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4.12 AVERAGE
4.12 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
medium-paced
Insightful, but quite repetitive.
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Wonderful book, with plenty of quotes and examples along a wide range of political views which made the arguments more convincing. This was something I think many of us have sensed but were unable to explain fully. I feel like I understand the current political climate in the US better, as well as my own opinions. The only fault is it can get a bit repetitive, but I didn’t mind much.
informative
reflective
slow-paced
challenging
informative
medium-paced
informative
slow-paced
informative
reflective
medium-paced
informative
reflective
medium-paced
This is a wonderful example of accessible political philosophy writing -- Sandel's an incredibly clear writer and his ideas came through very effectively.
Pieces of this book were transcendent and really challenged my worldview. I'm ashamed to say I'd never given much explicit thought to the implications of national rhetoric and mythos centered around the ideals of meritocracy for those who wind up on the losing end. The strongest parts of the book trace the ways our emphasis on meritocracy devalues the lives and work of those whose skills aren't valued by the labor market for reasons outside their control. It also provided the first profound and new explanation for the rise of populism in recent years -- condescending to those who are struggling by emphasizing the importance of education just isn't helpful as politics or policy.
Further, Sandel makes a compelling argument on the downsides of meritocracy even for those who benefit from it because they have so much to lose. There's certainly an unhealthy anxiety embedded in our culture of prestige that I'm intimately familiar with.
There were a few places where I thought the arguments were weaker. In general, Sandel spends way too much time focusing on the undergraduate Ivy League experience -- this just isn't relevant for 99.9% of Americans. He pretty selectively included evidence on some of the economics research with which I was familiar and his arguments against technocracy were especially unconvincing (full disclosure: I am a technocrat): the argument effectively boiled down to the idea that the New Deal was executed without technocrats so how could they possibly be useful.
I also pretty fundamentally disagreed with Sandel's conclusions -- see Matt Yglesias' new book for a counterargument on why widely expanding protectionism and limited immigration would be a disaster for American standing in the world. It's also very difficult to engage with policy solutions from someone with so much disdain for incentives and market forces and policy expertise. It was pretty surprising for the book to close with consumption taxes and taxes on frequent trading as even partial solutions.
All that said, this was a book that made me question some of my core beliefs and fundamentally changed the way I will think about the rhetoric and politics of opportunity. Rounding 3.5 stars up to 4 since not many books leave this kind of impression.
Pieces of this book were transcendent and really challenged my worldview. I'm ashamed to say I'd never given much explicit thought to the implications of national rhetoric and mythos centered around the ideals of meritocracy for those who wind up on the losing end. The strongest parts of the book trace the ways our emphasis on meritocracy devalues the lives and work of those whose skills aren't valued by the labor market for reasons outside their control. It also provided the first profound and new explanation for the rise of populism in recent years -- condescending to those who are struggling by emphasizing the importance of education just isn't helpful as politics or policy.
Further, Sandel makes a compelling argument on the downsides of meritocracy even for those who benefit from it because they have so much to lose. There's certainly an unhealthy anxiety embedded in our culture of prestige that I'm intimately familiar with.
There were a few places where I thought the arguments were weaker. In general, Sandel spends way too much time focusing on the undergraduate Ivy League experience -- this just isn't relevant for 99.9% of Americans. He pretty selectively included evidence on some of the economics research with which I was familiar and his arguments against technocracy were especially unconvincing (full disclosure: I am a technocrat): the argument effectively boiled down to the idea that the New Deal was executed without technocrats so how could they possibly be useful.
I also pretty fundamentally disagreed with Sandel's conclusions -- see Matt Yglesias' new book for a counterargument on why widely expanding protectionism and limited immigration would be a disaster for American standing in the world. It's also very difficult to engage with policy solutions from someone with so much disdain for incentives and market forces and policy expertise. It was pretty surprising for the book to close with consumption taxes and taxes on frequent trading as even partial solutions.
All that said, this was a book that made me question some of my core beliefs and fundamentally changed the way I will think about the rhetoric and politics of opportunity. Rounding 3.5 stars up to 4 since not many books leave this kind of impression.
informative
medium-paced
DNF. It's an interesting topic, but the author tended to repeat the same point too many times, resulting in a sloggy read and undermining the strength of his own assertions. I may return to this book in the future, maybe with a physical copy so I can skim the points.