Is capitalism obsolete? : A journey through alternative economic systems

Is there a feasible and desirable alternative to capitalism? Challenging capitalism has been somewhat taboo for academic economists since the collapse of communism. And yet it remains a hot question, not just because nine years after the outbreak of the financial crisis, unemployment is still ravaging entire societies, but also because the long-term prospects of capitalism are no longer as bright as they used to be. As Thomas Piketty warns in Capital in the Twenty-First Century, we have cause to fear the resurgence of a kind of rentiers' society, where economic and political power are concentrated in the hands of a small minority of rich heirs. Is Capitalism Obsolete? provides a refreshing overview of possible alternatives to capitalism and offers a recipe for improving the human lot. Given the necessity of identifying viable alternatives, Is Capitalism Obsolete? provides an intellectual tour of various proposed economic systems in which production and consumption obey non-capitalistic rules, from Plato's Republic of Philosophers to the Christian-Social State of the Jesuits in Paraguay, and on through Morus's Utopia, anarchic communism, central planning, self-management, market socialism, and the notion of the stakeholder society. Clearly, capitalism is not without alternatives. But along with the promises of various systems, daunting problems arise when the basic institutions of capitalism--markets and private property--are suppressed. The traditional counterproposals to capitalism fail to pass a test of economic feasibility despite the shortcomings of today's capitalism. Corneo arrives at a proposal to gradually transform capitalism into a system that will better share prosperity and foster democratic participation.