The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth - Benjamin M. Friedman

From the author of Day of Reckoning, the acclaimed critique of Ronald Reagan's economic
policy ("Every citizen should read it," said The New York Times): a persuasive, wide-ranging
argument that economic growth provides far more than material benefits.

In clear-cut
prose, Benjamin M. Friedman examines the political and social histories of the large
Western democracies-particularly of the United States since the Civil War-to demonstrate
the fact that incomes on the rise lead to more open and democratic societies. He
explains that growth, rather than simply a high standard of living, is key to effecting
political and social liberalization in the third world, and shows that even the wealthiest
of nations puts its democratic values at risk when income levels stand still. Merely
being rich is no protection against a turn toward rigidity and intolerance when a
country's citizens lose the sense that they are getting ahead.

With concrete policy
suggestions for pursuing growth at home and promoting worldwide economic expansion,
this volume is a major contribution to the ongoing debate about the effects of economic
growth and globalization.