Book review: I Spend, Therefore I Am, by Philip Roscoe

by Philip Roscoe
Viking
3 stars
Edward Skidelsky

I Spend, Therefore I Am is a splendid denunciation of the dismal science: not only does economics embody a false image of man, Philip Roscoe writes, it "brings into being the agent about whom it theorises: self-interested, calculative and even dishonest".

How does an abstruse academic discipline exert such extraordinary transformational powers? Two mechanisms are central to Roscoe's account. The first is the incentive. Economists treat all human behaviour as responsive to monetary costs and benefits. Roscoe argues that incentives have been disastrously influential, not least in justifying bankers' bonuses. The trouble with monetary incentives is not that they don't work but that they "crowd out" other, nobler sources of motivation such as professional pride, institutional loyalty and public spirit. They bring into being the kind of person they presuppose: shrewd and mercenary.

The other villain of Roscoe's story is measurement. Scoring systems now exist for everything including quality of life, intellectual achievement, sex appeal and other such intangibles. Embedded in governmental and corporate software, these systems shape the very conduct they claim to measure. Give academics "citation scores" and sure enough, they will churn out dreary articles for other academics. Rate hospitals on "patient turnover" and lo and behold, they will turn patients over with indecent haste.

A measure is a dangerous tool, for it tends to take the place of whatever it measures.

I Spend is a fine book - which makes its lapses all the more frustrating. Roscoe credits "economics" with an extraordinary influence: in places, he uses it as a shorthand for everything wrong with the modern world.