The Virtue of Prosperity : Finding Values In An Age Of Techno-Affluence [Hardcover]

Dinesh D'Souza (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 9, 2000

We live in an era of unprecedented prosperity. The United States has created the first mass affluent class in world history, and most of us are more successful than we ever dreamed we could be. New technologies have given us extraordinary abilities to communicate and share information, and also godlike power over nature and ourselves. Yet, individually and collectively, we are divided about the new economy. Its champions embrace the power of technological capitalism and the wealth it creates -- they believe it will feed and heal and liberate the world. Its detractors warn that techno-capitalism creates enormous inequalities, undermines families and communities, and destroys our most cherished values. How can we heal this division that runs deep in our society, and in our hearts? How can we learn to be happy with our success?

"In The Virtue of Prosperity," former White House policy analyst Dinesh D'Souza offers the first in-depth analysis of the spiritual and social crisis that has been spawned by the new economy and new technologies. Drawing upon original reporting, including more than a hundred interviews with leading entrepreneurs, scholars, social and religious activists, and tech tycoons, D'Souza brings to life the heated debate over how we are all affected by the massive changes under way.

D'Souza creates an unforgettable portrait of some of the movers and visionaries in today's economy: Steve Jobs, Eric Schmidt, George Gilder, T. J. Rodgers, and Ted Turner. But he also digs deep to understand what people who are not in the new economy vanguard -- scholars, pundits, clergy, ordinary workers -- think and feel about our new prosperity. He reveals the surprising ways inwhich old political allegiances have blurred and elements of the left and the right are uniting in resistance to the new world celebrated by the techno-utopians.

D'Souza poses the tough questions: By what right does a Web entrepreneur who can't show a profit accumulate wealth equal to the gross national product of a small country, while the average person struggles to make ends meet? What do we risk if, using the power of technology, we extend our life span, select the traits we want in our children, and control the evolution of our species into the "post-human"? From the unique perspective of an immigrant, D'Souza explores the premise of the American dream -- that prosperity will better the human condition. He welcomes the liberation from necessity and drudgery that technology and affluence bring, but he argues that they cannot solve the basic human question: What is the significance of my life?

D'Souza will surprise readers across the political spectrum with his original vision of how we can actually do well while doing good, and succeed while making society better.He shows how to preserve nature, strengthen our families and communities, and expand our intellectual horizons in a techno-capitalist world. Ultimately, D'Souza reveals how we can harness the power of technology and affluence to promote individual fulfillment and the common good.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The chief problem societies have faced "since the time of the Babylonians," writes Dinesh D'Souza, has been the problem of scarcity. "But now that age has passed, and America has a new problem: coping with prosperity." It's a good problem to have, but also a serious, even debilitating, one. "The moral conundrum of success," the author continues, means that all too often, "the body is flourishing, but somehow the soul still feels malnourished." D'Souza is well known for his bestselling conservative books Illiberal Education, The End of Racism, and Ronald Reagan. On these pages, however, he seems to set politics aside to ask deep questions about the meaning of life in a world of material abundance:

What is my life for? As affluence spreads ... hundreds of millions of people will be asking just this question. That they can ask it is in and of itself a great moral achievement, because it opens up to innumerable ordinary people the avenues of human fulfillment that were previously open only to aristocrats. Yet at the same time it is a strangely disquieting question, because there is no complete answer to it within the modern techno-capitalist framework.

The Founders promised "the pursuit of happiness," but they didn't explain where happiness can be found, or even what it is. D'Souza argues that it must not be found in materialism--in both the consumerist sense of the word as well as the philosophical one. In a time of unprecedented prosperity, of course, the temptation is to find happiness exactly there, and the threat is profound: materialism may "transform our very nature as human beings and possibly introduce a new species in the world, the posthuman." D'Souza does not welcome this prospect (and consequently sounds very conservative indeed). The Virtue of Prosperity is a bold and thoroughly engrossing book. Readers won't need to agree with every one of D'Souza's points to find his many digressions fascinating. Whether he's writing about an extravagant Silicon Valley party, describing the ideas of Richard Dawkins, or making a casual reference to Marcus Aurelius, he's at once erudite and accessible. It's not always clear where he's going with his ideas until he gets there, but he makes the journey a pure joy. --John J. Miller

