Costs of Living How Market Freedom Erodes the Best Things in Life

Name: Costs of Living How Market Freedom Erodes the Best Things in Life
Price: 4.86 USD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9780738852522

ISBN-10: 073885252X

ISBN-13: 9780738852522

Edition: N/A

Authors: Barry Schwartz

List price: $24.99

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Description:

We all value freedom, family, friends, work, education, health, and leisure—“the best things in life.” But the pressure we experience to chase the dollar in order to satisfy both the demands of the bottom line and the demands of our seemingly insatiable desire to consume are eroding these best things in life. Our children now value profit centers, not sports heroes. Our educational system is fast becoming nothing more than a financial investment where students are encouraged to expend more energy on making the grade than on learning about their world. Our business leaders are turning young idealists into cynics when they cut corners and explain that “everybody’s doing it.” The need to… achieve in our careers intrudes so greatly on our personal world that we find ourselves weighing the “costs” of enjoying friendships rather than working.In this book, psychologist Barry Schwartz unravels how market freedom has insidiously expanded its reach into domains where it does not belong. He shows how this trend developed from a misguided application of the American value of individuality and self-pursuit, and how it was aided by our turning away from the basic social institutions that once offered traditional community values. These developments have left us within an overall framework for living where worth is measured entirely by usefulness in the marketplace. The more we allow market considerations to guide our lives, the more we will continue to incur the real costs of living, among them disappointment and loneliness.We all value freedom, family, friends, work, education, health, and leisure—“the best things in life.” But the pressure we experience to chase the dollar in order to satisfy both the demands of the bottom line and the demands of our seemingly insatiable desire to consume are eroding these best things in life. Our children now value profit centers, not sports heroes. Our educational system is fast becoming nothing more than a financial investment where students are encouraged to expend more energy on making the grade than on learning about their world. Our business leaders are turning young idealists into cynics when they cut corners and explain that “everybody’s doing it.” The need to achieve in our careers intrudes so greatly on our personal world that we find ourselves weighing the “costs” of enjoying friendships rather than working.In this book, psychologist Barry Schwartz unravels how market freedom has insidiously expanded its reach into domains where it does not belong. He shows how this trend developed from a misguided application of the American value of individuality and self-pursuit, and how it was aided by our turning away from the basic social institutions that once offered traditional community values. These developments have left us within an overall framework for living where worth is measured entirely by usefulness in the marketplace. The more we allow market considerations to guide our lives, the more we will continue to incur the real costs of living, among them disappointment and loneliness.

Book details

List price: $24.99
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation LLC
Binding: Paperback
Pages: 400
Size: 5.50" wide x 8.25" long x 1.00" tall
Weight: 1.144
Language: English

Preface to the Xlibris Edition	p. 9
Preface	p. 11
The Iron Cage	p. 17
Business is Business	p. 26
And Professions are Business too	p. 57
And Games are Business too	p. 89
What We are and What We Value	p. 120
Consumed by Consumption	p. 161
Economizing on Love	p. 202
The "Demeaning" of Work	p. 235
The Debasing of Education: Turning Play into Work	p. 264
The Selling of Democracy: Public Life and Private Interests	p. 299
From Profits to Prophets	p. 332
The Name of the Game	p. 364
Notes	p. 382
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.