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The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth Hardcover – October 18, 2005

by Benjamin M. Friedman (Author)

24 customer reviews

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From the author of Day of Reckoning, the acclaimed critique of Ronald Reagan’s economic policy (“Every citizen should read it,” said The New York Times): a persuasive, wide-ranging argument that broadly distributed economic growth provides benefits far beyond the material, creating and strengthening democratic institutions, establishing political stability, fostering tolerance, and enhancing opportunity.

“Are we right,” Benjamin M. Friedman asks, “to care so much about economic growth as we clearly do?” To answer, Friedman reaches beyond economics. He examines the political and social histories of the large Western democracies—particularly of the United States since the Civil War—distinguishing times of generally rising living standards from those of pervasive stagnation to illustrate how rising incomes render a society more open and democratic. He shows, too, how our attitudes toward economic growth and its consequences have roots in the thinking of prior centuries, especially the Enlightenment, and also include significant strands of religious influence.

Friedman also delineates the role of economic growth in determining which developing nations extend the broadest freedoms to their citizenry. He makes clear that growth, rather than just the level of living standards, is key to effecting political and social liberalization in the third world. But he also warns that the democratic values of countries even as wealthy as our own are at risk whenever incomes stagnate for extended periods. Merely being rich is no protection against a society’s retreat into rigidity and intolerance once enough of its citizens lose the sense that they are getting ahead.

Finally, Friedman shows us why, if America is to strengthen democratic institutions around the world as a bulwark against terrorism and social unrest, we must aggressively pursue growth at home and promote worldwide economic expansion beyond what purely market-driven forces would create. And for the United States, he offers concrete suggestions for policy steps to achieve those objectives.

A major contribution to the ongoing debate on the effects of economic growth and globalization.

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Ever feel like you just can't get ahead with the bills? You're not alone. More than half of Americans believe the American dream has become impossible for most people to achieve. And two-thirds think this goal will be even harder for the next generation. (One reason for the gloominess--average full-time income has fallen 15 percent since 1975.) All this has Benjamin Friedman worried. In his hefty, 549-page tome, The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth, the acclaimed Harvard economist and advisor to the Federal Reserve Board says economic stagnation is bad for the moral health of a nation. Friedman, a former chair of Harvard's economics department, argues that economic growth is vital to social and political progress. Witness Hitler's Germany. Without growth, people look for answers in intolerance and fear. And that, Friedman warns, is where the U.S. is headed if the economic stagnation of the past three decades doesn't soon reverse. It's not enough for gross domestic product to rise, he says. Growth also has to be more evenly distributed. The rich shouldn't be the only ones getting richer.

Friedman's arguments are provocative but at times lack rigor. In his comparisons of various countries, he offers no objective data to measure their levels of social progress, relying instead on his own--sometimes selective--interpretation of historical events. He glosses over the fact that China, where the economy has grown sevenfold since 1978, has seen little political change in that time. He also acknowledges that the Great Depression--which brought Americans together to achieve great social and political progress--tends to disprove his theory. Friedman makes a good case that the economy sometimes influences social movements, but the jury is still out on exactly when and how that happens. --Alex Roslin

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. This probing study argues that, far from fostering rapacious materialism, economic growth is a prerequisite for the creation of a liberal, open society. Harvard economist Friedman, author of Day of Reckoning: The Consequences of American Economic Policy in the 1980s, contends that periods of robust economic growth, in which most people see their circumstances palpably improving, foster tolerance, democracy and generous public support for the disadvantaged. Economic stagnation and insecurity, by contrast, usher in distrust, retrenchment and reaction, as well as a tightfisted callousness toward the poor and—from the nativism of 19th-century Populists to the white supremacist movement of the 1980s—a scapegoating of immigrants and minorities. Exploring two centuries of historical evidence, from income and unemployment data to period novels, Friedman elucidates connections between economic conditions, social attitudes and public policy throughout the world. He offers a nuanced defense of globalization against claims that it promotes inequality and, less convincingly, remains optimistic that technology will resolve the conflicts between continual growth and environmental degradation. Friedman's progressive attitude doesn't extend to his cautious approach to promoting growth in America; a critic of Bush's tax cuts and deficits, he advocates fiscal discipline to free savings for investment, along with educational initiatives, including "school choice," to boost worker productivity. Its muted conclusion aside, Friedman's is a lucid, judiciously reasoned call for renewed attention to broad-based economic advancement. (Oct. 25)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product details

Hardcover: 592 pages
Publisher: Knopf; 1st edition (October 18, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0679448918
ISBN-13: 978-0679448914
Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 1.8 x 9.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 24 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,460,081 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #263 in Books > Business & Money > Economics > Comparative
- #529 in Books > Business & Money > Economics > Income Inequality
- #886 in Books > Business & Money > Economics > Free Enterprise

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A. Loret de Mola

more like virtues of a democratic nation/state) However he does end ...