From Publishers Weekly

This latest work may mark D'Souza's graduation from a promising to an important writer, a possible heir to Michael Lewis's role as an insightful chronicler of our times. After serving a year in the Reagan White House, he wrote two conservative tracts, Illiberal Education (1991) and The End of Racism (1995). These well-argued, one-sided books established D'Souza as a B-list conservative commentator. In 1997, his political biography of Ronald Reagan achieved acclaim for its nuanced insights, even from some who didn't agree with D'Souza's politics. The new volume finds D'Souza wandering around the country discussing how to be hip, rich and wired with Internet billionaires, street people and regular folks. He wants to know if the techno-rich are different from other rich, whether the superrich act like the merely rich and whether most rich people are guilty, driven, shallow or happy. Lengthy discussions ensue on the meaning of inequality, who gets rich and how, the history of wealth in the world and what the future holds for the wealthy and the wired. Some Reagan-style homilies lead into predictable philosophical essays that may interest intellectual Republicans. But other stories show a sharp pen and sharper eye that transcends polarized politics, leading to philosophical reflections that are much deeperDor at least less predictableDthan in D'Souza's first two works, and delivered in a unique voice and with an unusually light touch. (Nov.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Free Press (November 9, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684868148
• ISBN-13: 978-0684868141
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,311,435 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

In 2010, Dinesh D'Souza was named the president of The King's College, a Christian college located in the Empire State Building in New York City. The mission of The King's College is to transform society by preparing students for careers in which they help to shape and eventually to lead strategic public and private institutions.

D'Souza brought to The King's College a distinguished 25-year career as a writer, scholar, and public intellectual. A former policy analyst in the Reagan White House, D'Souza also served as John M. Olin Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and the Robert and Karen Rishwain Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

Called one of the "top young public-policy makers in the country" by Investor's Business Daily, D'Souza quickly became known as a major influencer on public policy through his writings. His first book, Illiberal Education (1991), publicized the phenomenon of political correctness in America's colleges and universities and became a New York Times bestseller for 15 weeks. It has been listed as one of the most influential books of the 1990s.

In 1995, D'Souza published The End of Racism, which became one of the most controversial books of the time and another national bestseller. His 1997 book, Ronald Reagan: How an Ordinary Man Became an Extraordinary Leader, was the first book to make the case for Reagan's intellectual and political importance. D'Souza's The Virtue of Prosperity: Finding Values in an Age of Techno Affluence (2000) explored the social and moral implications of wealth.

In 2002, D'Souza published his New York Times bestseller What's So Great About America, which was critically acclaimed for its thoughtful patriotism. His 2003 book Letters to a Young Conservative has become a handbook for a new generation of young conservatives inspired by D'Souza's style and ideas. The Enemy at Home published in 2006, stirred up a furious debate both on the left and the right. It became a national bestseller and was published in paperback in 2008, with a new Afterword by the author responding to his critics.

Just as in his early years D'Souza was one of the nation's most articulate spokesmen for a reasoned and thoughtful conservatism, so in recent years he has been an equally brilliant and forceful defender of Christianity. What's So Great About Christianity not only intelligently explained the core doctrines of the Christian faith, it also explained how the freedom and prosperity associated with Western Civilization rest upon the foundation of biblical Christianity. Life After Death: The Evidence shows why the atheist critique of immortality is irrational and draws the striking conclusion that it is reasonable to believe in life after death. His most recent book The Roots of Obama's Rage (Regnery, 2010) has been described as the most influential political book of the year and has proven to be yet another best seller. These books--not to mention a razor-sharp wit and entertaining style--have allowed D'Souza to participate in highly-publicized debates about Christianity with some of the most famous atheists and skeptics of our time.

One of D'Souza's favorite venues for debates and speeches has been college campuses. During the past 20 years, he has appeared at hundreds of colleges and universities, and has spoken with hundreds of thousands of students in these live settings. In recent years he has taken on the New Atheists such as Christopher Hitchens, Peter Singer and Michael Shermer.

Born in Mumbai, India, D'Souza came to U.S. as an exchange student and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College in 1983.

