We now enjoy the highest living standard in history yet spend more of our income on pointless luxury. Instead, we should tax more in order to invest much more in societal needs, which will in turn reinvigorate the economy and reduce economic inequality and environmental degradation.

A new perspective on capitalism's "sickness"; Inspiration in the Kaufhaus des Westens; Unreal tax rates; Printing money; Inequality and discontent; Buckling bridges and crumbling mountains; The United States: stagnation and gridlock; Japan: bubbles, "lost years" and Abenomics; Unified Germany: a divided nation; Four European economies; Reform to the rescue; Adapting capitalism and changing politics; Conclusion.

"In our world of "necessary luxuries", incorrect investment incentives, disparate and worsening income distribution, this cogent, important, skeptical, provocative analysis proposes what must change in the US, Japan, Germany, and elsewhere." Hugh Patrick, Center on Japanese Economy and Business, Columbia Business School "A timely and urgent read given that western economies are at a political and environmental tipping point." Ann Pettifor, Policy Research in Macroeconomics "A bold and heterodox diagnosis of capitalism's illness, and a bracing prescription: It's time for government to invest in basic needs, rather than encouraging us to make and buy growing mounds of junk. We will be talking about this book for years." Walter Hatch, Oak Institute for Human Rights, Colby College "A compelling argument for a fairer, smarter form of capitalism which prioritises spending on public goods like health, infrastructure, education, and the environment. At a time of sharpening political end economic divides, this book is a must read." Miranda Schreurs, Bavarian School of Public Policy, Technical University of Munich "This book is right on time: the leading post-WWII economies are losing economic momentum and facing threats to their democratic institutions. Kozo Yamamura demands a prompt systemic change of the capitalist system in order to revitalize growth and secure democracy." Guenter Heiduk, World Economy Research Institute, Warsaw School of Economics

Provides a new paradigm of democratic capitalism that shows how current fiscal and monetary policies increase the income and wealth gap, and neglect socially necessary investments; An accessible, cross-over trade book providing a solution to the problem of Western economics stagnation and increasing disparity between rich and poor; Defines the ‘new world of necessary luxuries’ and addresses the effect this had had on the economy.