Sugar Daddy Capitalism
The Dark Side of the New Economy
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- $22.99
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- $22.99
Publisher Description
What is the connection between the sleaziness of Harvey Weinstein’s ‘business meetings’ and the passionless doctrine of neoclassical economics? In this witty and incisive examination of the new economy, Peter Fleming argues that they are closer than you might think.
The quest to rid society of bureaucracy, shrink government and burn red tape has certainly made capitalism ‘more human’, but not in the family-friendly way envisaged by free-market gurus. Increasing informality has led to a capitalism fuelled by limitless exploitation and increasingly seedy methods of management, from semi-feudal workplace hazing rituals and predatory middle-managers with an axe to grind to arbitrary zero-hours contracts, Uber and, perhaps worst of all, the compulsory gym session with your boss.
Fleming dubs this ‘Sugar Daddy Capitalism’ after the controversial dating-app wealthy businessmen use to meet young girls, most of whom are struggling with university fees. What seems like a creepy outlier is actually a prescient metaphor for our whole economy: an anonymous and impersonal cash system that is also intent on getting under your skin, extra close and capable of ruining everything if you say ... ‘no’.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Fleming (The Death of Homo Economicus), professor of business and society at the Cass Business School, breaks down some of the characteristic phenomena of the era of neoliberal capitalism in this cheeky yet scholarly left-leaning overview. He posits that the drive to deregulate and decentralize economic life, as theorized by right-libertarian Chicago School economists, has led to alienation, exploitation of those with less power, and a sometimes "sleazy" blurring of the boundaries between economic and personal life (hence the title). Though some of what Fleming describes is new, he notes that Western societies have seen similar phenomena before, during the notoriously exploitative Gilded Age. He connects these cultural currents to the views of right-wing politicians and voters as well as academics such as the Chicago School's theorists. While they imagined deformalization would do away with problems such as hiring bias and exploitation, it has actually, Fleming argues, increased both, leaving workers ever more at the personal mercy of others. To counter this "troubling amalgam of heartless individualism, ultra-objective metrics, and close-contact trauma," he champions the development of radical "people's bureaucracies" that can enable democratic governance in multiple spheres of life. This fast-paced, informal text, broken into short sections with jocular titles such as "How to Die on the Inside," is like having a conversation with a friendly professor.
