Jason Brennan has 3 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 3 narrators, with an average listener rating of 5★ across 1 ratings. The most-rated is Why It's OK to Want to Be Rich.
Why It's OK to Want to Be Rich
Summary
Finger-wagging moralizers say the love of money is the root of all evil. They assume that making a lot of money requires exploiting others and that the best way to wash off the resulting stain is to give a lot of it away. In Why It’s OK to Want to Be Rich, Jason Brennan shows that the moralisers have it backwards. He argues that, in general, the more money you make, the more you already do for others and that even an average wage earner is productively "giving back" to society just by doing her job. In addition, wealth liberates us to have the best chance of leading a life that’s authentically our own. Brennan also demonstrates how money-based societies create nicer, more trustworthy and more cooperative citizens. And in another chapter that takes on the new historians of capitalism, Brennan argues that wealthy nations became wealthy because of their healthy institutions, not from their horrific histories of slavery or colonialism. While writing that the more money one has, the more one should help others, Brennan also notes that we weren’t born into a perpetual debt to society. It’s okay to get rich and it’s okay to enjoy being rich, too.
©2020 Jason Brennan (P)2020 Taylor & Francis
Libertarianism
Summary
Historically, Americans have seen libertarians as far outside the mainstream, but with the rise of the Tea Party movement, libertarian principles have risen to the forefront of Republican politics. But libertarianism is more than the philosophy of individual freedom and unfettered markets that Republicans have embraced. Indeed, as Jason Brennan points out, libertarianism is a quite different - and far richer - system of thought than most of us suspect. In this timely new entry in Oxford's acclaimed series What Everyone Needs to Know, Brennan offers a nuanced portrait of libertarianism, proceeding through a series of questions to illuminate the essential elements of libertarianism and the problems the philosophy addresses, including such topics as the Value of Liberty, Human Nature and Ethics, Economic Liberty, Civil Rights, Social Justice and the Poor, Government and Democracy, and Contemporary Politics. Brennan asks the most fundamental and challenging questions: What do Libertarians think liberty is? Do libertarians think everyone should be selfish? Are libertarians just out to protect the interests of big business? What do libertarians think we should do about racial injustice? What would libertarians do about pollution? Are Tea Party activists true libertarians? As he sheds light on libertarian beliefs, Brennan overturns numerous misconceptions. Libertarianism is not about simple-minded paranoia about government, he writes. Rather, it celebrates the ideal of peaceful cooperation among free and equal people. Libertarians believe that the rich always capture political power; they want to minimize the power available to them in order to protect the weak. Brennan argues that libertarians are, in fact, animated by benevolence and a deep concern for the poor. Clear, concise, and incisively written, this volume explains a vitally important philosophy in American history - and a potent force in contemporary politics.
©2012 Oxford University Press (P)2014 Audible Inc.
Political Philosophy
Summary
Political philosophy is the study of the ethical relationships between individuals, society, and the state. In this Libertarianism.org Guide, professor Jason Brennan provides a working knowledge of many of the major issues, ideas, and arguments in philosophy.
©2015 Cato Institute (P)2016 Cato Institute