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America Beyond Capitalism: Reclaiming Our Wealth, Our Liberty, and Our Democracy
Be prepared for a mind-opening experience.
-The Christian Century
""Highly readable; excellent for students. . . . A tonic and eye-opener for anyone who wants a politics that works.""
-Jane Mansbridge, Adams Professor, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
""America Beyond Capitalism comes at a critical time in our history-when we all know our system isn't working but we are not sure what can be done about it. This book takes us outside the confines of orthodox thinking, imagines a new way of living together, and then brings that vision back into reality with a set of eminently practical ideas that promise a truly democratic society.""
-Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States
""Succeeds brilliantly in taking the Jeffersonian spirit into the last bastion of privilege in America, offering workable solutions for making the American economy one that is truly of, by, and for the people.""
-Jeremy Rifkin, author of The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream
""The kind of careful, well-researched, and practical alternative progressives have been seeking. And it's more-visionary, hopeful, even inspirational. I highly recommend it.""
-Juliet Schor, author of The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don't Need
""A compelling and convincing story of the future.""
-William Greider, author of The Soul of Capitalism: Opening Paths to a Moral Economy
-The Christian Century
""Highly readable; excellent for students. . . . A tonic and eye-opener for anyone who wants a politics that works.""
-Jane Mansbridge, Adams Professor, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
""America Beyond Capitalism comes at a critical time in our history-when we all know our system isn't working but we are not sure what can be done about it. This book takes us outside the confines of orthodox thinking, imagines a new way of living together, and then brings that vision back into reality with a set of eminently practical ideas that promise a truly democratic society.""
-Howard Zinn, author of A People's History of the United States
""Succeeds brilliantly in taking the Jeffersonian spirit into the last bastion of privilege in America, offering workable solutions for making the American economy one that is truly of, by, and for the people.""
-Jeremy Rifkin, author of The European Dream: How Europe's Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream
""The kind of careful, well-researched, and practical alternative progressives have been seeking. And it's more-visionary, hopeful, even inspirational. I highly recommend it.""
-Juliet Schor, author of The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don't Need
""A compelling and convincing story of the future.""
-William Greider, author of The Soul of Capitalism: Opening Paths to a Moral Economy
336 pages
First published October 15, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
January 20, 2012
In the midst of a political environment prominently lacking in imagination, it is refreshing to read a book in which an author sets about developing unconventional yet practical ideas around the unstable distribution of economic power in America. Despite it's provocative title, America Beyond Capitalism is a rather conservative book that looks at how we might build a future in which the privileges of productive asset ownership are enjoyed by a larger segment of the population.
Rather than set forth and defend a rigid ideology, Gar Alperovitz instead describes various political and economic strategies that have been quietly developed in response to the needs of specific communities in America and then speaks to what larger lessons can be learned from these small-scale experiments. It’s not a book to indoctrinate, but rather a book to spark imagination around intransigent problems of the American economy.
One such problem that has gotten much recent press is that of economic inequality, specifically in the context of democratic rule. Concentrated economic power, like concentrated political power, has a destabilizing effect on democratic rule. Through campaign donations, lobbying, and the formation of political action committees, the wealthy have powerful influence on the American political process.
Beyond political influence, when the wealthiest 10% of the American population owns 81.2% of all stocks and mutual fund shares, 93.3% of all business equity, and 98.5% of financial securities, the other 90% of the population finds themselves with only marginal economic influence [1].
In the past, the general public has attempted to act collectively through government representatives to moderate this trend towards extreme concentration of economic power. However, antitrust regulation, progressive taxation, and other such approaches have largely failed to broaden the distribution of economic power.
In this light, rather than look to federal approaches to economic power imbalance, Alperovitz instead looks to local and community-based approaches. He covers many ideas in the book, but I’ll just focus on one – worker-owned firms – in this review.
Worker-owned firms are an important development for the American economy because they address a key problem of the economic balance which is that the shareholders of and stakeholders in American companies are often two different populations with competing interests.
