Why We Can't Afford the Rich - by Andrew Sayer

About the Book

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. With an updated Afterword, Andrew Sayer shows how the rich worldwide have increased their ability to hide their wealth, create indebtedness and expand their political influence.

Book Synopsis

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. With an updated Afterword, Andrew Sayer shows how the rich worldwide have increased their ability to hide their wealth, create indebtedness and expand their political influence.

Review Quotes

"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

"[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

"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

"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

"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

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

"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

"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

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

"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, rebalance our economy and tackle inequality. A must read for politicians and policymakers alike" Frances O'Grady, TUC General Secretary

"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.

About the Author

Andrew Sayer is professor of social theory and political economy at Lancaster University, UK. His books include Radical Political Economy: A Critique, The Moral Significance of Class, and Why Things Matter to People: Social Science, Values and Ethical Life.