Rank observes: “You can find poverty in rural areas, in urban areas, in suburban areas, which actually have some of the highest numbers of folks in poverty. According to the US Census Bureau, the official poverty rate in 2021 was 11.6%, with 37.9 million people in poverty (an example definition being a family of three with income below $21,559). Yet one in 10 Americans is officially poor.

This is the land of New York and Los Angeles, of skyscrapers and space rockets, of multibillionaires Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and Elon Musk. The paradox in the title has dogged politicians for generations: why does the wealthiest country in the world also have the highest rate of poverty among industrialised nations? It brings a much needed sociological method and rigour to an issue too often reduced to political slogans or newspaper snapshots. Myth-busting, witty and thought-provoking, Edible Economics shows that getting to grips with the economy is like learning a recipe: if we understand it, we can change it - and, with it, the world.Rank, 67, who has spent decades researching poverty and inequality, is out with a new book, The Poverty Paradox: Understanding Economic Hardship Amid American Prosperity. Explaining everything from the hidden cost of care work to the misleading language of the free market as he cooks dishes like anchovy and egg toast, Gambas al Ajillo and Korean dotori mook, Ha-Joon Chang serves up an easy-to-digest feast of bold ideas.

For Chang, chocolate is a life-long addiction, but more exciting are the insights it offers into post-industrial knowledge economies and while okra makes Southern gumbo heart-meltingly smooth, it also speaks of capitalism's entangled relationship with freedom and unfreedom. He uses histories behind familiar food items - where they come from, how they are cooked and consumed, what they mean to different cultures - to explore economic theory. In Edible Economics, Chang makes challenging economic ideas more palatable by plating them alongside stories about food from around the world. Just as eating a wide range of cuisines contributes to a more interesting and balanced diet, so too is it essential we listen to a variety of economic perspectives. But this is bland and unhealthy - like British food in the 1980s, when bestselling author and economist Ha-Joon Chang first arrived in the UK from South Korea. Edible Economics Ha-Joon Chang € 24.99 This item arrived at our Amsterdam store within the past 8 weeks If not in stock, the expected delivery time to our store for this item will be 3-5 working days.Įconomic thinking - about globalisation, climate change, immigration, austerity, automation and much more - in its most digestible formįor decades, a single free market philosophy has dominated global economics.

Book edible economics