The Knowledge Economy by Roberto Mangabeira Unger (PDF)

Description

Adam Smith and Karl Marx recognized that the best way to understand the economy is to study the most advanced practice of production. Today that practice is no longer conventional manufacturing: it is the radically innovative vanguard known as the knowledge economy. This book explores the hidden nature of the knowledge economy and its possible futures.In every part of the production system, the knowledge economy remains a fringe excluding the vast majority of workers and businesses. This confinement has become a driver of economic stagnation and inequality throughout the world. Traditional mass production has stopped working as a shortcut to economic growth. But the alternative—a deepened and socially inclusive form of the knowledge economy—continues to lie beyond reach in even the richest countries. Unger sets out the route to a knowledge economy for the many: changes not just in economic institutions but also in education, culture, and politics. Just as Smith and Marx did in their time, he uses an understanding of the most advanced practice of production to rethink both economics and the economy as a whole.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐If you feel as though contemporary political debate is trapped between stale Democratic promises of more progressive taxation used to cushion blows experienced by displaced workers and Republican downright lies about restoring manufacturing and the beneficence of so-called “job creators”, this book is for you. The writing is challenging and there are far too few concrete examples but the vision is powerful. Professor Unger argues that the knowledge economy offers potential to refute the longstanding law of diminishing marginal returns and urges us to consider widespread implications. These include spreading advanced forms of production to all sectors and reforming the way people work together cooperatively. The book is full of ideas – value added tax; personal consumption tax; team based education; fragmented approaches to intellectual property; government backed venture capital and many, many more. But the thing that makes the book hum is the way the ideas fit together into an overarching vision toward a better future. Very much worth the struggle to read closely from beginning to end.

⭐“The Knowledge Economy” by Roberto Mangabeira Unger offers a new way of thinking about an economy that creates prosperity for the many, not just the few. Professor Unger teaches at Harvard Law School and has an impressive resume as a activist, humanitarian and intellectual. This scholarly book will be valued by developmental economists and others who believe that a better world is possible.Professor Unger contends that what he regards an ‘insular’ ‘knowledge economy’ must be made accessible to all for the benefit of the economy and society. By continuously using data to drive innovation forward on a society-wide scale, Professor Unger suggests that the constraint of diminishing marginal returns could be relaxed or even reversed.To achieve such an outcome requires planning. Professor Unger discusses the importance of production, imagination and cooperation to the knowledge economy and goes on to propose a number of institutional reforms to move society in that direction. The reward will be a more dynamic, innovative and socially-inclusive economy.Professor Unger discusses how to build such an inclusive economy. It will require an education that strengthens our imaginations, social and critical thinking skills. Professor Unger argues for a new social contract that endows individuals with a social inheritance and a stake in the productive assets of society. Interestingly, he says that personal data rights and patent and copyright laws need to be reformed to give legal shape to the coexistence of multiple stakeholders.‘High energy democracy’ requires institutions that allow for greater political expression including the rapid and decisive resolution of impasse, says professor Unger. He critiques the post-Fordist development model and believes that poor countries can leapfrog by instituting the recommended set of reforms and embracing the knowledge economy. The author engages in an extended critique of ‘post-marginalist’ economics including Keynesianism for its many blind spots including the reality of institutional power.In the spirit of professor Unger’s work, one can imagine how we can use these insights when implementing a Green New Deal. Institutional structures that support a publicly-financed transition to a green economy should be presented as a win-win; there is no need for either-or. The open source economy will win because the value created by allowing technology to find its best use will grow and scale much faster than an economy constricted by onerous corporate copyright laws. And due to its greater inclusiveness, this economy will provide the social solidarity required to bring down fossil fuel capitalism.I highly recommend this challenging yet important book to everyone.

⭐Very insightful book. The depth of the topic is deep

⭐It is a very complex book, lots of references and many ideias mixed together to explain an alternative to our current living mode.

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