Outstanding contribution on economic fairness

This is a tour-de-force on the history and literature on the fairness vs inequality debate. The narration in the audio book perfectly matches the content and key points are extremely well articulated by the narrator, with just the right amount of emphasis put where it needs to be. This makes the book itself that much more engaging and satisfying. The argument that populism is rooted in economic unfairness is strengthened by the excellent examples and the grounding in economic literature which helps to validate many of the prescriptive recommendations the author's make for policymakers.

For all its strengths, the book's almost singular emphasis on the economic underpinnings of populism does underplay the role of culture, identity and values as additional contributors to populism. In fact, these issues appear to be playing a significant role in the culture wars and political polarization trends that amplify populist movements in many countries. Nonetheless, the strength of the economic arguments made in this book are of immense value in terms in understanding populism. The authors have made a singular contribution to clarifying the underlying foundations of economic unfairness which goes a long way toward explaining the current wave of populism and the pervasive sense that something is wrong in modern western democratic economies.

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