To take the example of a manufacturing facility, shareholders would be those who have invested capital in the facility and now hold shareholder’s equity. Stakeholders, on the other hand, are a broader group of those who have a stake in the facility’s operations including not only the shareholders, but also employees who are dependent on the facility for wages, community members who must bear the burden of pollution produced by the facility, and consumers who are reliant on a safe product being produced.
For shareholders, profit-seeking is the supreme motive. After all, they want to maximize their return on investment. The broad pressure toward profit-maximization that shareholders exert on management often leads to cost-externalization through unsafe working conditions, pollution, and outsourcing to the extent that regulations allow.
The stakeholders who bear these externalized costs on the other hand have an interest in pushing back against such behavior. However, this returns us to our earlier statistic, that the wealthiest 10% own 93.3% of all business equity. Thus community members, employees, and other stakeholders rarely have the economic power with which to directly resist cost externalization.
Instead they must resort to indirect methods such as appeals to customers through public protest or petitioning the government for increased regulation in order to be protected. If stakeholders are in a foreign country, such as the laborers that produce electronics for Apple and Microsoft, often more dramatic measures such as the threat of mass suicide are necessary [2].
For a worker-owned firm, on the other hand, the stakeholders and shareholders are drawn from overlapping populations. In such a firm, profit-seeking must be balanced with the need for a safe workplace, healthy environment, and continued employment. Return on investment is important – the firm must at least break even to continue operations – but the pressure to externalize costs is tempered by the fact that the same population that bears these externalized costs are making these decision.
You might expect that with such constraints, worker-owned firms would be less efficient, but analysis of firms with Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs are a type of worker-ownership) found an average productivity increase of 4.4% following adoption of worker-ownership. This is while workers received compensation levels 8% greater than comparable public companies [3].
This is not to say that a mass migration to worker-ownership would immediately and completely fix all that ails the American workforce. However, practical wisdom that can be implemented on the small scale and built from the ground up is invaluable. In a time when both Democrats’ and Republicans’ only answer to the recession is shameless pandering to corporate interests, it’s refreshing to read a book that at least tries to have practical imagination around economic issues.
Of course there are plenty of Alperovitz’s ideas that I disagreed with (hence the three star review), but like I said America Beyond Capitalism is a book about ideas, not ideology. If reading this book gets people thinking with greater creativity about how we might have a robust economy and a broader distribution of economic power in this country, then it’s done its job.
[1] http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/...
[2] http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/...
[3] http://archives.republicans.edlabor.h...
Rather than set forth and defend a rigid ideology, Gar Alperovitz instead describes various political and economic strategies that have been quietly developed in response to the needs of specific communities in America and then speaks to what larger lessons can be learned from these small-scale experiments. It’s not a book to indoctrinate, but rather a book to spark imagination around intransigent problems of the American economy.
One such problem that has gotten much recent press is that of economic inequality, specifically in the context of democratic rule. Concentrated economic power, like concentrated political power, has a destabilizing effect on democratic rule. Through campaign donations, lobbying, and the formation of political action committees, the wealthy have powerful influence on the American political process.
Beyond political influence, when the wealthiest 10% of the American population owns 81.2% of all stocks and mutual fund shares, 93.3% of all business equity, and 98.5% of financial securities, the other 90% of the population finds themselves with only marginal economic influence [1].
In the past, the general public has attempted to act collectively through government representatives to moderate this trend towards extreme concentration of economic power. However, antitrust regulation, progressive taxation, and other such approaches have largely failed to broaden the distribution of economic power.
In this light, rather than look to federal approaches to economic power imbalance, Alperovitz instead looks to local and community-based approaches. He covers many ideas in the book, but I’ll just focus on one – worker-owned firms – in this review.
Worker-owned firms are an important development for the American economy because they address a key problem of the economic balance which is that the shareholders of and stakeholders in American companies are often two different populations with competing interests.
To take the example of a manufacturing facility, shareholders would be those who have invested capital in the facility and now hold shareholder’s equity. Stakeholders, on the other hand, are a broader group of those who have a stake in the facility’s operations including not only the shareholders, but also employees who are dependent on the facility for wages, community members who must bear the burden of pollution produced by the facility, and consumers who are reliant on a safe product being produced.
