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The Social Economics of Health Care

Tabb packs a great deal into his little paperback, making it ideal for students in economic development and international trade courses as well as students in principles courses emphasizing global issues. His discussion of the "global state economic governance institutions" is particularly valuable to American students, most of whom are clueless about the nature of these institutions. He explains how the International Monetary Fund operates as a collection agency for international banks and financiers, siphoning off from poor countries many billions that are desperately needed to combat AIDS and a wide range of other medical, social, and economic problems. He explains how the World Bank acts as a promoter of privatization and marketization in poor countries and how it also helps dismantle dictatorships and other anticommunist regimes that we installed in the Third World during the Cold War and that now block globalization from above. He also turns his eye on the World Trade Organization, explaining how it usurps the sovereignty of poor nation and rich nation alike and deregulates far and wide. Tabb's book also will help students understand neoliberalism, the Washington Consensus, and much else besides. Tabb does not emphasize concrete reforms. He is not a policy wonk. He believes that even the most far-reaching reforms pushed by the most radical groups within the global justice movement may not be enough to transform globalization from above into globalization from below. Nevertheless, he does make several practical suggestions for improvement. He favors an international financial transactions tax {Tobin tax} to raise revenue and to slow speculative money movements. He would add enforcement powers to the International Labor Office to enforce labor rights and standards. He would also establish a World Tax Organization and a World Environmental Organization, all under democratic control and with enforcement powers. The book includes a brief but useful gUide to Internet resources in an appendix. The book is well written and should be widely read. Students interested in global justice, economic development, and international trade should find it a great help. It is an outstanding primer.