Daniel Ben-Ami has long been an ardent advocate of the benefits of markets. His latest book, Ferraris for All – a great title and great cover image – is a polemic in favour of economic growth. The financial crisis and its aftermath have reinforced the earlier anti-globalisation arguments, so that everyone from deep green environmentalists to the Archbishop of Canterbury are now cheerfully arguing that capitalism is broken, consumerism is morally bankrupt and the world economy must go ex-growth. Ben-Ami wholeheartedly disagrees and in this book explains why.

The first half of the book traces the emergence of what he describes as growth scepticism. The environmental movement plays a prominent role. So too does the ever-present thread of regret for the social and cultural disruption caused by the 'creative destruction' of a capitalist economy. Ben-Ami argues that, furthermore, growth scepticism has become the mainstream view amongst the political and cultural elite. 'Sustainable development', for example, has become motherhood and apple pie in all policy and business circles – linked, he argues, to a deep pessimism about the possibility of progress and a consequent determination on the part of the elites in western countries to defend their own situation. “The campaign against popular prosperity is designed to put the rest of us in what the elite regards as our proper place – below them in the social hierarchy.” (p64) While I agree that anti-globalisation and environmentalism have certainly been preoccupations of the affluent, I think Ben-Ami needs to trace the political economy of it more thoroughly. It seems a valid empirical observation calling for a more thorough theoretical explanation.

The second half of the book sets out Ben-Ami's counter-arguments, explaining why growth is beneficial and we should continue to embrace it wholeheartedly. Some of this is very enjoyable, such as his blast against the 'happiness' gurus. Who would be against happiness, he asks? “This appeal to the lowest common denominator should immediately alert readers to the fatuousness of the arguments of the happiness movement.” (p169). It is, he argues, a misanthropic and conservative movement. It sees people as the passive subjects of a technocratic elite, which can manipulate them to make them more content. O Brave New World! Even worse, normal human desires are characterised by some experts (Ben-Ami singles out Oliver James, author of Affluenza) as pathological.

I very much enjoyed Ben-Ami's vigorous attacks on the various platitudes and follies of trendy, bien pensant environmentalists, happiness gurus and the like. It's about time somebody challenged the snobbish platitude that consumerism is a bad thing, always uttered by people who consume plenty themselves.

However, Ferraris for All falls into the opposing trap of thereby claiming that there's nothing wrong with modern capitalism. I do think the profound social trends set in train by technological upheaval, the institutional and political failures which allowed the emergence of massive global imbalances and the financial crisis, the social corrosion arising from inequality, not to mention environmental pressures, all need to be acknowledged. All is not for the best in the best of all possible worlds. Still, this is a good, lively read – although I fear it will not be read by those who most need to have their minds changed.