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The Alternative

How to Build a Just Economy

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The Alternative

By: Nick Romeo
Narrated by: Jamie Renell
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About this listen

Many books have exposed what's not working in our current system. Romeo reveals something even more essential: the structure of a system that could actually work for everyone.

Margaret Thatcher was wrong: there is an alternative. This is what it looks like.

Confronted by the terrifying trends of the early twenty-first century - widening inequality, environmental destruction, and the immiseration of millions of workers around the world - many economists and business leaders still preach dogmas that lack evidence and create political catastrophe: Private markets are always more efficient than public ones; investment capital flows efficiently to necessary projects; massive inequality is the unavoidable side effect of economic growth; people are selfish and will only behave well with the right incentives.

But a growing number of people - academic economists, business owners, policy entrepreneurs, and ordinary people - are rejecting these myths and reshaping economies around the world to reflect ethical and social values. Though they differ in approach, all share a vision of the economy as a place of moral action and accountability.

Journalist Nick Romeo has spent years covering the world's most innovative economic and policy ideas for the New Yorker. Romeo takes us on an extraordinary journey through the unforgettable stories and successes of people working to build economies that are more equal, just, and liveable.

©2024 Nick Romeo (P)2024 PublicAffairs
International Social Classes & Economic Disparity

Critic Reviews

In this informative and courageous book, Nick Romeo shows there is an alternative - or, rather, many alternatives - to the currently dominant neoliberal economic system. In doing so, he liberates our economic imagination and puts a backbone into economics as a moral science. This is a very valuable field manual for those who want to change our economies for the better (Ha-Joon Chang, professor of economics, University of London, and author of EDIBLE ECONOMICS)
The Alternative got my emotions boiling . . . yet I felt a strong rush of hope in seeing, through Romeo's deep research and vivid storytelling, that there are plenty of great solutions out there, and they're already being put into practice. As this important book makes clear, we just need the moral courage and political imagination to make them mainstream (Rick Wartzman, author of STILL BROKE)
Carefully researched, beautifully written, engaging stories, filled with wisdom about building economic justice. Easy reading that results in hard thinking about how economics can be a force for good (Joseph R. Blasi, professor and director, Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing, Rutgers University)

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