In 1930, the great economist John Maynard Keynes delivered a speech he called “Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren.” Keynes concluded economic problems were not humanity’s most “permanent problem,” but instead speculated that once our economic problems were solved, the real difficulty would be “how to use..freedom from pressing economic cares…to live wisely and agreeably and well.” (p. 519-520)
J. Bradford Delong’s Slouching Toward Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century (2022) captures the turbulence of the past century with its World Wars and seemingly unceasing violence. Delong starts with 1870 as the point where industrialization and technology began to transform economies. One of the main reasons for the massive changes was ideology.
“Macbeth’s self-justifications were feeble. …Iago was a little lamb… The imagination and spiritual strength of Shakespeare’s evildoers stopped short at a dozen corpses. Because they had no ideology. Ideology–that is what gives evildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination. That is the social theory which helps to make his acts seem good instead of bad in his own and others’ eyes, so that he won’t hear reproaches and curses but will receive praise and honors. …Thanks to ideology, the twentieth century was fated to experience evildoing on a scale calculated in the millions. This can’t be denied, not passed over, nor suppressed. ” (p. 259)
Stalin murdered over 50 million Russians during his time in power. Hitler’s death count also numbers in the millions. Stalin and the communists offered a Marxist vision of Utopia. Hitler promised a “Thousand-Year Reich” with Germany ruling the world. Economics played key role in both horrors.
Right now, the world is dealing with rampant Inflation and energy shortages. The Pandemic caused much of the Inflation and the Ukraine War caused much of the energy problems. Both persist so we can expect Inflation and high energy prices to continue. How are you dealing with Inflation? Our gas prices are $3.65, but are expected to go up as the Saudis cut their oil production by 2 million barrels per day. Are you driving more or less? GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction: My Grand Narrative 1
1 Globalizing the World 27
2 Revving Up the Engine of Technology-Driven Growth 59
3 Democratizing the Global North 85
4 Global Empires 115
5 World War I 141
6 Roaring Twenties 165
7 The Great Depression 205
8 Really-Existing Socialism 235
9 Fascism and Nazism 259
10 World War II 283
11 The Cold War of Hostile Yet Coexisting Systems 311
12 False (and True) Starts to Economic Development in the Global South 339
13 Inclusion 373
14 Thirty Glorious Years of Social Democracy 395
15 The Neoliberal Turn 427
16 Reglobalizatlon, Information Technology, and Hyperglobalization 461
17 Great Recession and Anemic Recovery 485
Conclusion: Are We Still Slouching Towards Utopia? 519
Acknowledgments 537
Notes 539
Index 579
Gas is about $4.13 here. I do mostly short driving trips so I don’t use a lot of gas. About one full tank every 3 or 4 weeks. Grocery prices are more of a problem. I just have to watch what I buy a little more closely.
Steve, the Good News is that inflation–especially food–will go down. But it will take months for that to happen.
Finances? The hurrieder I go the behinder I get.
I have to have faith that sanity will prevail and things will get better on all fronts, but I seem to be needing a lot more faith in my faith.
Jerry, your faith will be rewarded…in time. The Pandemic and the Supply Chain problems triggered inflation. The Federal Reserve should have been raising interest rates last year. The Fed was too slow off the mark.
Since I don’t drive I don’t have to buy gas. But I do often pay for a ride and that has gone up. I pay a guy $30 to drive me back and for to a friend’s house five miles away. I pay him $200 to drive back and forth to the airport. But not often.
Patti, transportation costs will be slow to decline. Energy remains a key element to all Economies. The U.S. doesn’t have an energy shortage. It has a problem refining, moving, and storing oil. It’s been 20 years since a new oil refinery has been built in the U.S. No one wants to build a new one now because the trend is heading for electric vehicles. So the energy supply chain will remain kinked for years. Plus, the Ukraine War and Putin’s insanity makes things worse.
