Progress and the Invisible Hand

By Richard Bronk and bronk-richard

Book Overview

What is progress? In Richard Bronk's brilliant analytical study, he separates the material progress of a nation from the more problematic progress in human happiness and welfare. Questioning many of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0751526606
• ISBN13: 9780751526608
• Release Date: July 1999
• Publisher: Time Warner Books UK
• Length: 265 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.8" x 7.6"

Customer Reviews

To what end human labor?

Tracing the elements of 21st century socio-economic forces, from its roots in greek philosophy to the rhetoric espoused nightly on television by modern polemics, Richard Bronk uses his book to dismantle common notions about the wisdom of building a global "free market" and of ignoring the social and environmental systems that are neglected or undermined by an unregulated market economy. Bronk charts a course through western history, revealing how the foundation of a belief in progress was first constructed. An essential point is how the idea of progress first came to be separated from the idea of happiness, and is best described by Aristotle's paradox quoted in the book; "Instruction and emancipation in one way favor happiness, and in another militate against it. To increase a person's chances of happiness, in the sense of fullness of life, is eo ipso to decrease his chances of happiness, in the sense of satisfaction of desire." In Bronk's view this is the central dilemma that civilization accepted when it chose scientific enlightenment and material gains over an essentially low growth philosophy of relative material subsistence and social stability. By moving out of a primitive existence, where few material goods were pursued or desired the age old equilibrium of humanity and nature were slowly thrown awry. To improve, formal societies now needed to expand their use of non-food resources, concentrating on making tools to secure the food supply, weapons for territorial expansion, or tools that made new tools. Humans had decided to accept Aristotle's paradox. Fast forward to the present and humans are masters of the planet. Food, once the primary resource needed, now accounts for a fraction of human desires. An increasing panorama of products now push the average western citizen to specialize his knowledge into a single set of goods producing activity, and to perform this activity ever more efficiently. Laborers are forced to accommodate the ever faster and efficient business cycle, and the beneficial aspects of Aristotle's paradox begin to be lost. In addition to an increasing disability to fulfill material wants there is less time for human needs: family, community, self-knowledge, shared ideas and relaxation. The very things man desires most, must now be sacrificed in the name of economic growth at the expense of social values that are no longer accounted for in the measure of human progress. In fact, most humans are no longer accounted for in the idea of progress. What's counted is now a tool that is seen an essential catalyst to progress. Money. This is a big concept to outline as it defines most of what human history has been about. Improvement in understanding and control of the world is seen as the quintessential human impulse. That serving such desire blindly could lead to our destruction is Bronk's ultimate point, and he builds towards it with a lucid analysis of critical twists in human histo