Growth Machines

“Stelzner homes in on a particular critique of liberal market economies: its role in driving conspicuous or feel-good consumption. While many have pontificated on this, Stelzner brings new depth to the topic, highlighting how advertising, competitive social comparison and corporate incentives to stimulate human desires are all embedded features of the contemporary economy…an interesting read, providing a solid meta-analysis of our automatic tilt to consume.”

“How did we come to associate well-being with ever increasing levels of consumption and then make that relationship axiomatic to economic theorizing? Stelzner’s fast-paced history explores this revolution in thought and life, charting its social and ecological costs, to allows us to think anew about what makes for a good life. Brilliant and fresh, Growth Machines is a must-read for students of economic life.”

“A must-read on conspicuous consumption and the birth of growthism.”

“Why do we keep working harder and spending more, even when it makes us no happier? In Growth Machines, economist Mark Joseph Stelzner offers a bracingly clear answer: because the system is designed that way. From the social anxieties that drive conspicuous consumption to the tech giants that profit by manufacturing desire, Stelzner lays bare how capitalism has stopped serving human welfare and started serving its own endless expansion—a treadmill we can’t seem to slow down or step off. Urgent, accessible, and quietly radical, this is the book for anyone who has ever felt hollowed out by the chase.”

“Consumption promises happiness—but rarely delivers it. In this lucid and provocative book, Stelzner reveals how our desires are socially produced and exploited, trapping us in cycles of overwork and overconsumption. A powerful critique of growth-centered capitalism, this book challenges us to rethink the meaning of prosperity in an age of ecological crisis.”

“Stelzner provides a unique critique of capitalism by focusing specifically on consumption. In Growth Machines he examines the reasons that individuals overconsume in terms of their own good, the effects of overconsumption on society (both individually and collectively), and how capitalism both encourages and feeds on overconsumption. Stelzner also critically considers a number of possible solutions, from incremental to whole system-wide reform.”

Mark Joseph Stelzner is associate professor of economics at Connecticut College. He has published in the Cambridge Journal of Economics, The Review of Black Political Economy, and the Journal of Happiness Studies, and his work has been featured in The Economist and The Nation.

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