Find out the latest indie author news. For FREE.

ADVERTISEMENT

Arunjay Katakam
Author
Generation Hope
“A generation of hope is what we need urgently. Here is a book helping ensure the next one proves precisely that.” —Yanis Varoufakis, author of Technofuedalism and Another Now It has become clear: Our current economic system is broken. Growth at all costs is unsustainable. It’s easy to get discouraged when faced with the reality of the current climate crisis, economic instability, and the vast income inequality across the globe. It’s obvious that our trajectory is aimed toward destruction. But is it possible to make adjustments to that path, and if so, who's going to lead us? Generation Hope answers these questions, first by exploring the historical, political, economic, and cultural foundations that got us where we are today, and then delving into what it’s going to take to ensure that we are headed toward a sustainable future that benefits us all. Written in clear and compelling prose, the book addresses a wide range of today’s most pressing economic issues, from the macroeconomic challenges that humanity collectively faces, ​​to our personal engagement with our current economic system. Little by little, our consciousness is already shifting, especially among millennials and younger generations. This book illustrates how to continue moving from a mindset of scarcity and survival to one of abundance and thriving, from narrow-minded self-interest to an awareness that we are part of a much larger interconnected whole. The world needs us. Together, we can save our planet and help humanity thrive. Together, we are Generation Hope.
Reviews
Upbeat but clear-eyed about the challenges of climate change, wealth inequality, and an increasingly “feudal” economy where “nobility has been replaced by billionaires, vassals by white-collar corporate employees, and villeins and serfs by blue-collar workers,” this impassioned call for change from Katakam (author of The Power of Micro Money Transfers) urges readers toward a shift in mindsets about money, regulation, and our connectedness to others. “We need holistic change that revamps our current economic system, curtails emissions of greenhouse gasses, and rethinks the way we educate our kids,” Katakam writes, while offering both compelling examples of the possibilities and ample evidence of how, since Reagan and Thatcher, the world has seen “a massive shift in global wealth” where “everyone but the upper-income households have suffered significantly.”

Katakam writes with buoyant spirits despite the grim realities he exhaustively outlines. A capitalist who rejects socialism in favor of an inclusive economics that “prioritize[s] inclusive growth and social justice,” he calls for individual and societal change, making the case that the former, as seen in “conscious” consumers embracing “abundance mindset”s and a spirit of interconnectedness, will spur the latter. Rather than tear down current systems, he advocates for improving, regulating, and restoring an inclusive version of the capitalism that once “drove innovation, created products and services for the good of society, reduced poverty, increased the standard of living, and made a modest profit along the way.”

This inclusive capitalism—embracing growth, participation, opportunity, stability, and sustainability rather than “superprofits”—might strike readers as fanciful, but Katakam argues with persuasive power that the very act of imagining it, and manifesting it on an individual basis, is the crucial first step to making change. The book is nonpartisan, as quick to quote David Brooks as Robert Reich, and at times rambles, but Katakam’s critique is as unstinting as his belief in positive change is inspiring.

Takeaway: Impassioned call for an inclusive economy that leaves no person or planet behind.

Comparable Titles: Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac’s The Future We Choose, Mariana Mazzucato’s Mission Economy.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: A
Editing: B+
Marketing copy: A

ADVERTISEMENT

Loading...