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 enlarge | Author: Robert B. Reich
Publisher: Knopf
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy New: $9.99
You Save: $15.01 (60%)
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Rating:  58 reviews
Sales Rank: 33433
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
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
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 A Must Read For Every Working Person September 29, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I have read all of Mr. Reich's books. This is his best work to date. I will recommend this title to all my friends, many of whom have been through downsizings and other personal economic upheavals. As have I.
Mr. Reich finally offers a rational explanation why the average person, making all the "right moves", (college, tech schools, etc....), still struggles in America today. Why do we live with so much economic insecurity? This circumstance is brought about not by an ominous evil corporation, but by the collective anonymity of each of us acting as consumers and investors. We want a better deal, and a higher return, or we will shop elsewhere. In the process we unknowingly slit each others financial throat with our "invisible hand". It is no wonder America is becoming a nation where every company wants to do business in a middle class society, but no one wants to pay a middle class wage.
The author offers some thought provoking ideas: eliminating the corporate tax in favor of allowing investment gains to be taxed as personal income, rejecting the idea of a company as anything more than a legal fiction, and explaining how the exploding costs of campaigning and political lobbying is just an outgrowth of intense marketplace competition.
The most important concept I took away from this book however is the need to think more broadly as a citizen and less like an investor or consumer. It also became clear to me that I need to work to elect people locally and nationally who support economic reform, or the changing of the economic rules companies operate under so that capitalism can benefit all of society and not just the wealthy.
Like many other people who write reviews for Amazon I read...a lot. There are few books that are life, or at least perspective changing. This is one such book. It was excellent. I could not put it down.
 The consumer wins! September 27, 2007
1 out of 9 found this review helpful
While I am a conservative, I have enjoyed reading Mr. Reich's books. I find him a natural at explaining the problems with America in plain English. In this book, he hammers home the theme that investors and more importantly consumers are the causes of Supercapitalism. That, at the expense of democracy, consumers have tipped the scales, leaving us less democratic in a way. We've become Superconsumers(my coined phrase). My feelings, though, what's wrong with that? Today's globalized world has given us more choice and more freedoms than at any other time in history. I believe the problem is that many Americans do not educate themselves to take full advantage of the choices they have. They get so blinded by marketing that everything eventually looks the same.
20 years ago you had to get in your car, drive to a record store, and pay $15 for an album to enjoy 2 or 3 songs that was on a piece of plastic and wrapped in paper, without even knowing if you would like the album or not. Today, you can preview online (now even on Amazon) and download just the songs you want for under a buck each in a matter of seconds. The point is not that downloading is better than buying a piece of plastic. The point is that today we have a choice!!!
But many people just don't take advantage of the potential savings and value in the new choices they are offered. Therefore, like Reich argues they lose in this democracy.
Profound Implications for the Future of Capitalism and Democracy September 24, 2007
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
Robert Reich has authored a brilliantly insightful new book based on his experiences in government, business and academia. He describes the evolution of the corporation following WWII and identifies the milestones that have sparked globalization. In defining the corporate 'self' he asserts that it has essentially only two functions: to provide lowest cost to the consumer and greatest return to the investor. Corporations that become involved in "socially responsible" causes for purposes other then self-promotion are, in effect, distracted from their mission. Reich explains that corporations are "fictionalized persons" that should not be afforded constitutional protections. He also describes a state of virtual competitive chaos existing within our new global economy and reminds us that democracy is not a condition for vibrant capitalism (China). While Reich makes some notable recommendations to preserve democracy, his work ultimately suggests that we are in need of fundamental new rules of the game.
Ted Nace in his book "Gangs of America: The Rise of Corporate Power and the Disabling of Democracy (Bk Currents)" presents a convincing argument that corporations have been trying to attain the rights of people in our courts since the days when railroads monopolized interstate commerce. James Canton in his book "The Extreme Future: The Top Trends That Will Reshape the World in the Next 20 Years" asserts that today's quasi-intelligent systems are evolving in ways in which we may not yet be fully aware and that we will have to develop new methods for keeping them in check. Indeed, Mr. Reich repeatedly opens our eyes to the fact that corporations are akin to intelligent synthetic entities not to be confused with actual persons. Furthermore, he makes the startling assertion that it is the collective intelligence of the corporation that drives CEO actions and not the other way around.
[Reviewer's analysis: If Mr. Reich (and others) are correct in their assessment that corporations are entities that cannot be entrusted with the general welfare, then some new rules of the game have already been proposed that should serve as a beacon. They have remained unused and untested only because we have ignored the possibility that intelligent synthetic entities could already exist and are evolving--until now. These principles are known well enough as the 'Three Laws of Robotics' and were proposed by the celebrated 20th century futurist, Isaac Asimov.
