We are all capitalists now. For the first time in human history, the world is dominated by one economic system. At some level capitalism has triumphed because it works: it delivers prosperity and gratifies our desire for autonomy. But this comes at a moral price, pushing us to treat material success as the ultimate goal, and offers no guarantee of stability. While Western liberal capitalism creaks under the strains of inequality and excess, some are flaunting the virtues of a more authoritarian political capitalism, exemplified by China, which may be more efficient, but is also vulnerable to corruption and social unrest.
One of the outstanding economists of his generation, Branko Milanovic mines the data to tell his ambitious and compelling story. Capitalism gets a lot wrong, he argues, but also much right―and it isn’t going away anytime soon. Our task is to improve it in the hopes that a more equitable capitalism can take hold.
