What to say about this behemoth? There’s a wealth of good content within its pages, but one has to wade through a significant amount of Pygmalion-like condescension and outdated examples. I firmly believe we require a new version. It should be penned by a woman and titled "The Compassionate Man’s Guide to Social Justice."
Nonetheless, Shaw presented numerous excellent points. He approaches this as a thinker, not a politician. Although many of his economic discussions were more in-depth than I had the patience to fully follow, I am convinced that we can all gain from intellectually deliberating these matters. This hopefully prevents us from being swayed by agenda-driven political soundbites.
I was particularly intrigued by the timely discussion regarding the privatization of the post office. Shaw highlights how currently, the costs of very expensive services (such as delivering a letter deep into a rural area) are averaged out with the very cheap ones. A private company, he argues, would enter with the promise of doing it cheaper. However, since they couldn't reduce the cost of the expensive services, once they drive the post office out of business, the quality of services would decline and/or the prices would increase.
Personally, I hold the view that some things should not be privatized. I am old enough to recall when utilities were municipal services, not profit-making enterprises beholden to shareholders rather than citizens. I deeply miss both the attitude and the reasonable prices.
Throughout the book, Shaw references subjects currently in the news, such as universal basic income and the monetary value of taking care of children. He also makes the astute observation that "The most important and indispensable work of women, that of bearing and rearing children, and keeping house for them, was never paid for directly to the woman but always through the man; and so many foolish people came to forget that it was work at all, and spoke of Man as The Breadwinner. This was nonsense."
He concludes by mentioning that good will emerge from those who believe in leaving this world a better place than they found it. Truly, isn't this something that we should all be able to concur upon?