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I actually picked this book up for J. to read. Generally he is the one in our household who is interested in what I call "pop" nonfiction but should more fairly call journalistic nonfiction - books by authors like Erik Schlosser and Michael Moore that present a lot of information sort of all digested and commented on for you.
However, J. was snowed under by the huge pile of OTHER books that I had brought home for him to read (the perils of living with a librarian - he said to me once "not that I mind, but occasionally I would enjoy picking out my own books"). So I picked this up and began reading it. At first it left me feeling a bit depressed - assassination! exploitation! environmental degradation! But the tone of the writing is snappy. Short personal chapters with an engaging thriller-novel feel alternate with longer chapters about economic and political events in various countries and regions. There's a consistent emphasis on very believable (to me) psychological analysis of various players - different folks aren't demonized for their actions, instead the pressures that influence them are examined and discussed. There's a constant thread of quotations about activist groups, and descriptions of successful actions to effect political change. As you read along, even though you're reading about decades (and occasional acknowledgement of centuries) of exploitation, you feel more energized than depressed. And then the end of the book is focused on what folks can do to make a difference, in a remarkably practical way.
Also, this book manages to lay out lots of stuff that my 1600s reading has been convincing me of, but grounded in examples from the 1970s to mid-2000s. It articulates a lot of difficult, challenging political ideas and phrases them in a way that manages to avoid feeling (to me at least) confrontational or guilt inducing.
A favorite quote:
"In actual practice, corporations are the opposite of good citizens. They bribe politicians to write laws that cheat society on a mammoth scale, most significantly by allowing them to avoid paying many of the very real costs incurred in conducting their businesses. What economists refer to as "externalities" are left out of pricing calculations. These include the social and environmental costs of destruction of valuable resources, pollution, the burdens on society of workers who become injured or ill and receive little or no health care, the indirect funding received when companies are permitted to market hazardous products, dump wastes into oceans and rivers, pay employees less than a living wage, provide substandard working conditions, and extract natural resources from public lands at less-than-market prices. Furthermore, most corporations are dependent on public subsidies, exemptions, massive advertising and lobbying campaigns, and complex transportation and communications systems that are underwritten by taxpayers; their executives receive inflated salaries, perks, and "golden retirement parachutes," which are written off as tax deductions."
[pg277]
Reason this made me so happy: I got incoherent trying to explain the other day how companies that pay low tax rates but use public infrastructure heavily are being subsidized by individual taxpayers. Now I don't have to try! I can just politely disagree with them and perhaps recommend this book. Or a similar book. Because watching people's eyes glaze over is not actually my favorite hobby, appearances to the contrary.
Anyway, I really recommend this book. I am not sure if it would have charm for economic conservatives, but I think it could have appeal to some religious conservatives because I know there's a growing Christian movement concerned with environmentalism as a way of caring for God's creation. I do try to think about whether books are "good" in the sense of being both meaningful and well-written or whether they are "good" only in the sense of meeting an emotional need or confirming an intellectual prejudice of mine, and I think this book falls solidly into the "good on its own merits" camp.
However, J. was snowed under by the huge pile of OTHER books that I had brought home for him to read (the perils of living with a librarian - he said to me once "not that I mind, but occasionally I would enjoy picking out my own books"). So I picked this up and began reading it. At first it left me feeling a bit depressed - assassination! exploitation! environmental degradation! But the tone of the writing is snappy. Short personal chapters with an engaging thriller-novel feel alternate with longer chapters about economic and political events in various countries and regions. There's a consistent emphasis on very believable (to me) psychological analysis of various players - different folks aren't demonized for their actions, instead the pressures that influence them are examined and discussed. There's a constant thread of quotations about activist groups, and descriptions of successful actions to effect political change. As you read along, even though you're reading about decades (and occasional acknowledgement of centuries) of exploitation, you feel more energized than depressed. And then the end of the book is focused on what folks can do to make a difference, in a remarkably practical way.
Also, this book manages to lay out lots of stuff that my 1600s reading has been convincing me of, but grounded in examples from the 1970s to mid-2000s. It articulates a lot of difficult, challenging political ideas and phrases them in a way that manages to avoid feeling (to me at least) confrontational or guilt inducing.
A favorite quote:
"In actual practice, corporations are the opposite of good citizens. They bribe politicians to write laws that cheat society on a mammoth scale, most significantly by allowing them to avoid paying many of the very real costs incurred in conducting their businesses. What economists refer to as "externalities" are left out of pricing calculations. These include the social and environmental costs of destruction of valuable resources, pollution, the burdens on society of workers who become injured or ill and receive little or no health care, the indirect funding received when companies are permitted to market hazardous products, dump wastes into oceans and rivers, pay employees less than a living wage, provide substandard working conditions, and extract natural resources from public lands at less-than-market prices. Furthermore, most corporations are dependent on public subsidies, exemptions, massive advertising and lobbying campaigns, and complex transportation and communications systems that are underwritten by taxpayers; their executives receive inflated salaries, perks, and "golden retirement parachutes," which are written off as tax deductions."
[pg277]
Reason this made me so happy: I got incoherent trying to explain the other day how companies that pay low tax rates but use public infrastructure heavily are being subsidized by individual taxpayers. Now I don't have to try! I can just politely disagree with them and perhaps recommend this book. Or a similar book. Because watching people's eyes glaze over is not actually my favorite hobby, appearances to the contrary.
Anyway, I really recommend this book. I am not sure if it would have charm for economic conservatives, but I think it could have appeal to some religious conservatives because I know there's a growing Christian movement concerned with environmentalism as a way of caring for God's creation. I do try to think about whether books are "good" in the sense of being both meaningful and well-written or whether they are "good" only in the sense of meeting an emotional need or confirming an intellectual prejudice of mine, and I think this book falls solidly into the "good on its own merits" camp.
