Reddit reviews Greed, Lust and Gender: A History of Economic Ideas

TL,DR: Writer gives one-sided rants that are tangentially related to magazine covers and quotes from Sheryl. There's a lot of outrage, and no nuance, and thus little insight. Sorry, but internet writers use emotional appeals and a lot of posts here invoke outrage, since it drives internet traffic and it's not bad in itself, but being constantly angry and outraged gets very tiring after a while and makes discussing complex issues difficult because all nuance is lost.

Terrible article. Lots of anger and cynicism against strawman arguments the writer thinks other people are making. While the writer makes many good points, her use of a few two generic magazine covers, a stock photo, and some quotes without any context is very distracting.

Sorry, but if you want to write an insightful narrative about women and their participation in the capital wage economy, you're going to have to do some real reading. Glancing at magazine covers or stock photos and giving small details certain significance so you can go on a long tirade makes for a very tiring read. She has a wedding ring? Outrage! She's well-dressed on a magazine cover? Magazine covers don't normally have well-dressed people on them, but let's get outraged. A stock photo has only white women? Outrage!

Sheryl says to choose your husband carefully. The writer gives us no context, takes big offense at the word, "choose" and goes on and on about how stupid it is to value your career over love. Way to go off topic. And was that even bad advice? You and your spouse are sexual, financial, familial partners. Give it some thought. You can't choose who you're enamored with, but you can give thought to whether or not that person is compatible with your values, and yours with his or hers.

I enjoyed this book if you're interested in a very nuanced discussion on the topic, about women, gender, and the changing demands and expectations of women in the past few centuries in the Western world. She's a very reputable author and a retired professor at NYU.

>When does the pursuit of self-interest go too far, lapsing into morally unacceptable behavior? Until the unprecedented events of the recent global financial crisis economists often seemed unconcerned with this question, even suggesting that "greed is good." A closer look, however, suggests that greed and lust are generally considered good only for men, and then only outside the realm of family life. The history of Western economic ideas shows that men have given themselves more cultural permission than women for the pursuit of both economic and sexual self-interest. Feminists have long contested the boundaries of this permission, demanding more than mere freedom to act more like men. Women have gradually gained the power to revise our conceptual and moral maps and to insist on a better-and less gendered-balance between self interest and care for others.