Overview
- Fuses theoretical and mathematical objections to enforcing Adam Smith's economic models
- Demonstrates how public investment vastly outweighs private investment in the US
- Argues that “the private sector” is an ideological construct
- Describes how contemporary economics pitches employers against employees
- Proposes that continuing economic learning will lead to expanding economic democracy
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About this book
This book argues that economic activity in the public sphere now underwrites private corporations, and rejects rigid adherence to traditional economic theories that no longer apply. Adam Smith's widely used "merchant's model" assumes that most investment is private, when in fact research demonstrates that public investment in the workforce through education and training far outweighs the private sector, and does not account for the growing presence of consensual pricing, the diversification of modern businesses, or the increasing internal authoritarianism of globalizing companies. With de facto public support for these adaptations undermining the universally presumed economic model, private corporations are able to increase their profits while misrepresenting the investment of their own global labor forces. This book suggests an "economy of laws" solution that balances the needed degree of central investment planning with the continuation of our pluralist economy of largely autonomous firms, principally by extending the full rights of citizens into the workplace itself.
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Keywords
Table of contents (6 chapters)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
John F. M. McDermott is Professor Emeritus of the State University of New York. He is the author of four previous books, two of them on economics: Corporate Society (1991) and Economics in Real Time (2004).
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Employers’ Economics versus Employees’ Economy
Book Subtitle: How Adam Smith’s Legacy Obscures Public Investment in the Private Sector
Authors: John F. M. McDermott
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50149-9
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Economics and Finance, Economics and Finance (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-50148-2Published: 01 February 2017
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-84328-5Published: 04 May 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-50149-9Published: 23 January 2017
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XI, 191
Topics: Public Economics, Labor Economics, Economic History