A Look into John Kay’s Thoughts
Of
Culture and Prosperity
Book Project
11 October 2010
Abstract
It’s obvious to almost everyone that there’s an inequality in the worldwide distribution of wealth. Some may defend it, others may not, but it’s quite clear to see to those who keep up with international news. John Kay’s broadly subtitled book Culture and Prosperity claims to show why these inequalities exist, which in my mind is an optimistic idea. This paper will attempt to summarize his book and broadly define his core ideas while expanding on further research into how low developed countries can take advantage of globalization and prosper from it.
About John Kay
John Kay has been writing about economics and business since 1995 (Kay, J., 2009). His academic career has included chairs at London Business School and Oxford University (Kay, J., 2009). He is a member of the British Academy and the Royal Society of Edinburgh and is currently a visiting professor at the London School of Economics (Kay, J., 2009). He also had a career in the policy world which established the Institute for Fiscal Studies as one of the most respected think tanks, and a business career, in which he established, developed and sold a substantial consulting firm and in which he has been a non-executive director of Halifax plc and several companies (Kay, J., 2009). John has published many books, including Foundations of Corporate Success (1993), The Truth about Markets (2003) and most recently The Long and the Short of It: finance and investment for normally intelligent people who are not in the industry. His new book, Obliquity, will be published by Profile Books in March 2010 (Kay, J., 2009).
Summary
John Kay states in his own book summary that there were two main objectives for writing Culture & Prosperity. He wanted to compose a book on economics for the general public that would appeal to intelligent non-specialists while additionally providing an explanation of why...