Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: In Defense of Global Capitalism by Johan Norberg, Roger Tanner, JULIAN SANCHEZ ISBN: 1-930865-47-3 Publisher: Cato Inst Pub. Date: September, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.38 (8 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The Good News
Comment: In this illuminating and accessible book, Norberg offers a systematic, detailed and complete rebuttal of the claims of the enemies of capitalism and globalization. Backed up by verifiable facts from a huge variety of reputable sources, he demolishes every lie of the leftists and environmentalists. He also investigates the other side of certain half-truths and gives an optimistic assessment of how capitalism, freedom and globalization are improving human lives around the globe.
Norberg looks at certain deceptive ideas, for example the one that claims the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer, giving us the good news of rapidly diminishing poverty and pointing out that the measure should be how well one is doing, not how well situated one is in relation to others. He explores the facts concerning issues like hunger, education, freedom and equality. Improvements have been particularly spectacular in China and India since these countries started reforming their economic systems.
He shows how the walls against ideas, people and goods are collapsing with dictatorships and how women benefit from the spread of capitalism. The best cure for poverty is growth; prices and profits serve as a signalling system in the market economy whereby the worker, the entrepreneur and the investor all benefit. The importance of property rights are pointed out, with reference to the work of De Soto, and the author compares the success of the Asian Tigers with the sorry state of Africa, although even here the open societies like South Africa, Mauritius and Botswana are doing well.
Norberg dismisses the hoary old argument that western countries are rich because they stole the resources of Third World countries in colonial times. The affluent world has grown faster since shedding its colonies, many rich countries (like Sweden and Switzerland) never had any colonies, whilst some of the world's least developed countries (Nepal, Liberia) have never been colonies. Nor have countries with natural resources as a rule grown as fast as those without, for example Singapore. A brilliant example of free trade success is Estonia, which soon after independence in 1992 abolished all tariffs.
The 20 economically most liberal countries have a per capita GDP of approximately 29 times that of the economically least liberal. The uneven distribution of wealth in the world is due to the uneven distribution of capitalism and the losers of the world are those that have been left out of globalisation.
Norberg attacks agricultural subsidies in the affluent countries, showing that this ridiculous practice harms those countries themselves and the developing world. He demonstrates the absurdity of Europe's Common Agricultural Policy, a bureaucratic nightmare that channels nearly 40% of the entire EU budget to less than 1% of the population. Latin America still suffers from decades of privilege and protectionism, but Chile is a good example of how quickly a country can transform itself with the right policies, to create a high standard of living.
Norberg investigates a vast range of issues, from development assistance (It is wasteful in that it normally involves the transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries), child labour and working conditions. He argues convincingly that free trade and capitalism alleviate social problems. He also proves that prosperity is beneficial for the environment, refuting the spurious claims of environmentalists and quoting from Bjorn Lomborg's remarkable book, The Skeptical Environmentalist.
Norberg considers every angle, including issues like "cultural imperialism" and the risible notion of the "dictatorship of the market", showing how capitalism and democracy go hand in hand in creating a better world. The book includes an index and 14 pages of notes. The text is enhanced by graphs demonstrating the facts and arguments. He concludes the book on an optimistic note, i.e. that people are beginning to wake up to the fact that they aren't just the tools of society but ends in themselves and that freedom and democracy will spread and continue to improve the lives of everyone on the planet.
Rating: 3
Summary: Economics from a firehose
Comment: When a guest of my wife's saw this book on a table in our living room, he sneered "who needs to defend capitalism? It's *everywhere*!"
I start this review with that anecdote because apparently the title of this tome mustn't be terribly successful. Mr. Norberg spends 300 pages telling us in crushing detail why it isn't 'everywhere'--and more importantly, why not.
And a solid defense it is. The book is well researched and simply relentless. Page after page buries us with statistics telling us why capitalism is (in Churchhill's paraphrased words) "the worst system of government, except for all the others." Mr. Norberg tackles globalization late in the book to fill out the picture but never strays far from his main thesis: that freedom, free enterprise, democracy and the free movement of capital are mutually reinforcing.
