A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 66 “What Matters Ethically is not Equality of Outcome, but the Condition of the Working Class” In this penultimate chapter, Dr. McCloskey tackles the idea of equality as a goal. The rising standard of living in the countries that have participated in the Great…
Tag: Income Inequality
Bourgeois Equality
Most of All, Profit Seeking is Even Good for the Poor
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 61 “And Therefore Bourgeois Rhetoric Was Better for the Poor” As Dr. McCloskey is wrapping up Part IX of her book addressing how both history and economics have been misunderstood, she is arguing against the notion that the worker are living under a “false…
Bourgeois Equality
And Profit Seeking Frees Workers, too.
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 60 “And Liberating in Production” Dr. McCloskey spears “one of the left’s economic dogmas” in this chapter — wage slavery. (p. 569) By dogma she means any “passionate belief held uncritically”. (p. 569) She notes wage slave is defined as “a person who is wholly dependent…
Bourgeois Equality
Is What You “Know” About Growth Wrong?
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 9, “The Great International Divergence Can Be Overcome” McCloskey wraps up part 1 with this chapter asking a great question that has surely popped in your head if you’ve been reading these chapter reviews. But what about the poor right now in the rest…
Bourgeois Equality
Note to the Right: You Need More Faith in Economic Growth
A Discussion of Chapter 8 “Or From the Right and Middle” While last chapter, McCloskey argued against the anti-growth beliefs of the Left, now she says the Right suffers from a lack of faith in the Great Enrichment continuing in the future. I have to admit having read these two…
Bourgeois Equality
Note to the Left: You are Wrong about Economic Growth
A Discussion of Chapter 7 “Despite Doubts from the Left” Economic growth is the result of the Bourgeois Deal that allowed us to escape subsistence living, and yet the Left eyes growth with suspicion, concerns, criticism, and policies that would slow or stop it. In this chapter, McCloskey turns her…
Bourgeois Equality
Could It Be Income Inequality Is Not a Problem?
A Discussion of Chapter 6 “Inequality is Not the Problem” Last chapter, McCloskey argued the Great Enrichment has helped people across the income spectrum making the poor today in a developed country far better off than any time before. But that does not mean it is great being at the…
Bourgeois Equality
When Would You Rather be Poor?
A Discussion of Chapter 5 “The Poor Were Made Much Better Off” If you had to agree to be in the bottom 20% of income, would you rather do it now or in 1800? And would you rather be in France with a GDP per capita of $44,000 or N. Korea at $649…
Bourgeois Equality
Capitalism and the Hockey Stick
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 3 “Then Many of Us Shot Up the Blade of a Hockey Stick” After establishing the last chapter that industrialization led to technological change growing output faster than population for the first time in human history, we return to the idea of the Great…
Bourgeois Equality
Historically, Poor was Normal
A Discussion of Bourgeois Equality Chapter 1 “The World is Pretty Rich, But Once was Poor” In my teaching and research, I keep coming back to the question of why an economy grows, with the hope of that knowledge helping those that don’t. Dr. Deirdre McCloskey wrote a trilogy of books…