For shareholders, profit-seeking is the supreme motive. After all, they want to maximize their return on investment. The broad pressure toward profit-maximization that shareholders exert on management often leads to cost-externalization through unsafe working conditions, pollution, and outsourcing to the extent that regulations allow.
The stakeholders who bear these externalized costs on the other hand have an interest in pushing back against such behavior. However, this returns us to our earlier statistic, that the wealthiest 10% own 93.3% of all business equity. Thus community members, employees, and other stakeholders rarely have the economic power with which to directly resist cost externalization.
Instead they must resort to indirect methods such as appeals to customers through public protest or petitioning the government for increased regulation in order to be protected. If stakeholders are in a foreign country, such as the laborers that produce electronics for Apple and Microsoft, often more dramatic measures such as the threat of mass suicide are necessary [2].
For a worker-owned firm, on the other hand, the stakeholders and shareholders are drawn from overlapping populations. In such a firm, profit-seeking must be balanced with the need for a safe workplace, healthy environment, and continued employment. Return on investment is important – the firm must at least break even to continue operations – but the pressure to externalize costs is tempered by the fact that the same population that bears these externalized costs are making these decision.
You might expect that with such constraints, worker-owned firms would be less efficient, but analysis of firms with Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs are a type of worker-ownership) found an average productivity increase of 4.4% following adoption of worker-ownership. This is while workers received compensation levels 8% greater than comparable public companies [3].
This is not to say that a mass migration to worker-ownership would immediately and completely fix all that ails the American workforce. However, practical wisdom that can be implemented on the small scale and built from the ground up is invaluable. In a time when both Democrats’ and Republicans’ only answer to the recession is shameless pandering to corporate interests, it’s refreshing to read a book that at least tries to have practical imagination around economic issues.
Of course there are plenty of Alperovitz’s ideas that I disagreed with (hence the three star review), but like I said America Beyond Capitalism is a book about ideas, not ideology. If reading this book gets people thinking with greater creativity about how we might have a robust economy and a broader distribution of economic power in this country, then it’s done its job.
[1] http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/...
[2] http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/...
[3] http://archives.republicans.edlabor.h...
August 9, 2016
This book earned a low rating not due to my disagreements with the author, of which I have a few, but because I realized 3/4 of the way through the book that you could gain just as much information on Alperovitz's theories by reading his wikipedia page and the associated article links. This book tended to repeat itself over and over with numerous examples of ESOPs, CDCs, and other forms of pluralist commonwealth ideas.
I have a strong sense that this man lives in a VERY tall ivory tower. Save yourself a few hours and just read up on him and his ideas here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gar_Alp...
I have a strong sense that this man lives in a VERY tall ivory tower. Save yourself a few hours and just read up on him and his ideas here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gar_Alp...
December 28, 2008
This intelligent critique of America picks up on some serious problems. We're a society in "real trouble", and we're less equal, less free, less masters of our own fate. Alperovitz notes correctly that we're moving dangerously towards an oligarchy or plutocracy, and I agree with this intelligent observation (which has been made by excellent journalists like Bill Moyers.)
As I write this, after the recent election of a Democratic president, there's a sense of relief that right-wing ideological policies of the past administration which have proven to be a huge disappointment are past us now, and there's relief just to have a change. No doubt the United States will lean to the left, and this is natural, and the fact that the nation oscillates every generation or so between a right-leaning agenda and a left-leaning agenda provides a healthy measure of protection for Americans.
My problems with Alperovitz's prescription, however, is that he's pulled tired ideas from the socialist bag of tricks. He likes worker-owned firms. He favors community-owned enterprises. He suggests municipalities should own businesses and real estate, and cites Boston's Faneuil Hall as a case-study in successful management. While there may be some exceptions, I think there are few examples of workers successfully running a business firm. These ideas deserve to be heard, of course, but I think the direction of the country shouldn't be left or right but rather center. Things that bother Alperovitz tend to bother most socialists, including wealth inequality -- he points out (along with others like Kevin Phillips) that the richest one percent own half of all stocks, securities, trust equity, and business equity. This concentration of wealth is a direct result of several decades of Republican-oriented rule, and it does represent a danger, in my view, but I think America is in such danger that a mere shift to the left, towards Democratic policies such as the ones advocated by Alperovitz, a mere change of administration, a change of party or president -- these steps will be insufficient to fix America.