For an American to read a vigorous defense of capitalism coming from a European was almost as exciting for me as discovering some of Mr. Norberg's references: the French economist Patrick Messerlin, for example, who points out that the $180 billion a year in EU subsidies of agriculture and basic industrial manufacturing goes to "save" 3 percent of jobs in these sectors. That comes out to a cool $200,000 per worker--a pretty fine price to keep out competition. Given these (and many, many more) eye-popping numbers, Norberg often strays from simply reporting statistics to morally defending his subject. As an answer to the "yes, but ..." critics, this was wholly welcome.
Still, the book is far from perfect. The statistical emphasis, while impressive, is occasionally numbing and I could almost hear the left wing counter-arguments ("statistics are necessarily selective" ... " you can use them to prove anything") in my head while reading. The section and chapter organization appears haphazard and the chapter titles give little or no information ("... and it's no coincidence," "Race to the top"). To be fair, these semantics could be from translation--as could an occasionally defensive tone.
Overall, however, these defects don't tarnish the overall case. Mr. Norberg has done his homework and anyone interested in a thorough--if a bit actuarial--defense of economic liberty will enjoy this read. As a bonus--if tackling this cover-to-cover becomes a bit much--a superb index lists almost every economic issue imaginable (from 'Absolute Poverty' to 'Zimbabwe') and serves as an excellent reference.
Rating: 5
Summary: Globalization as capitalism without borders
Comment: Having lived and come over from the left, Norberg makes a compelling case for globalization as a model for success. Contrary to the negative review from the Swedish "assassin", globalization works. The assassin's list of dysfunctional democracies is, even at its worst, a list of democracies and, contrary to his opinion, examples of good progress towards economic and political freedom.
Globalization has become capitalism without borders. Capitalism means the right to own and the right to trade -- freely. The problems have more to do with what can and can not cross borders in a world economy where geopolitics and terrorism limit the rights or possibilities of people to move freely. There is still a strong urge to maintain national integrity and the natural defense of one's borders and culture. And, given the choice, people head for countries with greater economic and political freedom, not just where the natural wealth and resources exist. People are now the world's greatest resource and they are more mobile than ever.
Norberg pulls together multiple, massive statistical studies of real progress in the world resulting from greater political and economic freedom. They go hand in hand. They serve the liberation not only of countries and cultures, but also women who, one hundred years ago left any country short on its claim of true democracy by prohibiting them the ballot and/or the right to economic freedom and ownership.
David Landes' "Wealth and poverty of nations" made this case from an historic perspective. Countries and their people and institutions need to be able to produce things of value, educate their young, innovate in their methods, emulate success, discriminate based on merit, and allow people the right to retain (some or much of) the fruit of their labor. Globalization and capitalism, like democracy, are the worst of all possible forms of economics, except, as Churchill advised, for all other forms of economics that have been tried from time to time.
All these data and global views can be a bit dry at times and it should be safe to assume that English is not Norberg's first language (although he writes better than most American university students with English as their first language!) yet it is well worth the detail. He questions conventional (i.e., casual) wisdom. Anecdotes are illustrative and global.
 |
Title: In Defense of Globalization by Jagdish N. Bhagwati ISBN: 0195170253 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: March, 2004 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
 |
Title: Anti-Americanism by Jean Francois Revel, DIARMID CAMMELL ISBN: 1893554856 Publisher: Encounter Books Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
 |
Title: FDR's Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression by JIM POWELL ISBN: 0761501657 Publisher: Crown Forum Pub. Date: 23 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
 |
Title: Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One by Thomas Sowell ISBN: 0465081436 Publisher: Basic Books Pub. Date: 11 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
 |
Title: The Mind and the Market : Capitalism in Modern European Thought by Jerry Z. Muller ISBN: 0375414118 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 12 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
