The Wealth or Health of Nations: by Carol Johnston

Author: Carol Johnston

[Image: The Wealth or Health of Nations: by Carol Johnston]

The Wealth or Health of Nations

Transforming Capitalism from Within

Carol Johnston

Corporate restructuring, pay inequities, and an emerging class system separating the haves from the have-nots. Why has Western society become so focused on money?

Carol Johnston answers this question by returning to the headwaters of Western economic thinking. In Adam Smith's Nature and the Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776), growth in the production of goods—any goods—became the goal of capitalism, and the self-interested choice of individuals in the marketplace became its powerful engine. An invisible hand, Smith asserted, would connect self-interest with concern for the preservation of communities and nations. But as loggers square off against spotted owls and developers plow over unearthed artifacts, questions resonate: Has that invisible hand disappeared? Has creative self-interest become destructive self-indulgence?

THE WEALTH OR HEALTH OF NATIONS examines in detail the value assumptions of this royal road in Western economic theory, from Smith and John Stuart Mill to John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman. At each turn, Johnston reports what the economist contributed and what opportunities were missed as the theory got narrower and narrower, until only the decisions of individuals in the market were the center of economics, and money become the only reality. She then offers a proposal for transforming the focus of capitalism from wealth to community and national health.

CAROL JOHNSTON is assistant professor of theology and culture, Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis, Indiana, and director of the Faith, Wealth, and Community Leadership Project funded by the Lilly Endowment Fund, Inc.

JOHN B. COBB JR. is professor emeritus, philosophy of religion and theology, in the

Department of Religion at Claremont Graduate School, and author of Sustaining the Common Good: A Christian Perspective on the Global Economy.

208 pp.- 5-1/2 x 8-1/2

The Wealth or Health of Nations: by Carol Johnston Author: Carol Johnston
	Item#	Type	Price
	0829812474	paperback	13.55
Transforming Capitalism from Within: Corporate restructuring, pay inequities, and an emerging class system separating the haves from the have-nots. Why has Western society become so focused on money?

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