I advocate serious reform. I'm kind of a radical centrist, perhaps. I see partisanship as part of the problem with America for a variety of reasons. Partisanship interferes with foreign policy. I favor a return to a federal structure in which individual states can be as partisan as they like -- leaning left or right as it suits them -- while keeping partisanship out of Washington. And this book advocates a form of partisanship.
I think America is serious danger. The political process is broken. Washington is corrupt. Congress is gridlocked by horrendous partisanship. There's a dangerous concentration of power in the executive branch in one person -- the president -- and the usual system of checks and balances seems to have come undone. The federal system is out of whack -- ideally state governments should regulate their own economies, but Washington has usurped this power through numerous rulings, often encouraged by the Supreme Court. And this body of unelected justices has, in many respects, assumed a quasi-legislative role, which was never intended by the Constitution's Framers, because it has the power to strike down any law it deems unconstitutional. Washington is like a giant crashed computer, unresponsive to keystrokes, and unable to cope with serious issues such as Social Security underfunding, the specter of terrorism, financial meltdowns, global warming, corruption, lobbying running rampant, and so on.
Americans should read "The American Lie" by Benjamin Ginsberg; "The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Constitution" by Kevin R. C. Gutzman; "Common Sense II: How to Prevent the Three Types of Terrorism" by myself; "Up To Our Eyeballs" by several authors; "Our Undemocratic Constitution" by Sanford Levinson; "How America Got It Right" by Bevin Alexander (a tough critique of American foreign policy despite the positive sounding title). Generally, these are tough, non-partisan looks at a nation in deep denial.
I think the problems are so dangerous that a Second Constitutional Convention is required to fix them, so I have summoned this body of America's leading citizens from both left and right and center, using my authority as a private citizen, to convene in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, beginning July 4th, 2009. A new document should be based on the existing one but which: (1) prevents crime, tyranny, and foreign terrorism (2) restores citizenship as an active relationship between individual and government (3) brings back the federal structure where state governments have the most authority in regulating their respective economies (4) fixes the architecture of government to permit intelligent and long-range foreign policy (5) identifies movement in public (to thwart terrorism) while preserving privacy (6) de-politicizes the Supreme Court (7) limits factionalism.
Good book, but what America needs is an intelligent non-partisan approach.
As I write this, after the recent election of a Democratic president, there's a sense of relief that right-wing ideological policies of the past administration which have proven to be a huge disappointment are past us now, and there's relief just to have a change. No doubt the United States will lean to the left, and this is natural, and the fact that the nation oscillates every generation or so between a right-leaning agenda and a left-leaning agenda provides a healthy measure of protection for Americans.
My problems with Alperovitz's prescription, however, is that he's pulled tired ideas from the socialist bag of tricks. He likes worker-owned firms. He favors community-owned enterprises. He suggests municipalities should own businesses and real estate, and cites Boston's Faneuil Hall as a case-study in successful management. While there may be some exceptions, I think there are few examples of workers successfully running a business firm. These ideas deserve to be heard, of course, but I think the direction of the country shouldn't be left or right but rather center. Things that bother Alperovitz tend to bother most socialists, including wealth inequality -- he points out (along with others like Kevin Phillips) that the richest one percent own half of all stocks, securities, trust equity, and business equity. This concentration of wealth is a direct result of several decades of Republican-oriented rule, and it does represent a danger, in my view, but I think America is in such danger that a mere shift to the left, towards Democratic policies such as the ones advocated by Alperovitz, a mere change of administration, a change of party or president -- these steps will be insufficient to fix America.
