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I Spend, Therefore I Am: The True Cost of Economics Hardcover – 6 Feb 2014

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Philip Roscoe (Author)
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Philip Roscoe (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars 8 customer reviews
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Viking (6 Feb. 2014)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 067092282X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0670922826
  • Product Dimensions: 14.4 x 2.7 x 22.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 623,701 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Review

A brilliant critique (Robert Skidelsky, prize-winning biographer of John Maynard Keynes)

Impressive ... important ... very thoughtful and thought-provoking (Ha-Joon Chang, author of 23 Things They Don't Tell You About Capitalism)

A splendid denunciation of the dismal science ... a fine book, on the side of the angels (Guardian)

A powerful description of the many ways we have lost our bearings as a society ... makes the case that economics has left us impoverished as human beings ... a powerful and engaging read (Sunday Times)

Roscoe is right to remind us that the habit of seeing all our problems in economic terms has fatally narrowed the range of motives to which politicians appeal ... Roscoe is right that the relentless drive to attach a market price to everything is undermining the realm of human values ... When it comes to what matters, economists don't know what they're talking about. Roscoe is certainly right in this, and right in his most important conclusion, which is that we must confine the economists to the asylums - universities, for instance - where they can do no harm (Roger Scruton Prospect)

About the Author

Philip Roscoe is Reader in Management at the School of Management, University of St Andrews. He is interested in markets and organizing, and has published and lectured on such topics as online dating, organ transplants, non-professional investors and alternative currencies. Philip holds a PhD in management from Lancaster University, an MPhil in medieval Arabic thought from the University of Oxford, and a BA in theology from the University of Leeds. Between studies, he has worked as a financial journalist and tried his hand at running a small business. In 2011 he was one of the ten winners of the inaugural AHRC BBC Radio 3 'New Generation Thinkers' scheme chosen from over a thousand applicants. He is married to Jane, and they have three sons.

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4.0 out of 5 starsPutting economics back in its place
By Jeremy Williams on 4 Sept. 2014
Format: Hardcover
Economics, Philip Roscoe believes, has significantly overstepped its remit. It is a useful way of thinking, but its reductionist models of the world have been applied with too much enthusiasm into too many areas of life. “Economic relations” says Roscoe, “epitomized by self-interest, have colonized our lives.”

Economics assumes that we’re all self-interested. But, says Roscoe, language changes things - it creates the world it describes. Assuming people are self-interested is one thing, but when acted on “in the wild” it creates systems in which people have to be self-interested. It becomes learned behaviour. So higher education becomes a market place where prospective students must weigh up future earnings and work out if their course is a sensible investment or not. Online dating subscribers browse potential partners like goods on shelves, seeing sets of attributes rather than complex people with life stories. Economists run cost-benefit analysis to see which bits of the country they will allow to flood in order to get the best value for money out of a shrinking budget.

Economic thought is supposed to be rational and objective, but it’s not, the author argues. It is political. It is often arbitrary. There are always a host of hidden calculations and assumptions. And ultimately, somebody had to decide what the end goal of everything is. Cost benefit analysis “can only tell us what we should do if we have already decided that what matters most is maximizing a nation’s wealth.” But when did we decide that?

Economics needs to be put back where it belongs, the book concludes. It should be on a par with engineering – “an engineering that is subservient to principles and decisions made through a democratic process.” There are some areas where economics is not wanted.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsThe utility of the economic lexicon in HE
By Julie Bounford on 1 May 2014
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
Posted in blog -
[...]

Roscoe’s wistful and entertaining appraisal of the discipline that is economics provides another useful reference point in my quest to go beyond the technical instruments of capital in my doctoral research analysis. In a previous post entitled, ‘Conviviality with a cause’ I observe Bev Skeggs’ assertion that as sociologists we have a duty not to reproduce the logic of capital in everything we analyse. In applying the logic of capital we convert everything into commodity. We become the subject of capital and we internalise its imperatives. The notion of a commodity or commodification in this context merits closer examination.

Roscoe’s wide-ranging treatise which includes a section on, ‘Lists, rankings and the commodification of education’ highlights the malignant legacy of the Chicago School of Economics and in particular, Becker’s theory of human capital which has helped to, ‘reinforce a myopic understanding of the point and purpose of education.’ Roscoe depressingly describes the ‘subtle repositioning’ of education as, ‘some kind of experiential commodity, like a safari or an adventure day in a hot-air balloon.’

In my post entitled, ‘The marketisation marvel in higher education’, I bemoan the existence of a discourse and managerial structure in higher education that is dominated by enterprise and an emulation of the business world although I do assert that universities are still distinguishable from private sector companies.Read more ›
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4.0 out of 5 starsInteresting, but …
By Phil O'Sofa on 8 Sept. 2016
Format: Paperback
Economic thinking has taken over our lives, encouraging us to establish a market price for pretty much everything, including body parts, health and love, so the author says. He questions the way governments and society have adopted the cost-benefit approach, and asks if there might not be better ways of allocating resources.
At least, I think that’s his main point. Although I found it interesting, I did feel that he hasn’t really given us much in the way of answers. For example, the author questions the way the health service tries to prioritise its spending, though he doesn’t really give a better solution than the current system, considering how funds will always be limited.
The pricing-of-love part comes from his in-depth research of online dating, though again I’m not sure that this is such a big deal, really: does it matter if people use online dating to find partners? Does it matter if computer software decides who will be matched with who? Nobody is forced into these things: we can still look for love the old-fashioned way. There might be a bigger issue regarding the way computers are taking over our lives, but that isn’t the point he’s making, as far as I can tell.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book because it raises interesting questions and is well researched and well written. But the only attempt at suggesting solutions to the problems he highlights are a few brief notes in the epilogue, most of which are not very convincing (keep markets local, use alternative forms of money … hardly meets the challenges of globalization and inequality).
Another point one could make, perhaps, is that the reason economics tends to rule our lives is because it’s ultimately about survival, and therefore economics have always ruled our lives.Read more ›
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