Daniel Cohen (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 The Inglorious Years: The Collapse of the Industrial Order and the Rise of Digital Society (Princeton), Globalization and Its Enemies, and The Prosperity of Vice: A Worried View of Economics.
Why society's expectation of economic growth is no longer realistic
Economic 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. The Infinite Desire for Growth spotlights 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.
Leading 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.
At a time when wanting what we haven't got has become an obsession, The Infinite Desire for Growth explores the ways we might reinvent, for the twenty-first century, the old ideal of social progress. "An utterly absorbing journey from the wheel to the iPhone."---Sharon Shinn, BizEd "A compact book whose easy-reading style could easily obscure the profundity of its argument. Daniel Cohen's ultimately hopeful message is that the waning of the religion of growth could create the space for a renewed humanism." "[A] stimulating book of wide scope drawing on a range of disciplines."---David Lorimer, Paradigm Explorer "The book is a statement of hope, a plea for mankind to stop running in the rat race and start seeing the roses. Amen!"---J. Bhattacharya, Choice "This erudite and opinionated book keeps readers on tenterhooks: Will humanity emerge intact from the tensions between the endless desire for growth and the economy's (and earth's) limits? Cohen's conclusion is elegant, hopeful, and controversial. An unputdownable masterpiece."-Esther Duflo, coauthor of Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty "Can modern society survive slow growth? In The Infinite Desire for Growth, Cohen presents on balance among the best and most accessible analyses of this central and very important issue. This is an interesting, forthright, and worthwhile book from an author who brings humanity to economics."-Jeff Madrick, author of Seven Bad Ideas: How Mainstream Economists Have Damaged America and the World "This interesting and thought-provoking book considers the question of whether humanity needs to live in a state of permanent aspiration. Its breadth of reference is remarkably impressive."-Howard Davies, author of Can Financial Markets Be Controlled?
