In Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few, Robert B. Reich describes what he believes ails modern society. Major themes the book touches on include the so-called “free market,” describing the prevailing view, his building blocks of capitalism, the workings of property, monopoly, and contracts, and bankruptcy and associated enforcement mechanisms. He then moves on to work and worth: the myth that a person is paid equivalent to their value to society, how CEO and Wall Street pay do not adhere to these rules, and the status of the middle class and working poor. Finally, Reich switches gears to what he terms countervailing power – what it means, how it has declined, how to restore it, and how we can progress from here. In this report,
…show more content…
When companies get big enough (Microsoft, Google, and so forth), the prevailing public sentiment toward that company tends to shift from supporting their success, to questioning why no competitors have been able to take a share of the market, to examining the practices of the market giant, looking for signs they may not be playing fairly. Sometimes, they do find evidence of foul play, and antitrust suits are brought.
Reich’s third Building Block of Capitalism is the Contract. He defines contracts as “agreements between buyers and sellers to do or provide something in exchange for something else,” and calls them “the means by which trades are made and enforced.” Reich points out that arguing about the rules of the free market versus the rules of the government continues to miss the point; we should instead examine who benefits most from the rules, and how the rules should be changed to benefit a larger portion of society.
Reich mentions that the rules can be particularly murky when so many things bought and sold today are not tangible: a piece of software, or a song, or a made-up financial instrument. Technology has played an enormous role in the ability to trade currency (itself likely never more than bits in a computer) for other bits in a computer. If society continues to move in this direction, contracts must evolve along with …show more content…
Reich again summarizes the threat to capitalism, how countervailing power has fallen, and how it can be restored. He finishes the book with his plan for how the rights can all be wronged, as it were. You’ll have to read it for yourself – I won’t spoil the ending.
In all, Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few was a surprisingly interesting read for a topic that threatens to be quite boring. Its chapters are short, keeping individual topics concise. The entire book is less than three hundred pages, so it does not overstay its welcome. And the back of the book is full of many references and cited sources, for those interested in further reading on any individual topic found within its pages.
Try as I might, I can’t find much of anything substantial about which to complain. Perhaps my biggest gripe – and this is by no means the fault of Mr. Reich – is that I was unable to rent the book from my local library in a digital
When companies get big enough (Microsoft, Google, and so forth), the prevailing public sentiment toward that company tends to shift from supporting their success, to questioning why no competitors have been able to take a share of the market, to examining the practices of the market giant, looking for signs they may not be playing fairly. Sometimes, they do find evidence of foul play, and antitrust suits are brought.
Reich’s third Building Block of Capitalism is the Contract. He defines contracts as “agreements between buyers and sellers to do or provide something in exchange for something else,” and calls them “the means by which trades are made and enforced.” Reich points out that arguing about the rules of the free market versus the rules of the government continues to miss the point; we should instead examine who benefits most from the rules, and how the rules should be changed to benefit a larger portion of society.
Reich mentions that the rules can be particularly murky when so many things bought and sold today are not tangible: a piece of software, or a song, or a made-up financial instrument. Technology has played an enormous role in the ability to trade currency (itself likely never more than bits in a computer) for other bits in a computer. If society continues to move in this direction, contracts must evolve along with …show more content…
Reich again summarizes the threat to capitalism, how countervailing power has fallen, and how it can be restored. He finishes the book with his plan for how the rights can all be wronged, as it were. You’ll have to read it for yourself – I won’t spoil the ending.
In all, Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few was a surprisingly interesting read for a topic that threatens to be quite boring. Its chapters are short, keeping individual topics concise. The entire book is less than three hundred pages, so it does not overstay its welcome. And the back of the book is full of many references and cited sources, for those interested in further reading on any individual topic found within its pages.
Try as I might, I can’t find much of anything substantial about which to complain. Perhaps my biggest gripe – and this is by no means the fault of Mr. Reich – is that I was unable to rent the book from my local library in a digital