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Are the Rich Necessary?: Great Economic Arguments and How They Reflect Our Personal Values
by Hunter Lewis
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Axios Press (2007-09-25)
ISBN: 0975366203
EAN: 9780975366202
Dewy Decimal #: 330
Hardcover: 282 pages
SKU: 30-N5IV-FLNV
Condition: New
Comments: Brand new hardcover with dust jacket. Gift quality. Expedited shipping is available.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Are the rich compatible with democracy? Should we accept such a high degree of inequality in our society? Does the profit system glorify greed? In /Are the Rich Necessary?/ Hunter Lewis presents the most fundamental and provocative economic arguments that underlie society. Lewis connects economics directly with profound contemporary social issues. How are our personal values reflected in these issues and how do we choose between contending economic approaches? Most importantly, can philanthropy play a strategic role in helping people to lift themselves from poverty? Lewis offers a dramatic new proposal to significantly increase contributions to charitable organizations to help address key social issues. A challenging and sure to be influential book.
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Customer Reviews
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Great book on economics
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-07-25
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
Are the Rich Necessary? is not well named. It is actually a collection of economic arguments for and against different ideas. I found this book entertaining and educational. The format of the book is a little bit odd. The author will take one point of view for one chapter, then the other point of view in the next chapter. Sometimes he will give points and counterpoints within the same chapter. He makes a valiant effort to present both sides of the story on each issue, though you can tell which way he is leaning (or maybe you will just be more sympathetic to one argument over another.
The book covers a variety of economic arguments, including the role of the rich, different economic philosophies and whether or not having the Fed is worthwhile (which I had never really thought about, but found his case for dissolving the Fed very reasonable). This book is a great economic primer on many salient economic issues today and should be required reading for everyone. It will help you better understand why people argue for the things that they do. The economics is not too tough, but a little background in economics may be helpful. The only reason it does not get five stars is that it gets a little slow sometimes, but overall it is a short, easy-to-read book (about 250 smaller pages).
I highly recommend to all capable readers.
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A Good Summary but it Doesn't Cover New Ground
Rating  (3)
Date: 2008-04-20
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
The author gives the impression of arguing both sides of the question, but what he really does is set up strawmen, so that he can knock them down. He makes a strong case for why the rich are necessary but he doesn't cover any new ground nor add to the debate. This is really an argument for liberals who don't understand economics. Frankly, I bought the book hoping to find a more compelling argument for why the rich aren't necessary. The quotes and facts are, however, a useful compendium of information for those more knowledgeable.
Unfortunately, the author misses perhaps the most compelling argument for not taxing the rich more heavily - the benefits from investments are largely captured by the consumers through lower prices and not by investors who compete against one another to earn the cost of capital. Only the rich can afford to defer consumption and expose their fortunes to the risks of investing. The other 95% of the population is rightly consuming everything they have.
Politicians, both Democrats and Republicans, realize that their constituents are compelled by consumption and not saving and investment, (otherwise voters would already be saving and investing on their own,) and that they, therefore, must promise and deliver legislation that satisfies their constitutes' objective (of increased consumption) if they want to get elected. The Democrats propose that we tax the rich, in effect, redistributing society's saving to consumers for consumption. The Republicans propose to lower everyone's taxes, regardless of government spending.
In the end, we need the rich to save and invest on behalf of society because there is no viable alternative. Consumers "tax" society with 99 cents of consumption for every dollar they agree to save whereas the rich "tax" us much less. We need savings and investment, so it's cheaper to give the incremental dollar to the rich, precisely because they don't need it!
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Misnamed
Rating  (1)
Date: 2008-01-24
1 out of 10 customers found this reveiw helpful
If you want to know "are the rich necessary," don't buy this book.
If you want to know "great economic arguments and how they reflect our personal values," don't buy this book.
The book makes little effort to answer either of these questions. Save your money and be a little richer.
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starting with the rich and ending with the non-profit sector
Rating  (4)
Date: 2007-12-02
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
Hunter Lewis, a career economist and investment advisor, presents a dialectic of question and answer to a series of fundamental economic questions about the role of the rich in society (eg: do they undermine democracy, as often stated in the press). He comes up with an unexpected conclusion - the best way to optimize the role of the rich is to expand the non-profit sector.In view of the author's considerable activity on non-profit boards, he must have credibility, although his arguments are not clear at some points. Perhaps the most instructive part of the book is chapter 11, his view of the philosophies behind the four fundamental types of economic systems. Overall, a good read but heavy going in parts.
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Learned so much!
Rating (5)
Date: 2007-11-06
1 out of 1 customers found this reveiw helpful
I bought this book after reading the very positive New York Times review a few weeks ago. I had also seen Mr Lewis on Bloomberg TV and thought he seemed extremely knowledgeable. He is and the book is a real treat - it's provocative because it makes you think about why you think what you think (and I was surprised at the direction these answers led me) and it's pleasurable because Lewis quotes from as many unlikely sources - Jane Goodall and Al Sharpton, to name just two - as likely sources such as John Maynard Keynes.
With a title like Are the Rich Necessary? you have to surmise there will be curves ahead - and there are, and they're fun, but the best curve for me was the learning curve. I learned so much.
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