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Them and Us: Changing Britain - Why We Need a Fair Society [Hardcover]

Will Hutton
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
RRP: £20.00
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Book Description

30 Sep 2010
The suddenness and depth of the recession has raised questions about the workability of capitalism not seen since the 1930s. One of the constraints on recovery is the growing belief that if the old model did not work there is no new one on offer. This book sets out to provide one, arguing that reconstructing a bust financial system is not just a technical question. It cannot be done without a wholescale revision of the wider system and values on which it is based. And fairness must be placed at the heart of the new capitalism for society's future wellbeing. Will Hutton's new book musters brilliant, convincing arguments which will lend favour on both right and left. It is set to be a book which captures the mood of the moment in the same way that THE STATE WE'RE IN did.

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Them and Us: Changing Britain - Why We Need a Fair Society + The World We're in
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 448 pages
  • Publisher: Little, Brown & Company (30 Sep 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1408701510
  • ISBN-13: 978-1408701515
  • Product Dimensions: 16.5 x 24.2 x 4.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 191,391 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Review

'A tract for our times - passionate, erudite, with much common sense' --Robert Skidelsky, Guardian

Book Description

* An incisive look at how our society has fragmented into inequality and how to address this most crucial blight on our times, out now in paperback --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
43 of 46 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Renowned commentator Will Hutton has written a brilliant book on Britain today. Wide-ranging, it covers the economic crisis, politics, society, education, and the ongoing technological revolution.

He denounces the destructive power of `the financial, media and bureaucratic elites' (a long-winded way of saying `ruling class'). He notes that the rich avoid £12.9 billion a year in tax and that a third of our top 700 companies pay no tax.

He points out that hedge funds buying credit default swaps [CDSs] in huge volumes triggered both the banking crisis and Europe's sovereign debt crisis. Their buying of CDSs on Greek government debt in April forced the huge IMF/EU bailout of Greece.

Debt and debt-related building and real estate services accounted for half Britain's growth between 1997 and 2007. Two-thirds of loans were house mortgages and a fifth was in commercial property, while manufacturing's share of output fell by two-fifths to 12 per cent, the world's fastest fall.

The crisis cost us 10 per cent of output, £1 trillion, smashing the myth of a golden age based on financial services, open markets and an endless credit and property boom. Then we gave the bankers £1.3 trillion, worldwide, £14 trillion.

Even the Bank of England says that another crunch is highly likely. £530 billion of corporate debt has to be refinanced by 2015 before any new money will be lent. Europe's private-equity firms have to repay £185 billion by 2016, yet in 2009 they paid back just £4 billion.

Hutton writes sensibly, "The rise of the BNP cannot be explained by saying that Britain is suddenly more racist than it used to be.
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29 of 31 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Palliative care 2 Jan 2011
By Diziet TOP 500 REVIEWER
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Will Hutton's book attempts a comprehensive analysis not just of the financial crisis but of British society as a whole. Along with the analysis, he puts forward a detailed list of possible remedies. He aims to be as non-partisan as possible. As he says:

"...the proposition in this book is that neither the force of the market nor the capitalists and entrepreneurs who powered it would have been possible without the new Enlightenment openness and a range of emergent Enlightenment public democratic institutions." (P 122)

He thus bases his arguments in theories of social justice and, above all, the idea of 'just deserts' - that people have an innate sense of justice and fairness that has been warped by the politics of the last thirty years or more.

