Money Changes Everything: How Global Prosperity Is Reshaping Our Needs, Values, and Lifestyles

Preface

It may seem a bit audacious to include the phrase “global prosperity” in a mid-2003 book title. In fact, many friends have suggested that I substitute the word “anxiety” for “prosperity” to sell more books. Titles with pessimistic or alarmist expressions like “The End of,” “The Decline of,” or “The Crash of ” invariably catch more attention and register more sales, and unfortunately too many of them fill our bookstores.

However, it’s exactly at such a time that readers need a reality check. Not a reality based upon what’s covered on CNN or printed in the newspapers; these are often simplified sound bites pandering to our collective economic and social insecurities. Rather, a factual reality based on successful trends in so many areas of ...