I advocate serious reform. I'm kind of a radical centrist, perhaps. I see partisanship as part of the problem with America for a variety of reasons. Partisanship interferes with foreign policy. I favor a return to a federal structure in which individual states can be as partisan as they like -- leaning left or right as it suits them -- while keeping partisanship out of Washington. And this book advocates a form of partisanship.
I think America is serious danger. The political process is broken. Washington is corrupt. Congress is gridlocked by horrendous partisanship. There's a dangerous concentration of power in the executive branch in one person -- the president -- and the usual system of checks and balances seems to have come undone. The federal system is out of whack -- ideally state governments should regulate their own economies, but Washington has usurped this power through numerous rulings, often encouraged by the Supreme Court. And this body of unelected justices has, in many respects, assumed a quasi-legislative role, which was never intended by the Constitution's Framers, because it has the power to strike down any law it deems unconstitutional. Washington is like a giant crashed computer, unresponsive to keystrokes, and unable to cope with serious issues such as Social Security underfunding, the specter of terrorism, financial meltdowns, global warming, corruption, lobbying running rampant, and so on.
Americans should read "The American Lie" by Benjamin Ginsberg; "The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Constitution" by Kevin R. C. Gutzman; "Common Sense II: How to Prevent the Three Types of Terrorism" by myself; "Up To Our Eyeballs" by several authors; "Our Undemocratic Constitution" by Sanford Levinson; "How America Got It Right" by Bevin Alexander (a tough critique of American foreign policy despite the positive sounding title). Generally, these are tough, non-partisan looks at a nation in deep denial.
I think the problems are so dangerous that a Second Constitutional Convention is required to fix them, so I have summoned this body of America's leading citizens from both left and right and center, using my authority as a private citizen, to convene in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, beginning July 4th, 2009. A new document should be based on the existing one but which: (1) prevents crime, tyranny, and foreign terrorism (2) restores citizenship as an active relationship between individual and government (3) brings back the federal structure where state governments have the most authority in regulating their respective economies (4) fixes the architecture of government to permit intelligent and long-range foreign policy (5) identifies movement in public (to thwart terrorism) while preserving privacy (6) de-politicizes the Supreme Court (7) limits factionalism.
Good book, but what America needs is an intelligent non-partisan approach.
April 21, 2018
So far, a book that takes 'systemic change,' structural reform and strategic ideas seriously, especially on the micro level.
February 11, 2013
Gar Alperovitz has pulled together a comprehensive series of ideas, or perhaps suggestions would be a better word, for bringing democracy and freedom into the future, realizing that economic inequality is a large problem, one that seems hopelessly tangled with environmental problems and other economic issues, he suggests a Pluralistic Commonwealth as a possible solution.
This would spread wealth more evenly in society, allowing us higher standards of living and ever increasing leisure time.
If occupy could have accessed the ideas in this book and made them central to their cause, who knows what might have come of that?
The only trouble with the book is the seemingly endless examples of small efforts towards accomplishing the larger goals Alperovitz outlines. It can make for tedious reading at times, but the author also has a way of hitting you with big ideas, and is always careful to source and give credit where credit is due, which opens up new reading.
This would spread wealth more evenly in society, allowing us higher standards of living and ever increasing leisure time.
If occupy could have accessed the ideas in this book and made them central to their cause, who knows what might have come of that?
The only trouble with the book is the seemingly endless examples of small efforts towards accomplishing the larger goals Alperovitz outlines. It can make for tedious reading at times, but the author also has a way of hitting you with big ideas, and is always careful to source and give credit where credit is due, which opens up new reading.
January 1, 2014
Excellent somewhat dated book on what needs to happen in the future for this to be a more equitable society. Looks at a number of issues and says democracy will only be back if, economic equity is established, we have a strong democracy locally, the US is too large so we will have regional areas for strong democracy and lastly, nothing will happen if people are too busy (ie. no free time) to think about and develop what they really want. A little sparse on the issue of global warming and limited natural resources.
November 23, 2012
I'm going to go as far as to say this is a must read, mostly because it is a really good MacGuffin. It does an excellent job of collecting the best ideas out there from both the right and the left and presenting them in an intelligible and straight forward manner. This is also clearly a distributist work. However, the author, as far as I could tell, doesn't use the word once. I'm not sure how to read that and am not clear on what the benefit of such an active omission is.
