{"product_id":"the-infinite-desire-for-growth-9780691172538","title":"The Infinite Desire for Growth","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWhy society's expectation of economic growth is no longer realistic\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eEconomic growth--and the hope of better things to come--is the religion of the modern world. Yet its prospects have become bleak, with crashes following booms in an endless cycle. In the United States, eighty percent of the population has seen no increase in purchasing power over the last thirty years and the situation is not much better elsewhere. \u003ci\u003eThe Infinite Desire for Growth \u003c\/i\u003espotlights the obsession with wanting more, and the global tensions that have arisen as a result. Amid finite resources, increasing populations, environmental degradation, and political unrest, the quest for new social and individual goals has never been so critical. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eLeading economist Daniel Cohen provides a whirlwind tour of the history of economic growth, from the early days of civilization to modern times, underscoring what is so unsettling today. The new digital economy is establishing a \"zero-cost\" production model, inexpensive software is taking over basic tasks, and years of exploiting the natural world have begun to backfire with deadly consequences. Working hard no longer guarantees social inclusion or income. Drawing on economics, anthropology, and psychology, and thinkers ranging from Rousseau to Keynes and Easterlin, Cohen examines how a future less dependent on material gain might be considered and, how, in a culture of competition, individual desires might be better attuned to the greater needs of society. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAt a time when wanting what we haven't got has become an obsession, \u003ci\u003eThe Infinite Desire for Growth\u003c\/i\u003e explores the ways we might reinvent, for the twenty-first century, the old ideal of social progress.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDaniel Cohen \u003c\/b\u003e(1953-2023) was director of the Economics Department at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris and a founding member of the Paris School of Economics. His many books include \u003ci\u003eThe Inglorious Years: The Collapse of the Industrial Order and the Rise of Digital Society\u003c\/i\u003e (Princeton), \u003ci\u003eGlobalization and Its Enemies\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Prosperity of Vice: A Worried View of Economics\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Princeton University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50412817678610,"sku":"9780691172538","price":27.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_7664194c-73fd-4830-b6c2-9c1151933dd4.jpg?v=1729330427","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-infinite-desire-for-growth-9780691172538","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}