Includes bibliographical references and index.

"Economics has become the principal way we define ourselves in the modern era. We are all taught to think like an economist, with total faith in the power of the individual, the purity of the free market, and our boundless future. The problem is that economics is a fairy tale-one that perpetuates vast inequality and environmental devastation. The Progress Illusion charts the rise of the economic worldview and its infiltration into our daily lives as a theory of everything. As private interest and market choice filled the void left by failing democracies and wilting public dialogue, a pseudo-science of neoclassical economics came to dominate public policy. It was I over us, private over public, consumption over community. Ecological economist Jon Erickson calls for a challenge to this destructive philosophy, both within academia and in 'the real world,' through educational reform and grassroots social movements. By recognizing the realities of our finite planet, he shows, we can turn away from endless growth and toward enduring prosperity"--,Publisher.