Why We Can't Afford the Rich

by Andrew Sayer

Overview

As inequalities widen and the effects of austerity deepen, in many countries the wealth of the rich has soared. Why we can’t afford the rich exposes the unjust and dysfunctional mechanisms that allow the top 1% to siphon off wealth produced by others, through the control of property and money. Leading social scientist Andrew Sayer shows how the rich worldwide have increased their ability to create indebtedness and expand their political influence. Winner of the 2015 British Academy Peter Townsend Prize, this important book bursts the myth of the rich as specially talented wealth creators. It shows how the rich are threatening the planet by banking on unsustainable growth. The paperback includes a new Afterword updating developments in the last year and forcefully argues that the crises of economy and climate can only be resolved by radical change to make economies sustainable, fair and conducive to well-being for all.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781447320906
Publisher:	Policy Press
Publication date:	11/25/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	448
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Andrew Sayer is Professor of Social Theory and Political Economy at Lancaster University, UK. He has a long-standing interest in moral economy and has written several books on political economy, inequality, class, and philosophy and ethics, including Radical Political Economy: A Critique (Blackwell, 1995); The Moral Significance of Class (2005) and Why Things Matter to People: Social Science, Values and Ethical Life (2011) (both Cambridge University Press).

Table of Contents

Introduction; Part I: A Guide to Wealth Extraction; Slippery Terms and Vital Distinctions; For rent . . . for what?; Interest . . . for what? or We need to talk about usury; Profit from production: or capitalists and rentiers: what’s the difference?; Other ways to skin a cat; Don’t the Rich Create Jobs? – and other objections; Part II: Putting the Rich in Context: What Determines What People Get?; To what do we owe our wealth?: Our dependence on the commons; So what determines pay?; The myth of the level playing field; Part III: How the Rich Got Richer: Their Part in the Crisis; The roots of the crisis; Key winners; Summing up: the crisis and the return of the rentiers; Part IV: Rule by the Rich, for the Rich; Silent power, pol donations lattice of influence; Hiding it; Illegal? + poachers; What about philanthropy?; Plutonomy; Part V: Ill-gotten and Ill-spent: From Consumption to Ill-Being and CO2; Spending it; Global warming trumps everything; Conclusion: back to basics – what kind of economy do we need?.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Sayer proceeds with arguments that are internally coherent and does not invent economic mechanisms in the way that populists often do, never forgetting that cake-making must come before cake distribution." The Times Literary Supplement

"Sayer does an impressive job of bringing home to the reader the scale of the threat capitalism now poses to humanity. As an introduction to critical political economy, the book is one of the best available." Counterfire

"Adds to the growing body of work that challenges mainstream economic thinking and traditional self-justifications for inequality." New Left Project

"Sayer puts forth a cogent and thoroughly convincing argument that will enlighten and inform—and may even help instigate the radical changes he puts forth." Publishers Weekly

​"A refreshing antidote to a public discourse that has allowed the perpetrators of the financial crisis to make massive gains, while the full burden of costs falls on those innocent of its causes. A must-read for all those who want to reverse that injustice and a wake-up call for the rich." Ann Pettifor, Director, Prime: Policy research in macroeconomics

“Unmatched in persuasive argument and compelling illustrations, Andrew Sayer shows how the rich and the super-rich are destroying not just the economy but the planet too. Everyone should read Why we can’t afford the rich and spread the word.” Michael Burawoy, University of California, Berkeley

"​Cuts through the hype so often used to defend growing inequality and gets to the core of the problem, with suggestions about where solutions may come from." Danny Dorling, University of Oxford

