How much is enough?
Subtitle: the economics of the good life
By: Robert Skidelsky and Edward Skidelsky
Contributors: Skidelsky, Edward
Publisher: Other Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 243
ISBN-13: 9781590515075; 9781590515082
Subjects: Sociological aspects; Economics; Wealth
Description: Analyzes questions that arose from the 2008 financial crisis while assessing the predictions of John Maynard Keynes, sharing the authors' views of a positive life and how recent generations have traded morality for wealth.

What constitutes the good life? What is the true value of money? Why do we work such long hours merely to acquire greater wealth? These are some of the questions that many asked themselves when the financial system crashed in 2008. Authors Robert and Edward Skidelsky begin with he great economist John Maynard Keynes. In 1930 Keynes predicted that, within a century, per capita income would steadily rise, people's basic needs would be met, and no one would have to work more than fifteen hours a week. Clearly, we has wrong: though income has increased as he envisioned, people's wants have seemingly gone unsatisfied and they continue to work long hours. The Skidelskys explain why Keynes was mistaken. Arguing from the premise that economics is a moral science, they trace the concept of the good life from Aristotle to the present and show how our lives over the last half century have strayed from that ideal. Finally, they issue a call to rethink what really matters in our lives and how to attain it.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Keynes's mistake; title: The Faustian bargain; title: The uses of wealth; title: The mirage of happiness; title: Limits to growth: natural or moral?; title: Elements of the good life; title: Exits from the rat race.