by Robert B. Reich
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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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Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Informative Book, 2008-11-19
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.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
 Not Totally without Criticism of Content, 2008-11-14
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.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Remarkably erudite description of where the economy was, and why it is, where it is, now, 2008-11-10
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.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
This book is a MUST READ, 2008-10-23
Everyone, conservative, liberal, anarchist, Libertarian, Green Party, should read this book! It is not so much about a point of view as it is a dissection of how inaccurate thinking has caused us as citizens to confuse the categories of problems we are dealing with to the extent that we can't debate them logically. We need, as a country, to have an actual dialog that goes beyond fear and name calling, so that decisions we make have outcomes that are closer to what we actually intend, instead of watching our culture disintegrate and ineffectively blame the wrong causes and wonder why we are where we are. GREAT BOOK.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Consumers, citizens, investors, wage-earners, 2008-10-21
There are several valuable aspects from this book which renders a 5 star rating. First, it gives an excellent historical perspective of capitalism in the United States focusing particularly on the period leading up the mid-'70's, and our current version of capitalism. The transition between the two periods, exemplified by the shifts in the manufacturing and the financial sectors, underscored the trend for more deregulation and increased competition. The forces behind these changes, in particular the emergence of technology, bring a new economic scheme to American capitalism.
But then, he discusses the forces in play with our current model, Supercapitalism, and it is here where he develops his vision of viewing this model from the different roles that each of us play, ie, earner, investor, consumer, and citizen. I found this means of describing Supercapitalism most helpful, easy to understand, and intriguing. None of us are innocent; we all play some part of encouraging Supercapitalism. But, too, as our current situation shows, we, as citizens, are being gobbled up by our own market system.
I appreciated this book for its ability to bring to us, the reader, a means of seeing how we all are part of both market economics and democracy, and how the two are entwined. We must weigh our choices, with diligence and forebearance, and that no single ideology can encompass all of our responsiblities.
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