of economic equality, the higher the number of patents per capita. Thus, countries like Sweden, Finland, and Denmark produce the most patents per capita, while countries like the U.S. and the U.K., which have high levels of inequality, produce the least. While there are many ways of bringing about economic equality, the most common is through government redistribution. Again, government involvement produces more innovation.
Phelps draws a distinction between socialist, corporatist, and capitalist states. This distinction is at the core of his thesis. But his grouping is counter-intuitive. He places the social-democracies of post-war Europe in the same class as the fascist regimes of Nazi Germany and Mussolini's Italy. He portrays Nazi Germany as having socialist roots, in spite of the fact that the party came to power in contradistinction to the communists, which they regularly fought in bar room brawls and gang wars. He ignores the fact that most socialists were purged from the Nazi Party early on, communists were some of the first people thrown into the concentration camps, and the fact that most historians, outside of American conservative think-tanks treat the use of the word socialism in "national socialism" as an act of propaganda. In spite of all this, he places these fascist parties in the same camp as the social democracies of post-war Europe. Yet, he somehow fails to include Denmark and Sweden in this group, in spite of the fact that the emergence of the welfare-state in these countries involved an epic consensus amongst these three groups. The problem with including them in the dreaded corporatist category is that they score quite well on numerous social and macro-economic indicators, thus suggesting higher levels of productivity and innovation in the sort of economy he wants to avoid. This failure seems intellectually insincere. Similarly, Phelps refers to the communist regimes of Russia and China as socialist. His terminology in these distinctions suggests an activist mind, tarring those governments he does not like with the dreaded "corporatist" designation and mixing up communism and socialism, in spite of a long tradition of distinguishing between the two. You can either play the role of ideological activist or Nobel Laureate economist. The latter status seems incompatible with this sort of categorical framing.
Amazon still awaits a review that examines the economic prescriptions in Mass Flourishing. While I am reasonably versed in this area, I am not up for taking on the economic prescriptions of a Nobel Laureate. The economic reasoning of Phelps is subtle and interesting, but I simply could not give his prescriptions the attention they otherwise would have deserved, for I could not trust the broad set of assumptions upon which they rested. Instead, I continually sensed that half-baked arguments were being used to justify a set of highly counter-intuitive arguments, which arose from his own personal politics. A string of deep ideas and policy prescriptions strung together into an ideology is not enough to make a classic. To be a classic, more of those ideas must correspond with what we know of the real world and human nature.
But perhaps I have sold this work short. It is a highly ambitious work, the kind more economists should attempt. And it is a profound exploration of the way economic policies are internalized psychologically. Personally, I hated the book, but I will probably read it again. I am curious how Phelps might respond to the above criticisms. I have found no reviews that engage his deeper project philosophically. Is it too much to ask of a Nobel Laureate that they answer for their work on Amazon. While it may not be efficient to do so, it would challenge us all to think more deeply and to more seriously engage the work. It is precisely this sort of engagement that the new economy, which Phelps finds so problematic, does such a good job of inspiring. High school students may lack the concentration to get through Shakespeare's Julius Ceasar, but neither are we cowed by titles. Grandiose ideas, with little basis in reality, seldom go unchallenged today, and this is bringing little explosions in every field of learning. How could Phelps have missed the rumbling underneath his own feet? Perhaps it is precisely the ground moving under his feet, which has been spurred by innovations in every field of human endeavor, that inspired him to write such a backward-looking work on innovation. Perhaps it is the bursts of innovation that have caused so many to seek the security of so-called traditional values. Perhaps it is the revolution in innovations that has made us so inefficient. Perhaps it is the vast array of innovations in sports, leisure, and creative expression that have made us so prone to the avoidance of work.
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