As the former chief economist of the World Bank and Clinton’s chief economic advisor, Stiglitz knows what he’s talking about. The Road to Freedom is an impassioned cry to remake the economy to improve the lives of many instead of just a few, highlighting how it corrupts democracy and causes the catastrophic economic inequality we see today.
His contention is that while we all strive for freedom, it’s a inescapable fact that freedom for one often means constraint for another, and that an equitable society can only work when we accept restrictions on certain freedoms (like the freedom to run a red light or kill someone who sleights you).
As you might expect from a career bureaucrat, the language is far less impassioned than the sentiment, the tone officious and slightly standoffish even when it’s talking about very human tragedies of poverty and unfairness that underpin the capitalist system.
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