"...people are told they are free to choose the goods they buy and the careers they pursue. In fact, we are 'slaves' to consumerism, enticed by markets that exist to create false wants. Fashion exists, for example, to make people feel they have a deep need - in a Maslow sense - for the latest cut of jeans or pattern of dress. The economics of data are the same, in Mr. Han's view. Our data is in mass supply and freely supplied by us. But we are slaves here too, chasing tokens of approval - likes on Facebook and Instagram - that we mistakenly feel are valuable."
Author Richard Davies is a former writer for The Economist. He's also served as an economic advisor to the British government, and is presently employed as a Professor at Bristol University. Extreme Economies is his first book.
In Extreme Economies he travels the world seeking out the most unusual areas with respect to production, distribution and trade. He visits Aceh, Indonesia, which rebuilt itself with surprising speed after a tsunami. He visits the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, where a remarkable system of trade exists between Syrian exiles. He travels from there to Louisiana, where he interviews inmates on their own informal economy, and from Louisiana he inspects locations as far apart as the Darien Gap, Kinshasa, Glasgow, Akita, Tallinn and Santiago. Each economy he visits exhibits its own unique characteristics.
His conclusion? He sums up his travels by reassessing the value of social capital, and by remarking upon the aspects of economies that economists themselves often overlook. Places such as Zaatari or the Louisiana prison system, which seem poor from the outside, are actually vibrant when considered from the standpoint of mediums of exchange, adaptability and their impact upon neighboring economies. He arrives at the conclusion that a nation's GDP is never the end of the story, and that even in a place with high levels of income inequality there may be more than meets the eye.
I found this book very interesting and I recommend it without reservation. It has a lot to say about the direction our economies may be heading in, and the author is very careful about the statements he makes.
Those living in Taiwan will want to read the chapter on Akita, Japan. Many communities in Taiwan are experiencing similar challenges, and as our populations age we'll need to overcome many of the same difficulties. Books like Extreme Economies are one way of doing that.
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