Manufacturing Discontent: The Trap of Individualism in Corporate Society

by Michael Perelman

Corporate power has a huge impact on the rights and privileges of individuals -- as workers, consumers, and citizens. This book explores how the myth of individualism reinforces corporate power by making people perceive themselves as having choices, when in fact most peoples' options are very limited. Perelman describes the manufacture of unhappiness - the continual generation of dissatisfaction with products people are encouraged to purchase and quickly discard - and the complex techniques corporations employ to avoid responsibility and accountability to their workers, consumers and the environment. He outlines ways in which individuals can surpass individualism and instead work together to check the growing power of corporations. While other books have surveyed the corporate landscape, or decried modern consumerism, Perelman, a professor of economics, places these ideas within a proper economic and historical context. He explores the limits of corporate accountability and responsibility, and investigates the relation between a wide range of phenomena such as food, fear and terrorism. Highly readable, Manufacturing Discontent will appeal to anyone with an interest in the way society works - and what really determines the rights of individuals in a corporate society.

Genres: Economics, Politics, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Sociology

224 pages, Paperback

First published July 20, 2005

About the author

Michael Perelman (born October 1, 1939) is an American economist and economic historian, currently professor of economics at California State University, Chico. Perelman has written 19 books, including Railroading Economics, Manufacturing Discontent, The Perverse Economy, and The Invention of Capitalism. A student of economics at the University of Michigan and San Francisco State College, Perelman earned a Ph.D in agricultural economics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1971, under supervision of George Kuznets. Perelman writes that he was drawn away from the "framework of conventional economics," noticing that the agricultural system was "consuming ten times more energy than it was producing in the form of edible food." Perelman's research into how "profit-oriented agricultural system created hunger, pollution, serious public health consequences, and environmental disruption, while throwing millions of people off the land" led to his first book, Farming for Profit in a Hungry World (1977). Perelman continued to write extensively in criticism of conventional or mainstream economics, including in all his books (and especially his books published from 2000 to date), papers and interviews.

Although perceiving flaws in Marx's work as it is typically interpreted in the context of its modern reading, Perelman writes that "Marx’s crisis theory was far more sophisticated than many modern readers had realized," focusing on an interpretation that is largely bypassed by many readers of Marxian economic thought. Perelman views Marxist theory as vindicated through its account of crises that a capitalist economy must inherently generate.

Perelman has appeared on a number of programs, including Media Matters, Pacifica Radio, KPFA 94.1 Berkeley, and WBBR (Bloomberg Radio).

Reviews

[Ietrio · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very interesting. So Perelman is a man specialized in living off the taxes collected from the working people, the poor, and the homeless. He has worked for various institutions and for him exploitation means having to take his full pay and not a dollar more after having to sleep some 8 hours a day in an office without air conditioning. And at the same time, in his dreams, Perelman knows perfectly well what is going on in the Corporate Society where people have to work for a living or they are kicked out.

Anyway, the idea is the glorious rehash of most government bureaucrats hive mind: love the Big Brother, dump the individuality in yourself, and like with Perelman, the Government will shower you with all you need, even give you a budget to hire servants so you won't be bothered to wake up every 4 hours while at work.