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.
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Most economic theory assumes a pure capitalism of perfect competition. US economist Michael Perelman offers a refreshing deconstruction of the pervading prejudices of corporate responsibility and shines a light on some of the workings of corporate power. Perelman describes the manufacure of unhappiness and the complex techniques corporations employ to avoid responsibility and accountability to their workers, consumers and the environment. He argues against 'economists who, believing in the harmonious functioning of the market, construct beautiful theories to show how the economy works to maximise happiness and human welfare'. He points out that 'corporations serve as a vehicle to accumulate wealth in an ever smaller number of hands. Those who enjoy the greatest wealth within this system raise the income aspirations for others. Corporations play a substantial role in fuelling higher expectations. -- Simon Basketter, Socialist Review Perelman describes how the distorted ideological perception of society within the US has facilitated the construction of a corporate society in which corporate power grows at the expense of individuals. The leaders of corporate society; he argues, want Americans to see themselves as a multitude of individuals satisfying their needs through the alchemy of a market that they rule through the exercise of individual choice. This he sees as a danger not just to the US but to the entire world through both the military power of the corporate driven US, and the spread of the poison ideology to other countries. He concludes that only by joining together in social groups that tap into individual strengths can people successfully challenge corporate power. -- Reference & Research Book News This critique of corporate power focuses on the ideology of individualism and its effects on society. Perelman (California State Univ., Chico; author of several books, including The Perverse Economy, CH, May'04, 41-5408) starts with the conventional wisdom that individual consumers are sovereign in the market economy and demonstrates that in fact corporations are the dominant social actors. Ironically, both real persons and large corporate entities enjoy the legal status of "individuals." People, however, are obliged to provide labor to corporations and consume corporate products. The ideology of corporate legitimacy is that businesses earn profits by creating new value, but realistically, they often amass wealth through monopolistic practices and shifting the costs of their activity to others. For example, Wal-Mart's low prices depend on public subsidies in the form of food stamps for workers, tax rebates, and similar economic benefits. While entrepreneurs are theoretically rewarded for taking risks, established corporations can force individual workers to accept the risk of layoffs and retirement insecurity, and force individual members of society to accept such risks as environmental degradation and poor health. Altogether, the book is a lively, informative polemic about power relations in the consumer society. Summing Up: Recommended. General readers; students, lower-division undergraduate and up; researchers -- R. L. Hogler, Colorado State University
About the Author
Michael Perelman, Professor of Economics at California State University, Chico, received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of several books on economics and economic thought, including The End of Economics (Routledge, 1996); Class Warfare in the Information Age (Palgrave Macmillan, 2000); The Invention of Capitalism (Duke University Press, 2000) and The Perverse Economy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
"Manufacturing Discontent" by Michael Perelman is a thoughtful study and analysis of corporate power. Mr. Perelman deconstructs the myth of individualism and consumer sovereignty to reveal how corporations exploit workers and material resources for profit. Written with passion and intelligence, this highly readable text should appeal to everyone interested in gaining a greater understanding of the interrelationship between corporate influence and individual powerlessness.
Mr. Perelman explains how corporations in the U.S. enjoy legal standing as individuals but can use their immortality and deep financial resources to extend control over government, thereby engendering laws that mostly frees them of the burden of public accountability. According to Mr. Perelman, the illusory freedom of individual consumer choice is a poor substitute for economic and political power; the author points out that while corporations enjoy free speech rights and access to a sympathetic media, governments have done little to protect worker and consumer rights. Interestingly, Mr. Perleman attributes the inflated cost of material goods with increased corporate marketing and advertising budgets while alerting us to the growing dissatisfaction of individuals who pay dearly for their addiction to consumerism.
Mr. Perelman discusses how business risk has shifted from corporations to individuals. We learn that large international banks are usually backed up by their host governments to help shield bankers from loan losses. Structural adjustment policies are often imposed upon debtor nations, who in turn extract wage concessions from workers in order to secure repayment. Mr. Perelman goes on to explain how the airline, asbestos, biotech, nuclear and other industries have benefited from government largesse while worker's rights and social benefits have been cut. Overall, the author succeeds in illustrating how a peculiar form of socialism prevails for the corporate sector while a brutish sink-or-swim individualism has become the lot of the poor.
Mr. Perelman is also perceptive in his unmasking of how fear has been used to cow the public into unquestionably accepting corporate policy. From the Cold War's fear of communism to the fear of terrorism today, the media often prepares the way for citizens to vote for politicians who advocate massive funding of dubious defense projects or to support policies that protect corporate interests in general. Mr. Perelman critiques the paucity of investigative journalism and editorial independence, submitting that the public cannot fulfill its citizenship role without access to unbiased information. However, the author remains hopeful that individuals may be able to collectively assert their democratic rights; he reasons that people can not forever tolerate a corporate agenda that threatens the destruction of human creativity and the environment.
