How much is enough?
Analyzes questions that arose from the 2008 financial crisis while assessing the predictions of John Maynard Keynes, sharing the authors' views of a positive life and how recent generations have traded morality for wealth. What constitutes the good life? What is the true value of money? Why do we work such long hours merely to acquire greater wealth? These are some of the questions that many asked themselves when the financial system crashed in 2008. Authors Robert and Edward Skidelsky begin with he great economist John Maynard Keynes. In 1930 Keynes predicted that, within a century, per capita income would steadily rise, people's basic needs would be met, and no one would have to work more than fifteen hours a week. Clearly, we has wrong: though income has increased as he envisioned, people's wants have seemingly gone unsatisfied and they continue to work long hours. The Skidelskys explain why Keynes was mistaken. Arguing from the premise that economics is a moral science, they trace the concept of the good life from Aristotle to the present and show how our lives over the last half century have strayed from that ideal. Finally, they issue a call to rethink what really matters in our lives and how to attain it.
Stats for nerds
6recommend
9mentions
6people
2014–2020years
78% recommend22% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- > You have more choices available than either climbing the corporate ladder or sitting on the couch watching Netflix
I think you are taking this point too literally. The question is: what proportion of your life are you spending pursuing career goals?
For a bit of background on this, I strongly recommend Skidelsky & Skidelsky (2012) How Much is Enough? [1]
[1] https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/216918/how-much-is-...
- You might enjoy the book 'How Much Is Enough?' by Robert Skidelsky and Edward Skidelsky
- My suggestion in the book is to go back to a distinction between "needs" and "wants." A distinction that capitalism has unfortunately erased. For a great treatment of that I recommend "How Much is Enough" by Edward and Robert Skidelsky. Here is my take on Needs (caveat: this section of the book is heavily under development, so YMMV) https://worldaftercapital.gitbooks.io/worldaftercapital/cont...
- > This is a famous paper by John Maynard Keynes
Indeed, and it was the starting point of the thought-provoking book How much is Enough? [1, review in 2] by noted Keynes biographer Robert Skidelsky and his son Edward, in which they advocate for more leisure, of the enlightened sort, instead of more work. It's a good read, though short on actual solutions.
One concern both Keynes and the Skidelskys had is this:
> Yet there is no country and no people, I think, who can look forward to the age of leisure and of abundance without a dread. For we have been trained too long to strive and not to enjoy. It is a fearful problem for the ordinary person, with no special talents, to occupy himself, especially if he no longer has roots in the soil or in custom or in the beloved conventions of a traditional society.
> To judge from the behaviour and the achievements of the wealthy classes today in any quarter of the world, the outlook is very depressing!
(Keynes, 1930 (!))
Now, with the increase in inequality over the last two decades and stagnating real incomes for the bottom half, it looks like this problem will be confined to the "wealthy classes" a bit longer...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_Much_Is_Enough%3F_(book)
- Leisure as a status symbol of the upper classes is nothing new though - it's what's required for the Good Life according to Aristotle, and it's long been the aspiration of the English upper class: a marker of nobility.
The famed Keynes biographer, Robert Skidelsky (The Right Honourable Lord), has an intriguing book with his son, Edward Skidelsky: How Much Is Enough? Money and the Good Life.
Starting point is an essay by Keynes from 1930, Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren, in which Keynes predicted that 100 years from then, economic progress would have improved productivity and real incomes so much that everyone (in the developed world) would only have to work 2 days a week and be free to enjoy their leisure otherwise.
Now, it's still a few years until 2030, but it doesn't really look like that prediction will come true - and the book is an examination on why.
Makes you think. (And sleep. And take time off :-)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/books/review/how-much-is-e...
- I highly recommend How Much is Enough? by Robert & Edward Skidelsky.
