22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Tale of Vodka and Penises, September 17, 2009
This review is from: The Audacity of Greed: Free Markets, Corporate Thieves, and the Looting of America (Paperback)
I recently had a conversation with someone on the topic of why the American people continue to put up with all the crap our corporatized economic system dishes out to them. This is the country that produced Shays's Rebellion, the Populist movement, the IWW, the Bonus Army, the CIO and the sit down strike. Labor activist, CNBC commentator and 2010 U.S. Senate candidate, Jonathan Tasini begins this book by pointing out that the looting of America by corporate and financial interests has been going on since the late 70s. It is only recently, however, that the end result of the unbridled greed of far too many of those at the top of the pyramid has become too disastrous to ignore. Yet while there have been isolated incidents of outcry and resistance to date no national movement has arisen to demand the fundamental reform of the rules that govern our economy.
The reasons for this are varied though as Tasini points out, the American people have been subjected to a decades long, never ending barrage of propaganda from a variety of sources that have seduced many into the delusion that the system works to the benefit of us all. Closely related to this was the was the conscious efforts of Milton Friedman and his Chicago School to rollback the dominance of the Keynesian, regulated, mixed economy philosophy in the Capitalist "free world" during the post-World War II period and to replace it with what Tasini terms: "Free Market Fundamentalism" or the exaggerated faith that when markets are left to operate on their own they can solve all economic and social problems. The degree to which American politicians from both major parties have been rendered incapable of thinking outside Friedman's free market fundamentalist box is driven home by Tasini with a shocking quote from a speech given by liberal environmentalist, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. at the 2005 Sierra Club Convention:
"There is no stronger advocate for free market capitalism than myself. I believe that the free market is the most efficient and democratic way to distribute the goods of the land and that the best thing that could happen to the environment is if we had true free market capitalism in this country because the free market promotes efficiency and efficiency means the elimination of waste and pollution of course is waste."
Mad Magazine once satirized the movie Rocky complete with a re-christened character called "Appalling Greed." And the greed of corporate the CEOs chronicled in here is just that, appalling and at times nothing short of pathological. Tasini cites instances where certain CEOs were involved in schemes to illegally back date the stock options that provide them with so much of their wealth, when they were already getting away with murder by legally backdating and re-pricing options. For the epitome of this orgy of greed and the metaphor for the age, Tasini chooses the party Tyco CEO Dennis Kozlowski threw for his wife on her 40th birthday on the isle of Sardinia, replete with a replica of Michelangelo's statue of David rigged to spray vodka from its penis (Tasini titles this chapter "Vodka and Penises")! Yes, this is right up there with the bacchanalian excesses of late imperial Rome or the extravagances of Marie Antoinette. And if this kind of thing keeps up the United States may some day soon follow these historical predecessors into similar oblivion.
But Tasini ends his book with hopeful message, calling for a sensible program of reform including a significant increase in the minimum wage, demanding passage of H.R. 676, a bill currently stalled in Congress that would expand Medicare to provide basic health insurance coverage to every American, a redistribution of the nation's tax burden upward towards the top 5 to 1% of income earners and ending the preferential tax treatment of unearned investment income, increasing the power of labor unions by passing the Employee Free Choice Act, also currently languishing in Congress, and creating a new system of public financing for elections.
But Tasini's analysis of the cure for what ails us goes a lot deeper than just these important reforms. He also calls for a reexamination of the values and assumptions that underlie our economic system, such as whether Gross National and Domestic Product figures are really an accurate measure of societal well being and whether or not we should demand first and foremost that policies should be geared towards a sustainable, equitable global economy that, to paraphrase Tasini: "gets better for everyone without necessarily getting bigger."
This is a debate worth having and The Audacity of Greed is a book worthy of being read.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Tasini's courage: telling the truth, October 2, 2009
This review is from: The Audacity of Greed: Free Markets, Corporate Thieves, and the Looting of America (Paperback)
Jonathan Tasini's book helps us understand what's been happening in the US
economy in recent decades, by describing how the bogus faith in "free" markets
enabled the CEO's of America's largest corporations to expand their wealth while their actions hurt ordinary working people. Tasini has done his research, and the information he shares is disturbing, but it's information we need if we are going to remedy what's wrong with our economic system. Buy 4 copies of the book- one for yourself and one for each of your Senators and your Representative in Congress.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Get this book., November 23, 2009
This review is from: The Audacity of Greed: Free Markets, Corporate Thieves, and the Looting of America (Paperback)
This is an accurate, hard-hitting account of greed in America. Tasini is running for Senate next year, so if you want to know his worldview this is a place to start.
Needless to say, it's a much more intelligent read than that 800 pages of "I hate Katie Couric" whinefest Sarah Palin calls a book.
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