Editorial Reviews

02/09/2015
In this thought-provoking book, Sayer (Why Things Matter to People) puts forth a persuasive examination of the rich, the sources of their wealth, and their impact on the planet and its less fortunate inhabitants. For years, he points out, the wealthiest people have been amassing greater and greater wealth while those in lower income brackets have gotten “progressively less.” Sayer seeks to shed light on what he calls the politics of injustice, in which the rich become rich thanks to others’ hard work and remain so through their own ability to “dominate society for their own interests.” In this picture, not only are the wealthy getting and keeping more due to lower taxes for the highest income brackets, they are able to protect their gains in tax havens while exercising outsized influence over politics and media. Though the prevailing economic wisdom states that we need the rich to create jobs, drive spending, and practice entrepreneurship, Sayer argues that the opposite is actually true. In addition, he examines critical components such as earnings, investments, the “distinction between earned and unearned income,” shares and dividends, and more. Sayer puts forth a cogent and thoroughly convincing argument that will enlighten and inform—and may even help instigate the radical changes he puts forth. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

"massive admiration for the delightful eloquence of the author, who guides readers carefully and enlighteningly through political-economic terms, concepts and theories that can often be, in the hands of other writers, opaque and/or dangerously misleading" Soundings

"In his book, [Sayer] reveals the crippling and unfair means by which the 1% manage to personally gain wealth that's been created by others' labor." Jewish Currents

"[This book's] brilliant dissection of where the rich get their wealth from, and how they seek to justify it, ought to be required reading for anyone seeking to understand what is wrong with our problem-filled world." Noel Castree, Progress in Human Geography

"This is a quietly angry book, full of facts and figures that show the rich to be a major cause of the inequality that Wilkinson and Pickett revealed in their book The Spirit Level and of the injustice that Danny Dorling described in his book Injustice." Citizen's Income Trust

"This is a powerful book deserving a wide readership." People, Place and Policy

"The value of Sayer's account lies in his readable and persuasive attack on the idea that the very richest have accumulated their wealth fairly and deserve to be allowed to accumulate more." The London School of Economics and Political Science

"Packed with useful information and insights, this is a useful complement to Thomas Pikkety’s Capital in the Twenty First Century, and makes a serious challenge to the many claims propagated by rich people and their minions." Tax Justice Network

"A timely and insightful guide to how the rich managed top shape a language and political agenda that suited their purposes just perfectly." Tax Justice Focus

"Sayer shows compellingly...just how much tolerating grand accumulations of private wealth is costing us." Too Much.

"Why We Can't Afford the Rich presents a nuanced, well-formed vision, which speaks from the perspective of a moral economy." Marx & Philosophy Review of Books.

"This timely and important book exposes the pernicious influence of the super rich on our economic and social fabric. It underlines the need for radical action to redistribute wealth, rebalance our economy and tackle inequality. A must read for politicians and policymakers alike" Frances O'Grady, TUC General Secretary

"Sayer's penetrating analysis of asset-based unearned income is a powerful case for socialism, supporting as he does land nationalisation and the creation of banks with the remit to lend for productive investment in ethical and environmentally sustainable business." Morning Star

From the Publisher

This timely and important book exposes the pernicious influence of the super rich on our economic and social fabric. It underlines the need for radical action to redistribute wealth, re-balance our economy and tackle inequality. A must read for politicians and policymakers alike.

general secretary, Trades Union Congress - Frances O’Grady

This is a quietly angry book, full of facts and figures that show the rich to be a major cause of the inequality that Wilkinson and Pickett revealed in their book The Spirit Level and of the injustice that Danny Dorling described in his book Injustice.

Citizen’s Income Trust

Substantial. . . . Sayer proceeds very systematically with arguments that may be disliked but which are internally coherent, and with facts that are excessively selective at times but not dubious in themselves. Most important, Sayer does not invent economic mechanisms in the way that populists often do, never forgetting that cake-making must come before cake-distribution, even while rejecting each version of the argument that redistribution inhibits growth.

Times Literary Supplement - Edward N. Luttwak

The value of Sayer’s account lies in his readable and persuasive attack on the idea that the very richest have accumulated their wealth fairly and deserve to be allowed to accumulate more.