February 6, 2013
A great overview of existing movements towards overcoming capitalism and moving toward a democratic redistribution of wealth. The book offers many good insights into projects in the works that are often overlooked in the mainstream discourse.
June 14, 2012
A book about redistributing wealth and liberty that is not only full of ideas, but also full of examples. Read it because Zinn and Chomsky recommend it, and less because I like it.
Want to read
September 16, 2012This book came to my attention while reading 'econoMYTHS' by David Orrell - it is an Endnote (#39) in Chapter 7. The book sounds promising; I'm on the fence about it though.
April 23, 2018
Holy Cow! A litany of what works. Reference material for leaders.
January 11, 2021
Well researched without succumbing to condescension, Alperovitz clearly presents a series of practical ideas for the development of a more just economy.
August 9, 2019
A book on how I have a need of my neighbor's car and how I can "reclaim" it. Or how to make robbery not only legal, but also moral.
August 5, 2021
This book was excellent and poses some very important solutions to the current situation we are in. Alperovitz provides detailed and very practical answers to the long-term structural crisis of the American economic and political system. His goal is to help us reclaim our wealth, our liberty, and our democracy. He illuminates four main fundamental contentions that are worth considering. First, that there is no way to achieve movement toward greater equality without developing new institutions that hold wealth on behalf of small and large publics. Second, that there is no way to rebuild Democracy with a big D in the system as a whole without nurturing the conditions of democracy with a small d in everyday life—including the economic institutions that allow and sustain greater stability of local community life. Third, that there is no way to achieve democracy in a continental-scale system with a population moving toward 400 million people without radical decentralization, ultimately in all probability to some form of regional units. Fourth, that there is no way to achieve meaningful individual liberty in the modern era without individual economic security and greater amounts of free time—and that neither of these is possible without a change in the ownership of wealth and the income flows it permits. This book is powerful because it proposes a new alternative to capitalism that is different from other solutions pondered before like Socialism. This new alternative is called the Pluralist Commonwealth and moves toward it are already happening in cities across the country with great results.
July 25, 2022
Overview:
The capitalist system has produced many ailments such as increased inequality, and less freedom. Changing the system is not only needed, but possible. To change the system means accepting that politics and ideas are relevant factors. Cannot avoid politics for during the 20th century, government has grown massively relative to the economy. But national policy is no longer enough for large scale problems, while are too large for small problems. Municipal, local governments are dominated by local business communities. Decision makers in those communities have influence over policies, which makes it important who the shareholders are. Many businesses have become employee-owned. With direct ownership of outcomes, workers work much harder and with more enthusiasm.
Caveats?
Some explanations are assumed rather than explained why they matter. A lot of statistics are provided, but not their impact on social organization. Claims sometimes lack complexity and political understanding, with the simplifications making the favored claims appear much better without negative consequences. The simplifications are sometimes also given a moral argument, which makes anyone who opposes the claims or considers complexity appear amoral.
The capitalist system has produced many ailments such as increased inequality, and less freedom. Changing the system is not only needed, but possible. To change the system means accepting that politics and ideas are relevant factors. Cannot avoid politics for during the 20th century, government has grown massively relative to the economy. But national policy is no longer enough for large scale problems, while are too large for small problems. Municipal, local governments are dominated by local business communities. Decision makers in those communities have influence over policies, which makes it important who the shareholders are. Many businesses have become employee-owned. With direct ownership of outcomes, workers work much harder and with more enthusiasm.
Caveats?
Some explanations are assumed rather than explained why they matter. A lot of statistics are provided, but not their impact on social organization. Claims sometimes lack complexity and political understanding, with the simplifications making the favored claims appear much better without negative consequences. The simplifications are sometimes also given a moral argument, which makes anyone who opposes the claims or considers complexity appear amoral.
