Nasar's previous bestseller was "A Beautiful Mind." She knows how to tell a story.
When the book arrived, I set it with a stack of other books that I am looking for time to read and forgot about it for a couple weeks. Sunday afternoon I decided to give the book a glance. My intention was to read the preface and at most the first chapter, but the book is so well written that I could not put it down. I read three chapters and 138 pages before I had to stop and fulfill other obligations.
I haven't had time to pick the book up again, but I am honestly eager to do so. Nasar's forte is storytelling, but woven into her narrative are scores of brief summaries of economic theories and thought-provoking critiques. Here's an example:
By asserting that labor was the source of all value, Marx claimed that the owner's income -- profit, interest, or managerial salary -- was unearned. He did not argue that workers did not need capital -- factories, machines, tools, proprietary technology, and the like -- to produce the product. Rather he argued that the capital the owner made available was nothing more than the product of past labor. But the owner of any resource -- whether a horse, a house, or cash -- could use it herself. Arguing, As Marx does, that waiting until tomorrow to consume what could be consumed today, risking one's resources, or managing and organizing a business have no value and therefore deserve no compensation is the same as saying that output can be produced without saving, waiting or taking risks. This is a secular version of the old Christian argument against interest.
I recommend this book, even before I've finished reading it.
No comments:
Post a Comment