Unjust Deserts: How the Rich Are Taking Our Common Inheritance [Hardcover]

Gar Alperovitz (Author), Lew Daly (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 17, 2008

Warren Buffett is worth nearly $50 billion. Does he “deserve” all this money? Buffett himself will tell you that “society is responsible for a very significant percentage of what I’ve earned.”

Unjust Deserts offers an entirely new approach to the wealth question. In a lively synthesis of modern economic, technological, and cultural research, Gar Alperovitz and Lew Daly demonstrate that up to 90 percent (and perhaps more) of current economic output derives not from individual ingenuity, effort, or investment but from our collective inheritance of scientific and technological knowledge: an inheritance we all receive as a “free lunch.”

Alperovitz and Daly then pursue the implications of this research, persuasively arguing that there is no reason any one person should be entitled to that inheritance. Recognizing the true dimensions of our unearned inheritance leads inevitably to a new and powerful moral case for wealth redistribution—and to a series of practical policies to achieve it in an era when the disparities have become untenable.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Riddled with references to economists John Stuart Mill and Adam Smith, this book reads more like an academic treatise than an appeal aimed at the general public. Alperovitz (America Beyond Capitalism) and Daly (God and the Welfare State) make the provocative argument that if today's worker is more productive and his methods are more extensive, it's due to the accumulation of hundreds of years of work done by previous generations. Modern engineers, for example, are only more productive because they build on the design problems solved during the past century. Since a society shares a history, the authors contend, we should all reap the benefits of this progress and the wealth accumulated by it; the reality, of course, is a grave disparity in wealth and resources. Alperovitz has written several works used as textbooks in economics courses (Atomic Diplomacy), but this work lacks the readability necessary for mainstream audiences-the very audience that the author should have appealed to.
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Review

...convincingly demonstrates that knowledge is the primary source of our national wealth - Bill Moyers

Unjust Deserts reveals the untold story of wealth creation in our time. - Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed; and Chuck Collins, Director of Inequality and the Common Good

The viewpoint presented in this important and provocative book should alter the current public discourse on income distribution. - Kenneth Arrow, Nobel Prize Winner in Economics, 1972

Their timely, deftly argued book redefines our vision of the common good. - Jacob S. Hacker, Professor of Political Science, Yale University

This is one of the most original and most intelligent works on economic justice I have read in many years. - Michael Kazin, author of A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan and Professor of History, Georgetown University

...deeply informed and carefully argued study of the social and historical factors that enter into creative achievement… - Noam Chomsky

Unjust Deserts is an elegant work of moral philosophy… - James K. Galbraith, Professor of Government, The University of Texas at Austin

Agree or disagree, you will see the world differently after you have read this book. - William A. Galston, Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution

The moral conclusion is unmistakable: society itself is the source of wealth, and all of us deserve an equal share. - Howard Zinn

...authors strike upon a vital topic when they highlight the need for the benefits from productivity gains to be shared… (Mark Engler - The Nation )

Deliciously subversive. The authors lace their narrative with fascinating asides… and statistics that give their story plenty of dramatic oomph. (Too Much )

Product Details

• Hardcover: 230 pages
• Publisher: New Press, The (October 17, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595584021
• ISBN-13: 978-1595584021
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.9 x 8.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #742,200 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Gar Alperovitz (born May 5, 1936) is Lionel R. Bauman Professor of Political Economy at the University of Maryland, College Park Department of Government and Politics. He is a former Fellow of King's College, Cambridge; a founding Fellow of Harvard's Institute of Politics; a Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies; and a Guest Scholar at the Brookings Institution. Alperovitz also served as a Legislative Director in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, and as a Special Assistant in the Department of State. Alperovitz is a founding principal of The Democracy Collaborative at the University of Maryland, and a member of the board of directors for the New Economics Institute (NEI).