September 8, 2023
This book is really about how we need to develop innovative and new ideas to help America continue to have the positive trajectory that is for itself and her people. The author lays out different proposed policy ideas from himself and from other economists to help fix or alleviate some problems that the United States has with its wealth distribution. I can appreciate the perspective that the author lends, and not coming from the usual Democratic Socialist perspective, an approach many people who write these kind of books do. The author is also neutral when making policy suggestions and allows examples and progress from other states, regardless of political parties. Understanding the book that comes from the year 2005 and reading it now 18 years later, truly does stand the test of time and I can see that we are not following the positive trajectory that we should be following.
December 25, 2020
Alperovitz is not a firebrand. He writes with a tone of politeness even towards those it is clear he finds fundamentally wrong. And yet, he manages to eloquently and passionately make the case for a radical reworking of how our society and economic system works if it is to live up to our self-proclaimed values.
to-keep-reference
August 22, 2018...resume la variedad y la escala de las opciones que existen hoy por hoy en Estados Unidos.
Desigualdad Pág.270
Desigualdad Pág.270
April 3, 2018
He has some good ideas, but they represent a modification of capitalism more that an ‘after capitalism.’
August 28, 2018
He's no Karl Marx.
March 5, 2016
It was a very relevant time to read this recommendation from a friend, considering I recently caucused for Bernie. The author surmises that we need to make changes to the country in an economic, political, and social scale by both localizing everything (boosting peoples' motivations to buy local and be local and vote local and stay local) and by giving people more economic security and more free time to participate in a democracy. He advocates for ideas such as a 25 hour work week, redistributing wealth by giving money to every newborn (a contrary idea to giving people money at the end of their lives through social security), and having employee owned businesses instead of corporations because corps destroy the possibility of democracy by having much more money, so that average persons are not political equals (this was written before Citizens United<\i> even....).
Written in 2005, the information was a tad outdated and certainly major changes have happened since that time. The writing style was rough to parse through, as the author simply compiles quotes from various politicians, economists, and academics to create a paragraph, without much narration on his part. I was really surprised at how optimistic the author was on graduating to this different society he proposes, because it seems 100% impossible....though still thoughtful.
Written in 2005, the information was a tad outdated and certainly major changes have happened since that time. The writing style was rough to parse through, as the author simply compiles quotes from various politicians, economists, and academics to create a paragraph, without much narration on his part. I was really surprised at how optimistic the author was on graduating to this different society he proposes, because it seems 100% impossible....though still thoughtful.
September 2, 2009
Lays out the facts of our society fairly well, but I don't think the solutions presented are better than the alternatives -- putting the proceeds of society up for grabs in the political process seems to make things even more susceptible to mal-distribution than the way things are now. Unless human nature changes radically between now and the revolution, I don't think special pleading and special interests will stop when "the people" own everything.
May 27, 2023
Just found my notes from 2010, which give me no indication at all as to why I rated this book so poorly, although I do tend to reserve 5-star ratings only for books I would keep as reference, of which there are very few on my list given my long standing habit of donating books to the local public library after I read them and take my notes. I will write up the review after I find all of my notes (hopefully), soon.
February 1, 2013
A lot of it was familiar to me...although there is a lot of detail. It's written in the Bush era, but not a lot has improved since so his arguments are fairly pertinant. It benefits a lot from a lack of partisanship but suffers from being written in a really dry, academic style.
July 8, 2007
Alperovitz does an great job of spelling out a society not defined by capitalism. He seems limited, however, by standards of not declaring war on democracy.
Can you say Anarchy?
Can you say Anarchy?
October 19, 2008
Lots of poll data, statistics and quotes from famous people but I didn't get any sense of an argument from the book.
Read
September 22, 2008Be sure to check out Powell's Books. I support independent bookstores. www.powells.com. Good Reads appears to be under the corporate control, at least indirectly, by Amazon.
November 15, 2009
Good book, left wing, discusses co-ops, employ owned companies and negatives of American capitalism.
Read
May 4, 2013Decent. Lots of big ideas, backed up with case studies. Definitely not a How To manual, though!
August 5, 2015
Agreed with the premise and it contains some novel ideas, but the writing is way too stuffy to be accessible or enjoyable.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews