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Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life (Borzoi Books) | 
 enlarge | Author: Robert B. Reich
Publisher: Knopf
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
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New (43) Used (28) Collectible (4) from $9.56
Rating:  55 reviews
Sales Rank: 48244
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 288
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.2
ISBN: 0307265617
Dewey Decimal Number: 320.97301
EAN: 9780307265616
ASIN: 0307265617
Publication Date: September 4, 2007
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| Also Available In:
| • | Paperback - Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life (Vintage) | | • | Audio CD - Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life | | • | Audio CD - Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life | | • | MP3 CD - Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life | | • | Kindle Edition - Supercapitalism | | • | Audio Download - Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life (Unabridged) | | • | Audio Cassette - Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life (Playaway Adult Nonfiction) |
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Product Description
From the greatly admired author of The Work of Nations and The Future of Success, one of America's greatest economic and political thinkers as well as a distinguished public servant in three national administrations, a breakthrough book on the clash between capitalism and democracy.
Mid-twentieth-century capitalism has turned into global capitalism, and global capitalism—turbocharged, Web-based, and able to find and make almost anything just about anywhere—has turned into supercapitalism. But as Robert B. Reich makes clear in this eye-opening book, while supercapitalism is working wonderfully well to enlarge the economic pie, democracy—charged with caring for all citizens—is becoming less and less effective under its influence.
Reich explains how widening inequalities of income and wealth, heightened job insecurity, and the spreading effects of global warming are the logical outcomes of supercapitalism. He shows us why companies, fighting harder than ever to maintain their competitive positions, have become even more deeply involved in politics; and how average citizens, seeking great deals and invested in the stock market to an unprecedented degree, are increasingly loath to stand by their values if it means biting the hands that feed them. He makes clear how the tools traditionally used to temper America's societal problems—fair taxation, well-funded public education, trade unions—have withered as supercapitalism has burgeoned.
Reich sets out a clear course to a vibrant capitalism and a concurrent, equally vibrant democracy. He argues forcefully that the spheres of business and politics must be kept distinct. He calls for an end to the legal fiction that corporations are citizens, as well as the illusion that corporations can be "socially responsible" until laws define social needs. Reich explains why we must stop treating companies as if they were people—and must therefore abolish the corporate income tax and levy it on shareholders instead, hold individuals rather than corporations guilty of criminal conduct, and not expect companies to be "patriotic." For, as Reich says, only people can be citizens, and only citizens should be allowed to participate in democratic decision making.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 50 more reviews...
 Refreshing, Clear, and Challenging November 28, 2008
Robert McAvoy (Burleson, TX USA)
Robert Reich's book is refreshing from a variety of perspectives. It is refreshing because he doesn't settle for cheap criticism or partisan sniping. It is refreshingly honest; he establishes a clear line of responsbility between citizen behavior and economic or social consequences, whether intended or unintended. His grasp of history and personal observations in government service are clearly stated and will, hopefully, serve as the basis for authentic dialogue. More important, Robert Reich challenges us to recognize that we are unlikely to evolve as individuals or as a nation unless we reclaim our role as citizen in a republic dedicated to the proposition that we are capable of governing ourselves.
Required reading to understand our current economic downfall November 22, 2008
Eric Hall (Kadena AB, Japan)
Robert Reich blends the ideas that not only are companies but also citizens of America are to blame for the current economic crisis. He details the rise and ultimate fall of deregulation, the increased availability of resources and the somewhat new idea of fierce competition between deeply rooted and fledgling companies. Mr. Reich shows that corporations looking to increase their stock prices are hurting the economy by the ways they go about doing so.
But the most telling aspect of the story is how we, as citizens of America, are allowing these corporations to continue their greedy ways and how we are almost of the same mindset.
Definitely pick this item up if you want to understand how we can get out of the current mess and the history of it all.
Informative Book November 19, 2008
Eric D. Brown (Dallas, TX)
Supercapitalism, written by Robert Reich, is an amazing book and should be read by every single American citizen.
The book is a historical look at American Capitalism and Democracy and how they've been intertwined and even how they've diverged in recent years. This divergence, Reich argues, is due to Supercapitalism.
What does this mean? It means that this country has moved past a mixture of democracy and capitalism into a new era of greed. Consumers love the cheap prices we find online and in discount stores but we get angry when jobs are sent overseas. Investors love the high returns that stocks have provided to us but we get upset when the companies we invest in cut costs be laying off there staff.
Has anyone stopped to realize that the reason these jobs are going overseas is because we (as consumers) demand cheaper prices and we (as investors) are demanding higher returns?
There is a lot of information in this book and much of it has opened my eyes to what Capitalism and Democracy in America used to mean....and what it means today.
This is a great book that everyone should read.
 Not Totally without Criticism of Content November 14, 2008
A. Thompson (Naples, FL United States)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Lucid and compelling arguments are made. However, I would argue with the assumptions that anchor the arguments for Corporations.
Corporations are supposedly only contracts, not real people. But if you take away the people, there is no corporation, because there is no agent who operates the said corporation within the real world with real actions. OK, first argument negated.
He wants me to believe his thesis that Corporations have no moral duties or social responsibility. But if real people are carrying out the real actions in the name of a Corporation, then real people are dispensing with actions that are either moral or immoral behavior.
Look, if the Nazi Party was only a corporate political organization that has no moral or social responsibility, then the individuals inside that organization, who gassed 6 million people, are not responsible for their actions. Right?
I would rethink my idea of what a corporation is. A corporation is an organizational group of individuals which makes decisions and whose actions are carried out collectively as a group. It is still a real person, only now a group of them to be more precise.
Remarkably erudite description of where the economy was, and why it is, where it is, now November 10, 2008
T. Rodgers
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Reich breaks up the US economy, since the end of World War II, into two eras:
The first is the 'Not Quite Golden Age', which ended in 1975. This era was marked by a shared gains across nearly all participants and stability. The problems were built in inefficiency and a stagnant mindset.
The second era is 'Supercapitalism' and encompasses everything after 1975. This era was marked by extremely efficient markets, creative business and many options for investors. The problem is that while investors and consumers have benefited immensely under this system, workers have suffered, and Washington has wholly sold out.
That's a very rough summary of what Reich details in perfectly concise and clear English. The argument he makes is one a great prosecutor makes on an open and shut case. Point by point he builds up to the conclusion, and it's nearly nearly indisputable when he arrives.
The base Reich builds is my favorite part of this book. It gives the best explanation of the modern (and recently modern) economy that I've ever read.
The base Reich builds is so solid, that the conclusions and summary just fall into place. If anything in the book is vague, it is in the conclusions and the author's recommendations.
It could also be said that the recommendations are prescient given the market collapse since this was published. This book is essentially an argument for sensible regulation, even before the collapse over the last few months that made 'deregulation' a four letter word.
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