Reimagining Capitalism

Catalog description

Debates over capitalism and its alternatives date back centuries. Proponents say that market institutions have enabled extraordinary productivity growth and life-saving innovations. Trade and the division of labor have been central to human progress in recent centuries. Capitalism’s critics point out that the growth of market economies has often had unacceptable consequences. The course is organized around four main challenges facing market economies today: environmental degradation, labor exploitation, inequality, and crisis. Can capitalism be reformed to solve the problems that it has helped generate, or is a market system unequipped to grapple with social and environmental challenges?