LSE Review of Books

Nobody talks anymore about the lack of jobs. If you’re out of work, it’s your own fault. You’re probably a loser. Sayer points out that the word ‘loser’ is a term of abuse rather than compassion. The cheats in our society are not considered the tax evaders or bribers of politicians, but those who must turn to the government for help. . . . Sayer’s proposed remedy is increased taxes on the wealthy, more regulation of the financial industry, and greater participation of employees in business ownership.  But most important is concern for the public good and the moral vision to see each of us as part of an interdependent social network.

Jewish Currents - Dusty Sklar

Cuts through the hype so often used to defend growing inequality and gets to the core of the problem, with suggestions about where solutions may come from.

University of Oxford - Danny Dorling

Sayer shows how financial markets came to overshadow the traditional industrial economy, exacerbating the depth of the economic crisis and increasing the share of the rich in national wealth in the process. . . . Sayer’s penetrating analysis of asset-based unearned income is a powerful case for socialism, supporting as he does land nationalization and the creation of banks with the remit to lend for productive investment in ethical and environmentally sustainable business. Well worth a read.

Morning Star - John Moore

Talking about unfairness, savvy egalitarians have always understood, only gets us so far. Count British social scientist Sayer among these savvy egalitarians. . . .  Why We Can’t Afford the Rich takes on—and demolishes—the old canards that apologists for grand fortune regularly trot, everything from ‘When did you last get a job from a poor person?’ to ‘You can’t make the poor rich by making the rich poor.’

Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality

Packed with useful information and insights, this is a useful complement to Thomas Pikkety’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century, and makes a serious challenge to the many claims propagated by rich people and their minions.

Tax Justice Network

Bursting with . . . jaw-dropping data, leaving the reader reeling in disbelief and indignation that the global elite ha[s] amassed such obscene fortunes and shows no sign of slowing down in its insatiable appetite for financial and material excess. The author goes beyond the headline-grabbing examples of super-rich extravagance, however, to construct an incisive analysis of the origins and development of capitalist greed. Anybody looking for an understandable but insightful introduction to political economy need look no further.

Counterfire (UK) - Sean Ledwith

Those who own and run the United Kingdom’s privatized or semi-privatized services make stupendous fortunes by investing little and charging much. In Russia and India, oligarchs acquired state assets through firesales. In Mexico, Carlos Slim was granted control of almost all landline and mobile phone services and soon became the world’s richest man. Financialization, as Sayer notes in Why We Can’t Afford the Rich, has had a similar impact. . . . As the poor become poorer and the rich become richer, the rich acquire increasing control over another crucial asset: money. Interest payments, overwhelmingly, are a transfer of money from the poor to the rich. As property prices and the withdrawal of state funding load people with debt (think of the switch from student grants to student loans), the banks and their executives clean up. Sayer argues that the past four decades have been characterized by a transfer of wealth not only from the poor to the rich, but within the ranks of the wealthy: from those who make their money by producing new goods or services to those who make their money by controlling existing assets and harvesting rent, interest, or capital gains. Earned income has been supplanted by unearned income.

Guardian - George Monbiot

"This is a powerful book deserving a wide readership."

Place and Policy People

An excellent book. . . . As Sayer insists . . . , it’s not about envying the rich. That’s trivial and petty. It’s about rising above the sort of society that rewards a tiny fraction of people with sums of money that nobody could possibly hope to spend. Future generations will remember two types of politician. Those who built careers by surrendering to the wealthy one percent, and those who spoke out and took a stand. What should a truly responsible politician do?

National (Scotland)

An excellent critique of capitalism as well as a critique of the rich. . . . Presents a nuanced, well-informed vision, which speaks from the perspective of a moral economy. . . . I recommend this book to politicians, people interested in social change, NGOs, academics, and all those people, whether they belong to the 99% or the 1%, who have an inclination to come to a critical understanding of the status quo, and who wish to contribute to a world that sustains us, that is more economically and socially just, and that is ready to receive future generations.

