Globalization, Inequality and the Commodification of Life and Well-Being

Wealth and money, which are meant to be sources of human happiness and facilitators of good social relations has instead become a monstrosity beyond human control. The unbridled quest to make money and accumulate wealth as well as assign social signification on the basis of the outcome of individuals' efforts in the process has ended up distorting existence and the meaning of being human itself. This work brings together a collection of very provocative and challenging articles that confront the problems created by wealth. Can there be happiness when wealth is increasingly concentrated in fewer and fewer hands? Can wealth really bring happiness? And what are the implications of the current trend to commodify everything for the project of human happiness? The contributors to the volume argue that there is a need to change wealth accumulation and its core purpose. They contend that from wealth accumulation the gear must change to wealth alleviation, because the ways the rich become wealthy often correlate with the ways the number of the poor increase. Following from this, they argue that rather than the current focus on poverty alleviation, the focus should shift to wealth alleviation because a happy future for all lies in promoting human well-being and removing human ill-being through the spring wells of solidarity and humanity.