I live in a suburb of Atlanta where nearly everywhere I want/need to go on any sort of regular basis is around 4 miles or less, and I’ve only driven 86 miles in the last month. Which pretty much leaves me out of all the pissing and moaning about gas prices. Of course I do realize that gas prices affect me in other ways that I can’t exactly quantify, so I just don’t think about them. It does irritate me that people tend to blame politicians for gas prices when there’s actually very little they can do about them other than cosmetic moves that may sound good but really don’t make much difference. Does some schlub running for Congress really expect me to believe gas prices will go down if I just vote for him/her?
Michael, World macroeconomic factors govern the price of gas. You’re right that U.S. politicians who promise to lower gas prices are blowing smoke. OPEC+ affect the production of oil which impacts world gas prices. U.S. politicians can’t affect them, either.
Gas in Calif. is very high I haven’t bought it in a while, but think its now down to just under $6 a gallon. I went too AZ last week for a david Rosenfelt signing and left with half a tank, filling up in Yuma at $3.79 a gallon. We also got a little in Phoenix for $4.99 and then filled up on the way back in Yuma. I noticed that a couple of days before leaving the price in Yuma had risen 10c each for 2 days.
We’re supposed to be getting $300-400 stimulus $$ to help with gas prices, but I haven’t received mine yet.
I’m concerned about the electric vehicle mandate. We are often warned to reduce electric usage or risk blackouts. Yet we face only electric vehicles in the future.
In the desert there are many solar installations, and also many wind turbines, so there is an attempt to make that work.
I’m driving less, but still need to use the car.
Maggie, I have my doubts about the EV movement. We have too few charging stations. There’s a shortage of brass and lithium–two essential components for the batteries necessary for electric vehicles. The electric grid in the U.S. is a patchwork mess that can’t deliver the electricity necessary for millions of EV cars and trucks. I figure it will take 20-30 years to transition from gas powered vehicles to an EV world.
How am I dealing with inflation? Mostly ignoring it and going on with life as always. I do notice higher prices, particularly on dairy products lately. Eggs went up a dollar a dozen recently. That is a big one time jump. Yogurt and ice cream are also up. Our gas is lower than yours, apparently, but the nefarious Saudi/Russia/Republican plan to drive up prices before the election is in place.
Jeff, egg prices zoomed up here, too. Same with ice cream.
Oh, yes, definitely driving a lot less. But that isn’t so much because we can’t afford the gas prices, just staying home more now that the summer is over, until January and the trip to Florida.
Jeff, we have two driving trips: one to Boston to visit Katie (we haven’t driven there since the Pandemic hit) and a trip to Ohio to visit Diane’s sister. We don’t take driving trips from November to April.
My cousins just flew to San Francisco for a wedding and drove to Yosemite. They paid nearly $6 a gallon like Maggie said.
Jeff, Canadians are crossing the International Bridges to shop here…and fill up with “cheap” gas! The lifting of the Covid-19 restrictions in Canada makes it easier to get through Customs.
After my accident early this year where I almost broke my spine and spent three months in hospital my wife persuaded me to give up driving and sell our little car – I’m 79 years now. We’re lucky that we have enough young family members in Hungary and in Germany to drive us around and also the bus systems are quite good. In Hungary the busses and the railways are free for people over 65!
In Europe we also have sharply rising prices for everything, especially basic food like sugar, milk, butter, flour and so on.
Here in Germany where I’m right now it’s not too bad even though the Euro fell below the $. I still remember that on our last trips to the USA the relation was
1€ = 1.50 $
So everything (hotels, food) was really cheap for us and we went shopping like crazy – once we bought an additional suitcase at Walmart for the extra clothes.
Those days are gone.
Re the development os society nd economy I’m not so sure. While Germany has a Green, Liberal, Social Democrat government (We Schwabs even have a Green prime minister and many Green mayors) the rest of Europe doesn’t look so good. Many of the ruling right wingers in southern countries especially might be called fascist or have fascist tendencies at least.
Often this is combined with strange ideas about christianity – I call them “Clerical Fascists” which also ruled West Germany after WW2 when I was young – horrible just like the US evangelicals:
Women are men’s slaves, no abortion, no same sex marriage and so on.
Wolf, you’re right about those days being gone.
I got gas today at costco for $5.20 per gallon the mobile or chevron station was almost a dollar more,
Maggie, sadly, the gas prices are headed higher.