Marx & Philosophy Review of Books - Nicolina Montesano Montessori

A refreshing antidote to a public discourse that has allowed the perpetrators of the financial crisis to make massive gains, while the full burden of costs falls on those innocent of its causes. A must-read for all those who want to reverse that injustice and a wake-up call for the rich.

director, PRIME: Policy Research in Macroeconomics - Ann Pettifor

Sayer's brilliant dissection of where the rich get their wealth from, and how they seek to justify it, ought to be required reading for anyone seeking to understand what is wrong with our problem-filled world. . . . His analysis and critique of the rule of the rich is clear, well researched, and compelling. . . . The book’s explanation of the different sources of unearned income the rich appropriate was a highlight. Sayer takes the reader through income, rent, interest and profit from production, in each case showing how the law, social norms and other things normalize economic injustice. He also offers an incisive point-by-point refutation of arguments that the rich deserve the wealth they supposedly ‘create’ or are ‘due.’

Progress in Human Geography

Although he draws heavily on the work of others, Sayer offers new insights, in the process granting today’s capitalist class—along with the mainstream political parties—very little merit at all. Why We Can’t Afford the Rich adds to the growing body of work that challenges mainstream economic thinking and traditional self-justifications for inequality.  It provides an extended catalogue of the multiple and often complex devices used by those with financial and economic power to grab a bigger share of the cake, manipulating the control of assets like land and money, to ‘siphon off wealth that others produce.’

New Left Project - Stewart Lansley

"Massive admiration for the delightful eloquence of the author, who guides readers carefully and enlighteningly through political-economic terms, concepts, and theories that can often be, in the hands of other writers, opaque and/or dangerously misleading."

Soundings (UK)

Engagingly explains how—and why—we have such trouble seeing what the rich are doing. We are the job creators, they insist. But our rich aren’t creating jobs. They’re not creating wealth. They’re extracting wealth from the rest of us.

Institute for Policy Studies - Sam Pizzigati

Unmatched in persuasive argument and compelling illustrations, Andrew Sayer shows how the rich and the super-rich are destroying not just the economy but the planet too. Everyone should read Why We Can’t Afford the Rich and spread the word.

University of California, Berkeley - Michael Burawoy

“This is a quietly angry book, full of facts and figures that show the rich to be a major cause of the inequality that Wilkinson and Pickett revealed in their book The Spirit Level and of the injustice that Danny Dorling described in his book Injustice.

Citizen’s Income Trust

“This timely and important book exposes the pernicious influence of the super rich on our economic and social fabric. It underlines the need for radical action to redistribute wealth, re-balance our economy and tackle inequality. A must read for politicians and policymakers alike.

general secretary, Trades Union Congress - Frances O’Grady

“Talking about unfairness, savvy egalitarians have always understood, only gets us so far. Count British social scientist Sayer among these savvy egalitarians. . . .  Why We Can’t Afford the Rich takes on—and demolishes—the old canards that apologists for grand fortune regularly trot, everything from ‘When did you last get a job from a poor person?’ to ‘You can’t make the poor rich by making the rich poor.’

Too Much: A Monthly Commentary on Excess and Inequality

“Talking about unfairness, savvy egalitarians have always understood, only gets us so far. Count British social scientist Sayer among these savvy egalitarians. . . .  Why We Can’t Afford the Rich takes on—and demolishes—the old canards that apologists for grand fortune regularly trot, everything from ‘When did you last get a job from a poor person?’ to ‘You can’t make the poor rich by making the rich poor.’

Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality

This timely and important book exposes the pernicious influence of the super rich on our economic and social fabric. It underlines the need for radical action to redistribute wealth, re-balance our economy and tackle inequality. A must read for politicians and policymakers alike.

general secretary, Trades Union Congress - Frances O'Grady