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Quality Of Life: A Review Of Martha Nussbaum's Creating Capabilities, Vincent Rougeau

Vincent D. Rougeau

When societal progress is viewed primarily in terms of the overall increase in economic wealth, the human need for membership and meaningful participation soon loses salience in public policy debates and, ultimately, is relegated to the realm of preference. The vehemence of the recent protests against union-busting legislation in Wisconsin was surprising, partly because many of us had assumed that strong unions had long ago been sacrificed to the gods of free market liberalism. Determining whether a society is truly flourishing, however, requires an assessment of a broad range of measures of human flourishing, including meaningful opportunities to engage in …