Abstract

Isn’t capitalism the best and only imaginable way of organising our economy? It may have a few unfortunate but inevitable consequences and run into a few crises, but with a bit of fine-tuning, we are told, it constitutes the apotheosis of human history. After all, hasn’t the fall of the Berlin Wall clearly demonstrated that alternatives to capitalism are not viable? That we have run out of alternatives? And with the unprecedented level of wealth, innovation and individual freedom that capitalism has granted us in its short history, why should we want anything else? Why is this book about ‘alternatives’ even necessary?