‘This book had its origins alongside The Affluent Society. It stands in relation to that book as a house to a window. This is the structure; the earlier book allowed the first glimpse inside.’  

With these words the author introduces his full scale investigation into the workings of modern society. Conventional economies, he argues, is designed less to reveal truth than to reassure about established social arrangements. Here old orthodoxies and new shibboleths alike are demolished with wit and style.