The Road to Freedom

Joseph E. Stiglitz

Despite its obvious failures, the neoliberal narrative continues to dominate public minds and government policies around the world. According to this narrative, capitalism, characterized by reduced regulation and increased "animal spirits," not only produces greater prosperity but also produces more freedom for individuals in society—and is therefore morally superior.

But in "The Road to Freedom," Stiglitz asks: Whose freedom are we—and should we—think about? What happens when one person's freedom comes at the expense of another's? Should corporate freedoms be allowed to encroach on individual freedoms as they are now?
By examining neoliberal giants like Hayek and Friedman and examining how public opinion is shaped, Stiglitz reclaims the language of freedom from the right to show that markets, far from being "free"—unregulated—that foster growth and entrepreneurship, actually undermine them, reducing economic opportunities for the majority and draining wealth from the many to the few—individuals and nations. He shows how neoliberal economics, and the moral order it entails, has affected our legal and social freedoms in surprising ways, from property and intellectual rights to education and social media.

Stiglitz, as always, focuses on how to achieve true human flourishing, which should be the ultimate goal of our economic and social system, and offers an alternative to the one prevailing today. The Road to Freedom offers a powerful reassessment of democracy, economics, and what constitutes a good society—and provides a roadmap for how to achieve it.