What We Owe Each Other Synopsis
From one of the leading policy experts of our time, an urgent rethinking of how we can better support each other to thrive
Whether we realize it or not, all of us participate in the social contract every day through mutual obligations among our family, community, place of work, and fellow citizens. Caring for others, paying taxes, and benefiting from public services define the social contract that supports and binds us together as a society. Today, however, our social contract has been broken by changing gender roles, technology, new models of work, aging, and the perils of climate change.
Minouche Shafik takes us through stages of life we all experience-raising children, getting educated, falling ill, working, growing old-and shows how a reordering of our societies is possible. Drawing on evidence and examples from around the world, she shows how every country can provide citizens with the basics to have a decent life and be able to contribute to society. But we owe each other more than this. A more generous and inclusive society would also share more risks collectively and ask everyone to contribute for as long as they can so that everyone can fulfill their potential. What We Owe Each Other identifies the key elements of a better social contract that recognizes our interdependencies, supports and invests more in each other, and expects more of individuals in return.
Powerful, hopeful, and thought-provoking, What We Owe Each Other provides practical solutions to current challenges and demonstrates how we can build a better society-together.
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9780691204451 |
| Publication date: |
27th April 2021 |
| Author: |
Minouche Shafik |
| Publisher: |
Princeton University Press |
| Format: |
Hardback |
| Pagination: |
256 pages |
| Primary Genre |
Business and Management
|
| Other Genres: |
|
Minouche Shafik Press Reviews
A persuasive diagnosis of the present social malaise [with] plenty of suggestions about what policymakers could do ... ranges widely ... impressive -- Diane Coyle - Financial Times
A big argument, eloquently written ... eye-catching individual ideas ... entertaining tales ... courageously breaks from the orthodoxies of the pre-crash years - Prospect
Shafik is an insider, turned radical ... In this intelligent and lucid book, she calls for a new social contract based on three principles: security for all; investment in capability; and efficient and fair sharing of risks -- Martin Wolf - Financial Times
What We Owe Each Other examines the role of the social contract and considers how changes in the global economy have undermined the function of the institutions societies rely on to keep the world a reasonably just place ... Shafik reckons that ... if the social contract breaks down, and people do not adequately look after each other, then crises (of finance, public health or the environment, for example) will threaten prosperity - Economist
In this timely call for a new social contract, Minouche Shafik invites us to rethink what we owe one another as citizens, within and across generations. In the tradition of Beveridge, one of her predecessors as director of the LSE, Shafik points us toward a more generous social contract, one that shares risks and broadens opportunity. At a time when government seems broken, this excellent book offers a hopeful framework for social, economic, and political renewal -- Michael J. Sandel, author of The Tyranny of Merit: Can We Find the Common Good?
A necessary contribution at a turning-point in history. Minouche Shafik maps out the great challenges of our time and inspires us to rise to them. Her book is a must-read for policymakers - as well as anyone interested in making the world a better place -- Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission
Minouche Shafik's up-to-the-moment book presents a powerful and persuasive moral argument. She calls for a more generous, more equal world and offers an analysis that is rigorous and specific enough to help readers think practically about the policies needed to bring that world into being. For societies asking how to rebuild, What We Owe Each Other is an important place to start -- Melinda Gates
A thought-provoking, beautifully argued, and easily accessible book. It is a must-read for all those seeking to understand why the bonds that bind society together are so frayed and what we can do about it to create a world fit for our children and grandchildren to live in -- Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Director-General of the World Trade Organisation
This erudite book argues that we need to recognise our obligations to each other and to society ... a thought-provoking addition to our current, urgent debates -- Daron Acemoglu, co-author of Why Nations Fail
Informed by her many journeys to all corners of the world, Minouche Shafik weaves economics, philosophy, wisdom and common sense into a social contract of simplicity, solidity and harmony. A must-read recipe for the improvement of our life together -- Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank
Wonderfully illuminating of our interdependence -- Amartya Sen -