I highly recommend this excellent book to everyone.
Mr. Perelman explains how corporations in the U.S. enjoy legal standing as individuals but can use their immortality and deep financial resources to extend control over government, thereby engendering laws that mostly frees them of the burden of public accountability. According to Mr. Perelman, the illusory freedom of individual consumer choice is a poor substitute for economic and political power; the author points out that while corporations enjoy free speech rights and access to a sympathetic media, governments have done little to protect worker and consumer rights. Interestingly, Mr. Perleman attributes the inflated cost of material goods with increased corporate marketing and advertising budgets while alerting us to the growing dissatisfaction of individuals who pay dearly for their addiction to consumerism.
Mr. Perelman discusses how business risk has shifted from corporations to individuals. We learn that large international banks are usually backed up by their host governments to help shield bankers from loan losses. Structural adjustment policies are often imposed upon debtor nations, who in turn extract wage concessions from workers in order to secure repayment. Mr. Perelman goes on to explain how the airline, asbestos, biotech, nuclear and other industries have benefited from government largesse while worker's rights and social benefits have been cut. Overall, the author succeeds in illustrating how a peculiar form of socialism prevails for the corporate sector while a brutish sink-or-swim individualism has become the lot of the poor.
Mr. Perelman is also perceptive in his unmasking of how fear has been used to cow the public into unquestionably accepting corporate policy. From the Cold War's fear of communism to the fear of terrorism today, the media often prepares the way for citizens to vote for politicians who advocate massive funding of dubious defense projects or to support policies that protect corporate interests in general. Mr. Perelman critiques the paucity of investigative journalism and editorial independence, submitting that the public cannot fulfill its citizenship role without access to unbiased information. However, the author remains hopeful that individuals may be able to collectively assert their democratic rights; he reasons that people can not forever tolerate a corporate agenda that threatens the destruction of human creativity and the environment.
I highly recommend this excellent book to everyone.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Diverse
Format:Paperback
If you're an average citizen without ownership alignment with a corporation, you're playing at a serious disadvantage. You're playing poker, and the rules heavily favor the corporations. The odds are stacked against you. This book was written before the BP Gulf Oil Spill, and the Federal bailout of the banks. The banks are still in existence. Why aren't they bankrupt? Many of the workers who were laid off are bankrupt? But the owners and shareholders weren't held accountable for all the risk they took. Citbank had a debt/equity ration of 30-1! No bank will give you a loan with that kind of leverage. And what happened? You, the taxpayer, had to pay them through the federal reserve. BP's equipment caused the worst oil spill in history. Millions of people from LA are economically devastated. Will BP be held accountable for the problems they caused? No.
Compare that to a citizen. If a citizen is driving on a rainy street, loses control of the car, and hits a traffic light, the city will send them a bill to fix the traffic light.
Will BP have to pay for the FULL cost of the cleanup? on June 4th, 2010, 30+ days into this oil disaster, the owners of BP still distributed cash to all stock owners.
This book describes what's going on accurately.
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I also just watched Michael Moore's Capitalism. That movie can't compare to this book. That movie is half truths and one sided opinions. This book gives a much truer picture of the problems in our capitalistic economy.
In my opinion, the problem isn't capitalism. The problem is the laws of the US that favor the owners of corporations over the individual citizens. This book is based on that very premise.
Compare that to a citizen. If a citizen is driving on a rainy street, loses control of the car, and hits a traffic light, the city will send them a bill to fix the traffic light.
Will BP have to pay for the FULL cost of the cleanup? on June 4th, 2010, 30+ days into this oil disaster, the owners of BP still distributed cash to all stock owners.
This book describes what's going on accurately.
-
I also just watched Michael Moore's Capitalism. That movie can't compare to this book. That movie is half truths and one sided opinions. This book gives a much truer picture of the problems in our capitalistic economy.
In my opinion, the problem isn't capitalism. The problem is the laws of the US that favor the owners of corporations over the individual citizens. This book is based on that very premise.
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
See all 100 books this book cites
- Transcending the Economy: On the Potential of Passionate Labor and the Wastes of the Market by Michael Perelman on page 70, and Back Matter
- Invisible Punishment: The Collateral Consequences of Mass Imprisonment by Meda Chesney-Lind in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- The Wealth of Nations (Bantam Classics) by Adam Smith on page 73, and Back Matter
- The Twilight of Sovereignty by Walter B. Wriston on page 6, and Back Matter
- Void Where Prohibited: Rest Breaks and the Right to Urinate on Company Time (ILR Press books) by Marc Linder on page 66, and Back Matter
See all 100 books this book cites
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