January 15, 2017

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An interesting look at (mostly American, though some European) history from the perspective of an economist. I've never really looked at history from that perspective. His thesis is that economic growth leads to an increase of morality in a society, which he defines as various Democratic principles: personal freedom, involvement in government etc... (I wouldn't have called it "morality" per se, more like virtues of a democratic nation/state) However he does end up looping it back to personal morality, particularly concerning the treatment of minorities in America.

It is an interesting correlation between the rise of hate groups and the poor treatment of minorities and periods of economic stagnation, and the conclusion makes sense in the context that our society is heavily competition-motivated, and that in times of economic stress people might look for scapegoats or turn against each other. I'm not certain if it is actual causation or merely correlation, and I don't think I ended up convinced of its causation: however despite that it was still a very interesting look into how an Economist would view history. Worth a read.

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J. D Morrow

The Chicken or the Egg?

February 5, 2007

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Since the rise fascism and Bolshevism in the 1920s there has been the question of how political rights and civil liberties correspond to economic rights and growth. Amartya Sen has argued that the political rights and civil liberties should not be divorced from economic process (Development As Freedom). Sen's normative approach of equating economic rights to the freedoms one achieves with guaranteed civil liberties is one that many can respect.

Benjamin Freidman has taken a more positivist to the same issue. In doing so he asks, "Which came first the chicken or the egg?" Does economic growth in a capitalist setting require democracy and civil liberties or visa versa? Friedman's study looks back not only over all to this question in modern economic history. But, he also takes specific case studies from the United States, Germany, France and others to see the over all trends of the problem.

From this he develops a matrix on the issue. In times of growth political rights tend to expand. In times of stagnation they tend to contract. What is interesting his not how Friedman arrives at this basic framework, but his look into the exceptions of this common sense rule. Why in the 1930s was the political openness of the New Deal accepted, but the recent economic stagnation in France caused the rise of the right-wing Le Pen party?

Friedman is one of the foremost experts on the political economy. He has held a seat at Harvard since 1972. Yet, in this work for public consumption his writing is more along the lines of an historian. He does not delve too far into the economics or the political science of the issue, which many academics tend to - even for the lay reader. Instead, he sees to it that the main ideas are gotten across.

His prescriptions are simple. Maintain economic growth and we can maintain political and civil liberties. While Amartya Sen may find a problem with placing the chicken before the egg, after this work one must understand that economic stagnation helps noone.

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Richard Thayer

Sharing the Wealth

September 29, 2014

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Harvard professor Benjamin M. Friedman, in his 2005 work, The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth, discusses the profound impact of commercial and industrial developments on cultural, social and moral practices and behavior. Friedman notes that “…the attitudes of ordinary people toward their fellow citizens—admiration or resentment toward those who are more successful, a sense of opportunity or gnawing frustration over its absence—change markedly depending on whether incomes in general are rising…” “One of the primary tests of the mood of a society at any given time" he says."is whether its comfortable people tend to identify, psychologically, with the power and achievements of the very successful or with the needs and sufferings of the underprivileged."

In the years following World War II, Friedman saw inequality widening for four consecutive decades and, “Especially at the very top of the scale—not just the top 1 percent, but even more so the top 0.01 percent— the increases in income and wealth have been enormous.” The disparities continue even now and often widen. We see examples of generosity on the part of some among the very top one percent generously sharing their wealth, models of change that would make dramatic differences among those who presently have little. It would not be too much to say that the real measure of success in a democratic society is not just how well it succeeds in generating capital sufficient for the welfare of its people, but whether it also builds institutions, shared capabilities and the common will and determination to share the wealth. The more common and widespread inclination among those at the top, in positions of power and wealth, is the clear determination to follow the pattern of their predecessors in earlier generations to strengthen and extend their hold."

This is a book that should be required reading for members of Congress and Supreme Court Justices.

Richard Thayer, PhD
Founder & President, Telecommunications & Technologies International
Warwick, NY

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