In the first part of the book, he attempts to reach an 'Understanding [of] Fairness'. He considers the ideas of John Rawls which he believes typifies the thinking of those on the left of the political spectrum and the ideas of Robert Nozick for those on the right. Applying these, along with modern, more psychological theories of 'just deserts', he analyses what he considers to be the unbalanced economy of the UK with its dependence on financial services and abandonment of manufacturing and technological innovation and entrepreneurship.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Them and Us 7 Dec 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Will Hutton has written an interesting book and lavishes a lot of detail (maybe too much) on the subject of the financial crash, its reasons and its aftermath and makes a strong point for a fairer, more balanced society. The underlying truisms such as banker greed, the role of the media and the inertia of politicians who can only manage now rather than apply any vision are all well analysed. But "fairness" is a word used ever more frequently by the media,politicians and business people and is beginning to have a hollow ring about it. Nevertheless the book is well worth the read and it provokes thought and not a little anger at times.
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15 of 18 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars A challenging book 12 Nov 2010
Format:Hardcover
I have read all the Hutton books of the past 15 years and have been impressed by the way he exposes the values which underpin the operation of our economic and social systems - the use his 1995 book made of the stakeholder concept to distinguish Anglo-saxon from the European social model was well done - and further developed in his The World We're in and also the The Writing on the Wall: China and the West in the 21st Century. But I have always been left with a vague sense of unease. I think this book has helped me understand why.
Hutton always seems to give us the big picture - just look at the titles - but, at the end of the day, the focus is generally about fixing Britain. Despite, therefore, his attacks on neo-liberalism and defence of public services, his model remains a thoroughly economic one of the global battle of nation against nation. But the latest global crisis has made a growing number of people dissatisfied with this model (see below). For the moment, however, let's look at his arguments for a fairer society.
After the opening chapter you hit a rather forbidding 80 pages of philosophical material on Fairness. I got discouraged and left it lying on my bookshelves - until I decided to skip on to the middle of the book. I enjoyed the chapter on Innovation, Innovation, Innovation" - where the public status of universities is strongly defended. But it was page 271 before I reached the heart of the matter (the chapter with the rather odd title of Dismantling the Have-What-I-hold Society"). Frankly these 40 pages rarely rise above the level of an insipid undergraduate essay.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars Considered opinion from Hutton
In some ways this is quite a depressing book, given all the social and political problems that we have in the UK. Read more
Published 7 days ago by Half Man, Half Book
4.0 out of 5 stars I recommend this book to you.
I am not finished it yet. Well written interesting and challenging, if the rest of the book is as good it will be an education of our countries unwholesome political set up.
Published 2 months ago by John Robertson
4.0 out of 5 stars I LIKE IT BUT WILL DOESNT WANT TO FIGHT FOR WHAT HE THINKS IS RIGHT !
I LIKE IT BUT WILL DOESNT WANT TO FIGHT FOR WHAT HE THINKS IS RIGHT ! HES A VERY PRIVALLEGED BLOKE WHO LIVES IN AN ECONOMIC IVORY TOWER WITH LOTS OF HIS OTHER GUARDIAN CENTRE LEFT... Read more
Published 3 months ago by shaun kerr
5.0 out of 5 stars Easy purchase and great condition
Will Hutton makes a topic as big as this easy to understand, easy to read and gives the average person (like myself) hope that maybe (just maybe) we will get there.
Published 3 months ago by Luis Arevalo
5.0 out of 5 stars Them and Us: Changing Britain etc.
This was recommended by my son and I am at present reading through it. I would recommend it to a friend.
Published 4 months ago by Maggie
5.0 out of 5 stars Plain speaking...
This is a detailed hefty paperback which is an important read concerning issues which most politicians avoid addressing seriously enough. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Decuman
5.0 out of 5 stars Them and Us.
Well written and thought provoking. Useful background reading for anyone studying (or interested in) business, economics, politics, sociology, etc. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Chloe's Mum
5.0 out of 5 stars In This Book You See the Trees and the Wood
This was the second Will Hutton I had read. The first was `The World We're In'.

I found both very instructive and thought-provoking. Read more
Published 14 months ago by conjunction
5.0 out of 5 stars I could never have put it better myself. Much food for thought
So much said so simply and clearly by Will Hutton - all the words have been swimming in my head for many years, but I never could have put them down on paper like this. Read more
Published 15 months ago by trakker
5.0 out of 5 stars Recipe for a Fairer Society!?
I loved this book as it covers a subject close to my heart. The only downside was that I felt I would have benefited from a basic qualification in economics! Read more
Published 17 months ago by F. Hornby
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