To see how fundamental principles follow from Mr. Reich's analysis, let's look at life in the mid-21st century when it is expected that many households will have a domestic robot (aka an intelligent synthetic entity). Suppose that the robot is DESIGNED to do two things well--cook and clean. Likewise, the robot is NOT DESIGNED to know when it is disturbing members of the household and it does not have the ability to recognize tainted foodstuffs. Because some inherent design shortcomings have the potential to disrupt or cause harm to humans, it is easy to see that such an entity as really a work in progress. With effective rules, however, we have assurance that upgrades to the synthetic's intelligence will place a priority on minimizing potential harm to humans (this rationale is not new--it is applied in our transportation, medical, and nuclear power generating systems, for instance).]
Mr. Reich's analogy of the corporation to a "fictionalized person" seems appropriate and evident. He convinces us that democracy is being overwhelmed by capitalism and that more than ever we need to develop and implement fundamental new economic principles to safeguard democracy, and ourselves.
The Balance of Capitalism and Democracy September 17, 2007
56 out of 57 found this review helpful
According to Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, there was a time when capitalism and democracy where almost perfectly balanced. This was the period of 1945 to 1975, which he calls the "Not Quite Golden Age." During this period there was a three-way social contract among big business, big labor, and big government. Each made sure that they as well as the other two received a fair share of the pie. Unions recieved their wages and benefits, business their profits, and regulatory agencies had their power. It was also a time when the gap between the rich and the poor was the narrowest in our history. It was not quite the golden age because women and minorities were still second class citizens, but at least there was hope.
Fast forward to 2007, capitalism is thriving and democracy is sputtering. Why has capitlism become supercapitalism and democracy become enfeebled? Reich explains that it was a combination of things: deregulation, globe spanning computer networks, better transportation, etc. The changes were mainly a result of technological breakthroughs; unlike many leftists, he is not conspiratorial thinker. The winner of this great transformation was the consumer/investor and the loser was the citizen/wage earner. The consumer has more choices than ever before and at reasonable prices. The investor has unprecedented opportunities to make profits. The citzen, however, is not doing well. The average citizen does not have much voice - other than voting - in the body politic. And on the wage earner has been stagnating for many years. The most salient illustration of this trend is Walmart. Walmart delivers the goods at low prices, but the trade-off is low wages for their employees. We justify this dilemma, as Reich nicely puts it, because "The awkward truth is that most of us are of two minds."
As a left-leaning author, Reich makes some startling pronouncements. One, stop treating corporations as human beings. They are neither moral or immoral, they are merely "bundles of contracts." I couldn't agree more. Stop expecting corporations to be socially responsible, see them for what they are: profit-seeking organizations. Any socially responsible action is a ruse to bolster the bottom line anyway. Don't even encourage them to be socially responsible because it will wrongly lead us to believe that they are solving problems when they are not. Corporations play by the rules that they are given and it is up to citizens and their elected representatives to change the rules.
This is no easy task in the age of supercapitalism. There are currently 38,000 registered lobbyists in Washington DC in a virtual arms race of spending with each other to buy favors from our so-called representatives. The only way citizens can compete with this is not by hiring more lobbyists but advocating through new media outlets such as the internet and cable tv. This, according to Reich, is currently to most effective way to make government more responsive.
The question that remains, after reading this book, is will consumers be willing to sacrifice their low prices to achieve their goals as citizens. If the answer is yes, we can possibly rebalance the equation between democracy and capitalism; if not, we are left to the not so tender mercies of supercapitalism.
 Whether or not you agree with Reich SUPERCAPITALISM opens up a dialogue on economics and social responsibility September 10, 2007
57 out of 63 found this review helpful
Robert Reich makes a compelling argument that supercapitalism has robbed democracy of much of its power. Supercapitalism by the definition presented in the book is simple--the consumer is king and prices ALWAYS go down. What Reich looks at is the cost of low prices to companies, society, the individual and its impact on the workings of democracy. So how is democracy compromised? Reich also points out that the rise of different lobbying groups, the cost of politics and globalization as contributing to this process. This isn't a surprise. It has just become more pronounced with time.
It's not due to some large conspiracy or any hidden political agenda as much as it is driven by consumption. Ultimately Reich argues that it robs the common citizen of any control over democracy. It's not surprising that this is a highly charged issue because the economics of what benefits society (or "the common good" as Reich calls it)often gets tangled up in the web of politics. Reich also points out that the cost of supercompetitiveness, constantly falling prices is a loss to the economic and social health of America. Reich points out that everyone wants to get the lowest price possible but he also suggests that we must balance that with our desire to have decent wages and benefits. He also points out that the move towards regulation was initiated by government and that corporations went along because it kept out competition and guaranteed a top and bottom for prices allowing companies to get a profit without fear of cutting prices so low that it would put them out of business.
I should point out that this is an oversimplification of Reich's points but it does capture some of the concepts. He also makes some suggestions that would help keep the free market afloat without undermining democracy and allowing consumers to still benefit from competitive pricing. Since this is economics we are discussing politics is mixed in and might color whether or not you agree with his points.
Reich's style is breezy for a book that looks at economics, democracy and the erosion of wages, benefits. Reich comes across as fair balanced and thoughtful even as he sells his take on what is undermining American society. Ultimately it's a worthwhile book to read simply because it opens up dialogue on the social cost of constantly lowering prices and how it impacts those who live next door to us.
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