D'Souza has been named one of America's most influential conservative thinkers by the New York Times Magazine. The World Affairs Council lists him as one of the nation's 500 leading authorities on international issues, and Newsweek cited him as one of the country's most prominent Asian Americans.

D'Souza's articles have appeared in virtually every major magazine and newspaper, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Monthly, Vanity Fair, New Republic, and National Review. He has appeared on numerous television programs, including the Today Show, Nightline, The News Hour, O'Reilly Factor, Moneyline, and Hannity.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finding Common Ground for Doing Good and Doing Well, October 31, 2000

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 109,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Virtue of Prosperity : Finding Values In An Age Of Techno-Affluence (Hardcover)

Mr. D'Souza does an excellent job of describing the principal
arguments in favor of and against rapid growth in technology and
capitalism. He then takes on the difficult task of creating common
ground among the diverse positions, and has some success in putting
the first rope ladders across this abyss of discord. Even though the
permanent bridge remains to be built, getting those rope ladder across
is worth five stars.

The best parts of the book are his interviews
with prominent figures and thinkers in both camps. Their candid
comments and actions will often leave you laughing. If the subject
wasn't so important, this book could have easily been turned into a
satire along the lines of Candide about the optimism of
the"techno-capitalist" (today's equivalent of Dr. Pangloss
as seen in the form of people such as Ted Turner, Bill Gates, and
MichaelDell).

Mr. D'Souza clearly tilts more toward the
techno-capitalists than toward their critics, except when it comes to
applying bio technology to pick the traits of one's children. So
don't look for a "down the middle" splitting of
differences.D'Souza takes a typical economic approach in most cases of
"the most good for the most people, net of the
harm."

Techno-capitalists have their good sides as
characterized by D'Souza. They often contribute money to worthy
causes, they can improve the rate of economic development, they
sometimes create new resources for society, and they often solve
problems. In fact, being successful means that techno-capitalists
have to behave in ways that help someone else. Capitalism thus has a
self-reinforcing positive aspect to it.

D'Souza points out that
environmental damage is done by poor people, as well as by rich ones.
In fact, rich people like a nice environment and often pay to improve
it. This argument seemed a little over the top for me. The real
challenge is that the environment is a very complex systems
problem.People of all incomes and net worths are not yet very good
thinkers and decision-makers about complex systems like the
environment. Few people go around despoiling nature just to create
ugliness, filth, and bad smells! Putting a rich-poor slant on this
problem is pretty arbitrary.

The book is very effective in
describing the divisions among the cultures of the poorer people in
the U.S. and in the third world, the techno-rich, and those who are
in-between but do not live the techno-rich lifestyle. These
perceptual gaps are quite wide and do need to be closed. Otherwise,
the ability to communicate and share ideas will be lost. The
challenge here is much more difficult than simply providing
Internet-connected computers for everyone.

Clearly, the solutions
will mostly have to come from those who are creating and deploying the
new technology. At most, the other groups can help formulate the
questions. In that sense, the book's concept is flawed. It should
have focused less on the debate,and more on what the
techno-capitalists should be doing differently. . . and how they will
benefit if they do. That book remains to be written.

I think the
author also underestimates the socio-political problems that
biotechnology will bring. U.S. society is strongly and evenly divided
on the question of abortion now. The issues raised by biotechnology
will be even more fundamental, challenging, and disturbing to most
than abortion is now. Advances in and applications of this technology
could cause rending of the social fabric in a way that nothing has
done since slavery. In that part of the analogy to slavery, D'Souza
is right. Take a simple example to see my point. Assume that in the
early days of cloning, that only a few people can afford to have body
parts cloned for them. Let's assume that these people can live for,
say, three times the length of time of everyone else with good health
and normal appearance. Won't many other people want access to this
technology, even if they can not afford it? Won't they try to use the
political process to either deny it to the super rich or to require
its use for everyone? (I can certainly see this as a new health
benefit for elected officials early in the process.)What do you think?

After you finish the book, consider where else perspectives differ
and are widening. Tolerance for the religious beliefs of others is a
good example. How can we each "do good while doing well" in
these areas as well?

Embrace the differences to make a better world
for each and every one!

