Addicted to Profit
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Will our addiction to profit destroy the world we live in? The profit motive now exercises an effective tyranny over our lives: in the private as well as the public sector, nowhere seems immune from its reach. International tycoons, economists and politicians are obsessed with economic growth. Yet, as Stuart Sim shows, the pursuit of excessive profit brought the world to the brink of economic chaos in the recent credit crisis and threatens us with environmental disaster as well. Despite this, neoliberalism still sets the agenda for economic policy in the West. Sim suggests various 'act up' strategies so that we might resist becoming slaves to personal gain and, in doing so, he demonstrates that life needn't be all about profit. Key Features: * Analyses the psychology behind our fetishization of profit * Demonstrates the threat that neoliberalism poses to our public services - healthcare and education in particular * Explores the debate of altruism versus self-interest through the neuroscientific literature * Argues the case for a return to a more socialistic consciousness to combat neoliberalism
Stuart Sim is Professor of Critical Theory and Long Eighteenth-Century English Literature in the Dept. of English & Creative Writing, Northumbria University. The author or editor of 31 books, his work has been translated into 17 languages. He was elected a Fellow of the English Association in 2002. Amongst his recent publications are The End of Modernity, and The Lyotard Dictionary (both EUP).