Vulture Capitalism
How to Survive in an Age of Corporate Greed
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- 129,00 kr
Publisher Description
*A Foyles Top 10 Read for March and one of Glamour's Best Books of March*
Longlisted for the inaugural Women's Prize for Non-Fiction
'A galvanising takedown of neoliberalism's "free market" logic, one rooted in as much history as it is in current events' NAOMI KLEIN
'A must-read for anyone keen to put the demos back in democracy' YANIS VAROUFAKIS
Everything you know about capitalism is wrong.
Free markets aren't really free. Record corporate profits don't trickle down to everyone else. And we aren't empowered to make our own choices – they're made for us every day.
In Vulture Capitalism, acclaimed journalist Grace Blakeley takes on the world's most powerful corporations by showing how the causes of our modern crisis are the intended result of our capitalist system. It's not broken, it's working exactly as planned. From JPMorgan to Boeing, Henry Ford to Richard Nixon, Blakeley shows us exactly where late-stage capitalism has gone wrong.
Searing, explosive and timely, Vulture Capitalism is the book you need to understand what is happening in the world around you – and what you can do to change it.
'Read this book if you want to make fundamental changes to the world' HA-JOON CHANG
'If you've ever wondered why you (and everyone you know) feel so out of control of the world around you, this book will give you the answer' ASH SARKAR
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"There is a deep contradiction between the belief that we are free and the reality of living under capitalism," according to this fiery treatise. Blakeley (The Corona Crash), a staff writer at Tribune magazine, argues that contrary to free market doctrine, capitalist economies rely on planning by bankers, large companies, and states. The capitalist imperative of constant growth leads big businesses to become monopolies that wield their power to circumvent market dynamics, Blakeley contends, noting how Amazon artificially depresses workers' wages by dominating regional economies in which residents have few other employment options. Successful businesses can even rival state power, as when in the early 1900s the United Fruit Company, whose banana plantations were based in Guatemala, assumed control of the country's postal service and propped up the presidential candidacy of autocrat Jorge Ubico, who "handed over tracts of land to the UFC" once in power. Blakeley makes a persuasive case that "corporations are political institutions" unaccountable to the employees, customers, and community members most affected by their decisions, and she details fascinating experiments that show what alternatives might look like (in the 1980s, a small Andalusian village won collective control of local land and continue to make decisions as a group about how to use it and what to do with the profits it generates). Impassioned and provocative, this will challenge readers' understanding of the fundamental forces that govern economic markets.