25 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book!, November 15, 2000

By 

Rick Heil (Park City, Utah USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Virtue of Prosperity : Finding Values In An Age Of Techno-Affluence (Hardcover)

Dinesh D'Souza has traveled through a vast territory of ideas, arguments, worries, concerns and fears - articulating a vision for how Captalism has provided the engine for the dramatic change around us. Rather than feel guilty, or fault the weaknesses (which he illuminates in detail) of the West, Dinesh offers a promotion for the advancement of what works, why it works and how to harness the energy of the human spirit - the VIRTUES of Greed - to for the first time in human history dramatically raise the quality of life for all. Excellent book, great romp through history and wonderful calrity of vision. He's on my permanent must read list.

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE PRESENT "ERA OF UNPRECEDENTED PROSPERITY": GOOD OR BAD?, January 19, 2001

By 

David Roger Allen (Freeland, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Virtue of Prosperity : Finding Values In An Age Of Techno-Affluence (Hardcover)

The American Enterprise Institute's enfant terrible Dartmouth College grad author (his 1991 book, ILLIBERAL EDUCATION: The Politics Of Race And Sex caused quite a stir), Dinesh D'Souza (born in India, became a USA citizen in 1991) has written a very interesting book titled THE VIRTUE OF PROSPERITY (2000). It's about the moral and ethical aspects of the present highly touted USA wealth "boom," and it asks the intelligent question, is all this so-called "wealth" really success?

D'Souza points out early in his book that techno-capitalism in the present age has created enormous inequalities, has undermined families and communities, and has all but destroyed many of our (previously) most cherished values. He asks the question "how can we learn to be happy with out 'success'?"

Well, being sponsored by the unabashedly right-wing, pro-capitalism American Enterprise Institute (a Washington, D.C. "think tank" dedicated to telling it the way right-wingers think it is), Mr. D'Souza doesn't really join the attack on what's happened to equality, families, communities, and values. He is rather an unabashed apologist for "aren't these great times" crowd. After all, he's been on their payroll since finishing Dartmouth in the early 80's (and prepared for it by working as a student staffer on the infamous DARTMOUTH REVIEW, then America's most famous conservative student publication).

Even so, agree with Mr. D'Souza or not, he does raise many very intelligent and interesting questions, and provides a generous amount of space in his 284 page book for the opposing side to tell its story. His book is worth buying and reading, and offers several valuable features, most especially his well organized and extensive chapter end notes (he was highly praised for similar notes provided in his book ILLIBERAL EDUCATION).

The first part of THE VIRTUE OF PROSPERITY is the best part. Dinesh D'Souza provides a well written and intelligent backgrounder to the various issues and situations surrounding the current "good times." He asks the question "What's new about the new economy?" and comes up with interesting points and answers. He points out, for instance, that the world's richest man, Bill Gates of Microsoft, was worth in 2000 a cool (or hot) $100 billion (net worth). In contrast, John D. Rockefeller at his peak was worth a paltry $17 billion in today's money. D'Souza observes that Bill Gates and his descendants could spend $10 million A DAY IN PERPETUITY and NEVER run out of money. Now that's wealth! If Bill were a country, he would be number thirty five in the world rankings, surpassing the gross domestic products of Hungary, Ireland, Israel, and New Zealand! He ranks just ahead of Finland, and just behind Greece.

An unlike John D., it didn't take him long to get where he is. The author wows us with other (many other) statistics of this sort, and in so doing, allows his book to take on the personality of sort of research scholars versions of WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE?

The best part of the book follows. D'Souza gets down to a serious discussion of mass affluence and its discontents in a chapter titled The Gathering Storm. He then moves on to discuss the subject of "merit," and the many people it leaves behind. He states that success must at times be regarded as a lottery, and explains who wins, and who loses.

By far, the best chapter in the book is titled Eye Of The Needle: The Moral Critique Of Prosperity. This is followed by a poignant chapter titled The World We Have Lost: Goodbye Nature, Family, and Community.

Get this book and read it. The cult of prosperity and affluence has been touted by a very self-interested lot of politicians, businessmen, and others the late H.L. Mencken would have called "wowzers." Their hidden agenda is almost unexamined in current literature or mass media, and Dinesh D'Souza's book, THE VIRTUE OF PROSPERITY comes as close as any I have read to getting down to the nitty gritty about what really has happened, and what it all means.