How Much is Enough?: Money and the Good Life - Financial Wisdom for a Fulfilling Lifestyle | Perfect for Personal Finance Enthusiasts & Life Balance Seekers

This book provides a very good analysis of the problems that arise as we confuse the relationship between wealth and happiness. The authors cover this misalignment by organizing their knowledge of history, philosophy, and economics in to a series of interesting and sensible chapters. Their observations are particularly relevant in a world that seems to value quarterly earnings above preservation of our humanity.Beyond just a description of where things have gone wrong in society, The Skidelskys provide a clear and thoughtful description of "the good life", a life that is worth living. They also describe some steps that we might follow to place ourselves on a more sustainable path to a better world. I think their narrative is extremely topical, and relevant to all societies struggling with extreme inequality in the midst of unprecedented productivity.I see some comments in these reviews that the analysis of climate change is misplaced. I respectfully disagree. This is yet another symptom of ethics being removed from our daily thought process and is quite relevant as the US chooses to abandon the rest of world in addressing this threat.If I have any criticism about this book, it is that the writing can occasionally be extremely dense, requiring a level of sophistication on the reader's part. This is perhaps because the authors are both university professors who desire to be extremely thorough in covering this complex subject matter. As social media and news sound-bites have shortened our attention spans, it will take some concentration to understand the full scale of the authors' message. A simpler and less rigorous discourse would have made this book more digestible to a wider audience. Still, I think this book is well worth the time for anyone who looks outside and wonders how there can be so many problems in a world that has such advanced technical capabilities and amazing potential.We'd all be better off if the concepts in this book played a higher priority in our lives.