Needs, Rights, and the Market

From ABOUT THE BOOK AND THE AUTHOR (page 158): "In Needs, Rights, and the Market, David Levine addresses primary concerns of economics from a novel starting point regarding the motivations of individuals. Levine develops a framework for exploring a set of questions central to political economy: What sorts of wants and needs are appropriate for us to satisfy through the use of markets? What is the nature of wealth? What rights do we have that bear on our economic activities? How do markets work and what is their social purpose? How can we justify private enterprise as a way of organizing need satisfaction, and what argument can we make against this type of social-economic organization? What is the relation between inequality of income and inequality of persons? His argument develops on the basis of an interpretation of individual wants influenced by contemporary psychoanalytic theory; The consequent treatment of consumption decisions provides the basis for important conclusions regarding price determination, capital accumulation, and income distribution. Levine concludes by applying his analysis to the concepts of rights to income and to different types of property (including property in the means of production) and, generally, to the relationship of needs to rights. His nontechnical method, though involving a high level of abstraction, is accessible to readers with little background in economics."