Civilizing the Economy:A New Economics of Provision giá ưu đãi

• Addresses the core problem of modern economics, property relations, and offers a civic alternative 

• Shows how to construct systems of provision that would be just and sustainable 

• Analyses the separation of finance from the ‘real’ economy allowing readers to understand the ongoing conflict between banks and governments

When a handful of people thrive while whole industries implode and millions suffer, it is clear that something is wrong with our economy. The wealth of the few is disconnected from the misery of the many. In Civilizing the Economy, Marvin Brown traces the origin of this economics of dissociation to early capitalism, showing how this is illustrated in Adam Smith’s denial of the central role of slavery in wealth creation. In place of the Smithian economics of property, Brown proposes that we turn to the original meaning of economics as household management. He presents a new framework for the global economy that reframes its purpose as the making of provisions instead of the accumulation of property. This bold new vision establishes the civic sphere as the platform for organizing an inclusive economy and as a way to move toward a more just and sustainable world.

Marvin T. Brown teaches business and organizational ethics in the Philosophy department at the University of San Francisco and in the Organizational Systems program at Saybrook University in San Francisco. His previous books include Working Ethics (1990), The Ethical Process (2003), and Corporate Integrity (Cambridge University Press, 2005).

“As we humans puzzle our way to an understanding of how to live sustainably within Earth’s carrying capacity, Marvin Brown has provided a crucial piece of the puzzle. Civilizing the Economy is an important book because it expresses a keystone idea of the new economic system that must evolve if our species is to survive and live up to its potential.” 

–Ray Anderson, Founder and Chairman, Interface, Inc.

“Marvin Brown’s intriguing argument sets out a compelling roadmap for directing the World’s economy at this critical stage of human history. Instead of turning toward disparate, atomic strategies (such as property maximization at any cost), Brown steers us toward a holistic strategy that combines environmental sustainability, corporate responsibility (broadly conceived to include ethical and humanitarian concerns), and real economic development that will provide for all the peoples of the world. The property v. provision paradigm is a foundational discussion that will both stimulate scholars as well as prompt constructive classroom debate.” 

–Michael Boylan, Professor of Philosophy, Marymount University

“In the current debate about the future of capitalism, Marvin Brown provides essential benchmarks to separate the wheat from the chaff in moving toward a civilized economy. His provocative and well-argued vision not only criticizes the dominant role of property in capitalism but also ventures into a novel design of economics, ‘the economics of provision,’ which values economic activity over economic possessions. Moreover, against the ‘economization’ of society, he vigorously places economic activity within the frame of a civic agenda, giving a balanced account of both economic and civic demands and limitations. This book is a must-read in redefining capitalism.” 

–Georges Enderle, John T. Ryan, Jr. Professor of International Business Ethics, Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame

“This book is a must-read for all of us who believe we must change our operating economic paradigms, and a foreshadowing of the dire consequences for all of us if we don’t. Marvin Brown offers us a new economic path – a theory of provisions morally trumping property – which if followed might just lead us to the true meaning of civilization.” 

–W. Michael Hoffman, PhD., Executive Director, Center for Business Ethics, and Hieken Professor of Business and Professional Ethics, Bentley University

“In this profound and courageous book, Marvin Brown asks the question that moral philosophers and political economists have pondered since Socrates: What is a just society? In a spirit similar to E.F. Schumacher’s ‘economics as if people mattered,’ he limns a bold, fresh, and scholarly vision of a new, ‘civilized’ economic order with a fairer distribution of income, wealth, and goods.” 

–James O’Toole, Daniels Distinguished Professor of Business Ethics, University of Denver

 List of figures

 List of tables

 Preface

 1. Introduction: creating a just and sustainable economy

 Part I. Creating a New Economic Framework:

 2. Adam Smith’s silence and an economics of property

 3. Reclaiming the notions of provision and family

 4. Making provisions in a dangerous world

 Part II. The Civic Option:

 5. From property relations to civic relations

 6. Society, civil society and the market

 7. Restoring reciprocity

 8. Civic norms and market competition

 Part III. A Civic View of Labor, Land, and Money:

 9. Labor: employment as engagement

 10. Land: ownership as a concession

 11. Money: commodity or credit

 Part IV. Civilizing Economic Systems:

 12. A world of systems

 13. Imagining stakeholder economy

 14. The ethics of economic systems

 15. Changing systems of provision

 Part V. A Civic Agenda:

 16. The civic obligations of corporations 

 17. Creating circumstances for civic conversations

 Appendix: free enterprise and the economics of slavery

 Bibliography

 Index.