Money: A Theory of Modern Society

Description

Since the publication of Georg Simmel’s Philosophy of Money more than a century ago, social science has primarily considered money a medium of exchange. This new book treats money as a more inclusive social concept that has profoundly influenced the emergence of modern society. Money is also a moral and political category. It communicates prices and thus embodies innumerable evaluations and judgments of objects and services, of social relationships and associations. At the same time, modern societies are undergoing fundamental transformations in which money assumes an ever-important role, while banking and financial services constitute the new primary sector of modern service economies. In this book, the authors trace the transformational scope of monetarization and financialization along the four classical productive forces―land, capital, labor, and knowledge―and evaluate the consequences of an irrepressible urge to quantify and monetarize almost everything social. What happens to a society in which the tangible products of the real economy lose their preeminent status, and everything is judged purely according to its economic value? The authors identify an increasing disconnect between market prices and social values with serious social, political, economic, and environmental consequences.   Cover Half Title Title Copyright Contents List of Illustrations Preface Introduction Money, Price and Value as Social Phenomena The Mystery of Money Money as Driver of Societal Change 1 The Immaterial Economy Symbolic Products and Processes Monetary Symbolic Products Productive Processes The Peculiarities of Knowledge Knowledge Skills (and Machines) Financialization The Global Class Conclusion: The Price (and Value) of Land, Capital, Labor and Knowledge 2 The Price of Land Theories of Space The Evolution of the Value of Land Societal Transformations Financialization of the Land Land Grabbing The Green Value of Land Conclusion: Determining the Price (and Value) of Land 3 The Price of Capital Interest Rates: Managing Non-Simultaneity What Is Capital? Interest Rates and Their Critics Interest in the Islamic Economy Can an Interest-Free Economy Exist? Why Does Capital Have a Price? Measuring Capital and Its “Just” Price The Relationship of Capital, Debt and Guilt in Modern Societies Inequality of Capital Capital and Wealth Taxation Conclusion: Determining the Price (and Value) of Capital 4 The Price of Labor Perspectives Supply and Demand Monetarizing Labor Work Is More than a Paycheck The Wages of Labor The Value of Work The Modern Price of Labor Manual Workers and Knowledge Workers The Revolution of Knowledge Workers Financialization and Labor When the Robots Rise Will Robots Set Us Free? Material and Moral Compensation Minimum Wages Just Wages The Empirical Evidence The Price of Labor Since the Financial Crisis The Falling Rate of Labor’s Share Cognitive Abilities Conclusion: Determining the Price (and Value) of Labor 5 The Price of Knowledge Point of Departure Measuring Knowledge Human Capital Symbolic and Knowledge Capital The Value of Intangible Investments Patents Taxation, or the Price of Education Additional Knowledge Practical Knowledge The Social Value of Knowledge Knowledge as a Public Good Capital as Embodied Knowledge Conclusion: Determining the Price (and Value) of Knowledge Conclusions Index