Book completed

[eve_prime]

Don’t Buy It: The Trouble with Talking Nonsense About the Economy, by Anat Shenker-Osorio. This book focuses on the metaphors and framings that are often used when talking about the economy, with an emphasis on how progressives should be doing things differently. As someone who is both an expert on conceptual metaphors and framing and sympathetic to progressive politics, I agree with her reasoning, but I’d have preferred a less partisan approach. I also have some thoughts on how I’d rather she’d framed her own arguments differently. For example, by her own reasoning, focusing on the conservative ways of talking about the economy serves to reinforce them, but she didn’t start talking about the alternatives until p.56 or so – it would have been better to start with them. It was also curious that she didn’t include the “household budget” metaphor that’s so commonly used as the rationale for why a business leader should be in charge of the government. Maybe it was less common in 2012 when her book came out, but I doubt it. Also, since she was making such good points, it would have been better if the book were written from a more “timeless” perspective, whereas now it feels a bit dated, even though not all that much time has passed.