Sharing the Wealth: Workers and the World

Booknews

The world may be moving inexorably toward one of those tragedies that will lead historians to ask why nothing was done in time, warns Kapstein (political science, U. of Minnesota). He examines labor's global struggle with free markets and the domestic and international conflict it generates, and shows how the Bretton Woods agreements allowing unlimited trade in turn for a safety net, is being dismantled. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Levinson

If one wants to understand what all the fuss is about as the World Trade Organization holds its ministerial conserence, Ethan Kapstein's Sharing the Wealth: Workers and the World Economy, is a good place to start.

The Nation

Kirkus Reviews

In a time of universal rising expectations, economic planning must be linked with social justice worldwide if we are to enjoy peace and prosperity, says Kapstein,, a professor at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs (Univ. of Minn., Minneapolis). The story of public welfare is not new. Kapstein traces the evolution of the welfare state from 16th-century Europe to the New Deal. Now, even though the lot of the poor may, arguably, be better than ever, the gap between the haves and the have-nots is widening. While labor is stuck where it is, capital is increasingly mobile, heading wherever labor is cheapest, even below levels that provide a decent living standard. Poverty and unemployment are economically fruitless and politically hazardous, as history shows. Free-market concepts of liberty are not of primary value to those who are denied an equal chance to partake of the benefits of a market economy. The author asks societies to create environments where all people can realize their individual talents, with life's basic necessities and without discrimination. That, after all, accords with America's historic core values, he says, and we should once more put the quest for economic justice at the head of our national to-do list. That means tying trade issues with human rights, increasing nonmilitary foreign aid, and supporting immobile labor as well as motile capital. The American xenophobia regarding other economic systems is understandable, of course, given our plethora of worldly goods, but as this text argues, we must make sure that others get a share of good life before there are serious social and economic disruptions. The classic economic goal of the greatest good for the greatestnumber carries an inherent conflict when what's good for the few outweighs that of the number, however great. Must we share the wealth? Kapstein's manifesto should be a starting point for a national debate, appropriate for the impending presidential campaign. But that's probably too much to ask, considering the present state of public discourse. Policy wonks, awake!