It doesn't have to be Like This

by Margaret Legum

A book for all of us who feel instinctively that there is something badly wrong with our global system of trade and finance, where money for its own sake is valued over jobs and people's lives, but don't know how to start suggesting alternatives. Margaret Legum not only analyses the current situation with devastating effect, but also suggests many new measures and steps that could be taken to start the world back on a path to the humanisation of economic policies. So if you are longing to do something constructive about the situation and need to be armed with the facts in order to do so, this is the book to read before you write to your political representatives, get out on the streets to protest or initiate positive local alternatives.

Margaret Legum studied economics at Rhodes University and Cambridge. She and her late husband, Colin, were banned from their home country, South Africa, in 1962 for speaking out against apartheid. In more recent years, based in the UK and South Africa as a lecturer and journalist, she viewed current macroeconomic theory, based on the sovereignty of global market forces, as a threat to freedom in both developed and developing countries alike.

232 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Iguazel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book in my partner's family house. I thought it would be helpful to understand what exactly doesn't work in our current system and learn other ways do to things. My knowledge of economics is very little so I didn't grasp everything the book mentions, even though it's written in a very accesible way and I got a general idea of what's wrong and what possible solutions exist.

Perhaps I should have started mentioning that this book was written almost 20 years ago and most of it is still relevant. Some problems have gotten worse and new ones have arisen, like the monetisation of our attention in social media with everything that it entails, and how that only has exacerbated some of the issues mentioned in the book like polarisation and mental health problems.

I find this hard to express, but the religious (Christian) references in this book put me off. I don't think that religions should really be mixed with the ruling of the world. But I respect the views of the author. And I agree that certain values are important for a better economic system.

Above all I think this book helped me understand the world better and I might spend the next few days trying to find out current data for some of the problems and alternatives she mentions.

P.S.: I do not recommend reading this book just before bedtime, chances are your mind will start thinking (or, in my case, worrying) too much and you won't be able to get to sleep. It probably works better as a daytime book!