The Price of Everything: A Parable of Possibility and Prosperity | 
| Author: Russell Roberts
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 5226
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 216
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.7 x 0.9
ISBN: 0691135096
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780691135090
ASIN: 0691135096
Publication Date: August 17, 2008
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Product Description
Stanford University student and Cuban American tennis prodigy Ramon Fernandez is outraged when a nearby mega-store hikes its prices the night of an earthquake. He crosses paths with provost and economics professor Ruth Lieber when he plans a campus protest against the price-gouging retailer--which is also a major donor to the university. Ruth begins a dialogue with Ramon about prices, prosperity, and innovation and their role in our daily lives. Is Ruth trying to limit the damage from Ramon's protest? Or does she have something altogether different in mind? As Ramon is thrust into the national spotlight by events beyond the Stanford campus, he learns there's more to price hikes than meets the eye, and he is forced to reconsider everything he thought he knew. What is the source of America's high standard of living? What drives entrepreneurs and innovation? What upholds the hidden order that allows us to choose our careers and pursue our passions with so little conflict? How does economic order emerge without anyone being in charge? Ruth gives Ramon and the reader a new appreciation for how our economy works and the wondrous role that the price of everything plays in everyday life. The Price of Everything is a captivating story about economic growth and the unseen forces that create and sustain economic harmony all around us.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
 A didactic novel October 2, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I was really hoping to enjoy this book, but when I actually began reading it, I understood all over again why Didactic Novels (novels written to teach) are never good novels.
There was an additional irritation: all of the basic economic facts were taught "Socratically" as if the student were a small child. But the student in this "novel" is the child of an emigre Cuban, currently attending Stanford. It seems almost unbelievable that the Great Economics Teacher should need to explain to her "student" that Cuba is, to put it mildly, not working very well. Even worse, the Great Teacher pretends not to know whether the Cuban failure is due to Castro and his tyranny, or the totally ineffective US embargo. (Cubans buy anything they want from Mexico, duh).
A much more interesting read is "The Best Book on the Market." It's just better in every way. It's probably better, even for children, who hate being talked down to.
 An appreciation of "The Price of Everything" October 1, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Though presented as fiction, this is the best (and most painless) primer on free-market economics I have ever read, and have been recommending it my friends to help them understand free-market thinking. It is very well plotted, flowed seamlessly and was a joy to read (and re-read). The protagonist is a Stanford economics professor named Ruth Lieber and the novel recounts her discussions with students both in her seminar and beyond.
The very best characteristic of this novel is that most of the characters who are at least initially unsympathetic to Prof. Lieber's free-market viewpoints are treated fairly, and presented as honorable persons of intelligence, passion and compassion. This stands out in our otherwise horribly fractured society in which so many, on all sides, labor mightily to demonize and excoriate anyone daring to adopt contrary points of view. It is possible, even likely, that an advocate of the students' positions could have put more persuasive or poignant arguments in the mouths of their fictional proxies. The simple fact that the author tried and succeeded in making their viewpoints seem plausible and honorable demonstrates that he respects his adversaries and their views, even though he disagrees with them. Do you remember when adversaries could politely disagree, without resorting to distortion and vitriol?
I tend to dog-ear pages that contain points worth pondering, writing worth remembering, and for easy access to useful examples that I might wish to revisit in a subsequent session. In my library, the average book has three or four pages so marked. I found that I had dog-eared so many pages in this gem that it is the untouched pages that now are easier to find in the book, if only because there were so very few of them.
Sets up Straw Arguements September 29, 2008
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I got about half way through this book before I put it down. The Economics professor comes to lecture the idealistic student and starts explaining how much better off people are than they were 100 years ago. This means that everything is fine and companies are doing what they should.
I agree that people are better off then they were 100 years ago. But what about 30 years ago. Child mortality rates are on the rise. Wages are stagnant and their purchasing power is less than what it was. The top one percent of the population controls 25% of the wealth compared to 8% in the early 80s.
I think that this book getting dated with the current economic mess. We can turn on the news and see what happens when corporations are unregulated like is advocated in the book.
Maybe the second half of the book changes but I'll never know.
Good blend of econmics and story September 29, 2008
Reading through Russell Roberts tale of the Big Box store and the campus crusader I was often tricked into thinking I was reading a full blown novel. "The Price of Everything" is a novel, but it's also a dialogue of economics discussions played out through the characters Ramon Fernandez, a Stanford student and tennis star, and Ruth Lieber, an economics professor. The economics seemed just a part of the story, with the exception of chapter 7(which goes heavily into the economics of egg production). Roberts through the conversations of Ruth and Ramon does an excellent job of framing discussion of prices, a subject that is often subject to counterintuitive ideas. I think the example that stands out is when Ruth is discussing with Ramon the price of flashlights, and why the Big Box stores price gouging might have been a good thing, because a high price signals others to conserve.
The example played out in my own life not long after reading this book. I was standing in line for a United Airlines flight when myself and others found out that they would be charging $15 for baggage and extra if it was overweight. My first reaction was Ramon's, that I couldn't believe they were doing this, but then the idea came that maybe this would lower airline fares, if people brought less baggage and thus used less fuel. I felt like Ruth Lieber.
Great Fiction, Even better economic Less September 28, 2008
This story was an excellent lesson in economics, in a great story line. I have read other books by Professor Roberts and was disappointed with the lack of reality and forced prose in those books. This was by far his best work of fiction, the conversations between the characters were realistic and believable. Professor Roberts writes his nonfiction articles well with an easy of understanding by the non-academic, this translated well to The Price fo Everything.
At one point the story was even emotional and I must admit I shed a tear. I would recommend Professor Robert's newest non-fiction as a must read.
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