More information at http://garalperovitz.com

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 56 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars If you weren't angry before... November 21, 2008

By Decentralize

Format:Hardcover

You will be angry after reading this book. Alperovitz and Daly create a convincing argument that is difficult to deny. Exhaustively researched and yet so readable, the premise is that, "all of this knowledge-the overwhelming source of all modern wealth-comes to us today through no effort of our own." So if most of what we have today is attributable to advances we inherit in common, why is this gift of our collective history not benefiting all members of society. The top 1% of US Households receives more income than the bottom 120 million. Do they deserve it? Does a CEO of a major corporation deserve compensation 431 times that of an average worker? This book could not be timelier given the current state of the economy. If you weren't already angry at the unjust income distribution in this country and the fact that such a small percentage of Americans basically wallow in wealth while the rest of cant make ends meet, you will be very angry after reading this book. This is a readable, not just for economists, guide to getting back what is rightfully ours. This book doesn't just lay out the cold hard facts but also gives solutions. I am more convinced than ever, that not only are we getting shafted, but we can also now fight back. I highly recommend Unjust Deserts to anyone who is sick and tired of economic injustice and is ready for solutions.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars YOU DON'T LEARN LESS May 21, 2009

By Jack Rosenblum

Format:Hardcover

The purpose of this book, as I see it, is to make the case that the vast disparity in wealth between the richest and poorest citizens is wildly disproportionate to their contributions and is therefore unjust. The case is built by
carefully documenting how technology and knowledge generally are cumulative over time, so that inventors or enterpreneurs stand on the shoulders of the entire history of their predecessors and make only a small marginal contribution to innovation. If the authors had a sense of humor, they might have entitled the book: "You Don't Learn Less".

In format, the book reads like a cross between a doctoral dissertation chapter reviewing the relevant literature and a legal brief. The authors want to convince readers of their thesis that the accumulated resources in technology , infrastructure, education, dissemination, et al are in effect a free lunch for would-be innovators. To make sure we understand this fairly obvious point, they assiduously mention almost everyone, especially Nobel Prize winners, who ever had a similar or supporting thought, not unlike a legal brief citing any previous case with a supportive or even tangential holding. I felt I was being submitted to an intellectual bludgeoning when they pretty much had me at hello.

The corollary to their main thesis is since society has produced most of the necessary conditions for innovation, society, not the innovator, should get most of the recompense. Since this is the most controversial part, I wish the authors had spent more time addressing possible objections. Their one foray into this terrain is to observe that our highest growth rate in US history was obtained with a top marginal tax rate of 91%, but the concern about curtailing incentives runs deeper and broader. This is a country where millions of poor and middle class people reliably vote for a party that blatantly favors the rich. I'm afraid "Unjust Deserts" will not dent that doleful reality.

The main value of the book is that it gathers in one slim volume all the arguments and all the opinions that support their observation about the true source and process of innovation and the implication of who should benefit. It places a firm intellectual stake in the ground for future discussions about what they call "distributive justice". The book is heavy going: you really have to put on your hip boots and wade in. But to reap a harvest, someone's got to do the plowing and plant the seeds. Personally, I feel grateful to the authors for making the effort.

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Cause and Resolution of the US Economic Grief December 8, 2008

By William L. Fell

Format:Hardcover

Arrival timing of this super-illuminating expose of the US economic problems,and their solution, could not have been better. Wealth concentration increases, especially since Ronald Reagan's tax cuts for the wealthy, have brutally damaged the US. College tuitions have soared, middle class income has stagnated, jobs no longer exist, principles in financial dealings have been eliminated, the poor no longer hope,and injustice is the rule for these days.

Wealth disparity between the upper two percent and the remaining population has never been greater. A US nation of masters and serfs is at hand unless wealth concentration is drastically reduced. Outrageous amounts of monetary payments from executive compensation, capital gains, estate inheritance, and other sources to the already super rich have thrown any semblance of economic rationale out the window.

In this book Gar Alperovitz and Lew Daly clearly explain why monetary distribution is so lopsided and hubris rules. They explain the injustice of wealth distribution and how it can be eliminated to get the US back on an even keel so all citizens have a shot at a decent life. Surprises abound in this book and make for exciting reading. If you have always been bored by economics, that will not happen here. Every page contains a new revelation and is understandable.

This book is part of the spearhead for economic change in the US. It will not disappoint those who seek to renew this country and its promise.