The Efficient Society: Why Canada Is as Close to Utopia as It Gets by Joseph Heath

The Efficient Society: Why Canada Is as Close to Utopia as It Gets Reviews

• 
  Merilee

  Very interesting book. Efficient isn't exactly what you would think, but it's a good way to describe what Heath calls "welfare-state capitalism", which sounds like an oxymoron, but really describes a combination of market forces being nudged by government when appropriate.
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  Ietrio

  ...and as with most other utopias, the people who have skills usually leave as fast as they can.
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  Bohdan Pechenyak

  A cogent, well-illustrated account of the peculiarities, advantages and disadvantages of the Canadian approach to government and the organization of society. Full of current cultural references, examples and explanations of a wide range of social-scientific concepts and phenomena, this book makes an argument for the continued importance and relevance of the state in providing the public goods and correcting for market failures. The market economy is also advocated, where it works best. In other words, the approach is that of pragmatism - to use the best possible strategy and tactics for each particular problem. If market is the answer - use the market. If state is better equipped to deliver a particular good or service - let the state do it. Where private-public partnership is needed - then that's what should happen. Common sense at its best.
  
  "Efficiency" is defined as ability to meet the people's needs, not the ability to produce the most. GDP is a myopic measure of the health of any economy - the point is not to produce as much as possible, but to produce the RIGHT products, avoiding excess or shortfall. Given the performance of Canada in the recent financial crisis - it was barely affected by it, because its financial regulations were much tougher than in the U.S. and so its economy was affected much less than it could have been otherwise - there is much to be said about learning from her, using her example, along with those of other successful and efficient societies.
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  Dar

  The book's premise is that Canada is successful as a country because of its (boring) efficiencies in government. For instance, it is more economical to provide universal health care than to use the for-profit model of competing private health insurers. Canadians value efficiency and will accept tax-funded programs like this. The book looks into "the morality of capitalism" - and believes that local capitalism reflects its society's moral values and isn't neutral. The book was slow-going but I'm glad I persevered.
• 
  Pierre

  Not particularly about Canada. Rather, the best book I know that presents the illuminating results of current political philosophy, game theory and theories of collective action. The book is full of very clear examples... when I use excerpts of the book in class, my college students always say that Heath made clear to them a lot of things they didn't understood before -and thought no one could explain.
• 
  Marc

  Not a particularly good read; author's style is dry and uninteresting; despite a potentially interesting thesis.
  Canada is an efficient society (despite lower incomes than US); We get maximum results with minimum effort and waste.
  e.g. Health Care 2% of US GDP spent on useless health care bureaucracy.
  
• 
  Aras

  
  http://electric-pages.livejournal.com...
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  Carol

  I love this analysis of the Canadian "way" and felt after reading the book that maybe we should move to Canada!
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  Risto Saarelma

  via
  http://tiedemies.blogspot.fi/2017/01/...
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  Ross Beck-MacNeil

  Got it as a gift as a young teenager. Shaped my thinking and made me appreciate Canada