The Value of Everything

Buchzusammenfassung

Mariana Mazzucato is an economics professor at University College London, and founding director of the university’s Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. She has won awards including the John Von Neumann Award in 2020 and the All European Academies Madame de Staël Prize for Cultural Values in 2019. She also advises policymakers all around the world on innovation and sustainable growth, and wrote the books The Entrepreneurial State and The Value of Everything.

The financialization of the economy, which began in the 1970s, has extended beyond the financial sector, influencing even non-financial corporations like Ford, which earned more from car loans than vehicle sales in the 2000s. This trend reflects a broader shift toward prioritizing shareholder value. The debate over productive versus unproductive labor dates back to early economists like François Quesnay, who viewed landlords as extractors of value, a perspective later upheld by classical economists such as Adam Smith and David Ricardo. Today, this discussion continues in the context of GDP, a flawed measure of value that often misrepresents the contributions of the public sector while favoring private enterprise. The privatization of public services, driven by theories like public choice, has led to costly inefficiencies, as seen in the UK’s PFI contracts. Similarly, the financial sector, once a driver of economic growth, now focuses on value extraction through complex products, often at the expense of broader economic benefits. Meanwhile, the innovation economy thrives on government-funded research, with private companies reaping the rewards through monopolies, patents, and tax advantages. These dynamics highlight the need to reassess the roles of public and private sectors in fostering genuine economic value.

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