The Soul of Capitalism: Opening Paths to a Moral Economy [Hardcover]

William Greider (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2003

In his previous bestsellers, Who Will Tell the People and Secrets of the Temple, William Greider laid bare the inner workings of American politics and the Federal Reserve, revealing how they often work against the interests of the majority. Now, in The Soul of Capitalism, Greider examines how the greatest wealth-creation engine in the history of the world is failing most of us, why it must be changed, and how intrepid pioneers are beginning to transform it.

Public outrage over crooked corporate officers, the looting of pension funds, the defrauding of stockholders, and the wholesale firing of hardworking employees has reached a new high. But Greider argues that our anger has deeper roots, as he analyzes how our relentless pursuit of unprecedented affluence has eroded family life, eaten away at our sense of personal and professional security, corroded our communities, impoverished our spiritual lives, and devastated our natural environment. The solution, he contends, will come not from activist government, the politics of the past, or more government regulation (the usual response of liberals), but from a fundamental realignment of power that, he promises, is already under way on many fronts.

The Soul of Capitalism shows us where to find the leverage for changing the system. Reformers appear in surprising variety, from conservative business managers to small-town civic leaders, social agitators and ecologists, labor leaders and farmers. Greider offers many up-and-running examples -- of workers becoming owners, of pension funds withdrawing their capital from polluters, of small companies learning how to operate profitably while caring for employees and the environment, of governments reforming their public works.

Brilliantly perceptive and sweeping in its ambition, The Soul of Capitalism is also hardheaded and practical as one of our most eloquent populist spokesmen assures us why we are not powerless. Greider illustrates how American capitalism can be aligned more faithfully and obediently with what people want and need in their lives, with what American society needs for a healthy, balanced, and humane future. He proves that it is within our power to reinvent capitalism to make it work for us.

The Soul of Capitalism -- solid, pragmatic, visionary, optimistic -- addresses the nation's most urgent needs.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

American society is a culture of paradoxes. Never has a country produced such great abundance, yet never have we had to work such long hours to sustain a quality of life marred by corporate exploitation and senseless consumerism. Collectively, our middle class possesses massive wealth, yet we are currently powerless to effect substantial change in both the capitalist or democratic systems. We have irresponsibly destroyed the world's natural resources, yet--as in the past--our "daring innovation" may help resolve the calamitous ecological crisis we have created in the first place. In his sixth book, The Soul of Capitalism: Opening Paths to a Moral Economy, William Greider attempts to discover "how and why our brilliant economic system collides with so many of society's broader aspirations and regularly frustrates them." How did these paradoxes develop and how will they be redressed? Greider flatly states that his intention is not to discuss a utopian ideal, but rather to relate his "conviction that the arrangements within capitalism can be changed, little by little, to make more space for life through innovations that eventually become common practice."

Greider creates a sobering picture of the obstacles we must overcome if we are ever to re-establish "an authentic democracy," one that truly serves the values of the majority and not just the wealthy few and the status quo. Indeed his descriptions of the deleterious effects of capitalism on the environment, the American workforce (white and blue collar alike), and the very fabric of American life expose an urgent need for change. Greider maintains that the strength of the capitalist system is its adaptability. Therefore, despite his frank admission that substantial change will be difficult and a long time in coming, his catalogue of small successes and localized reform initiatives lend credibility to his hopeful claim that "the corporate institution is ripe for reinvention." --Silvana Tropea

From Publishers Weekly

The good news is, American capitalism has "solved the economic problem" of overcoming scarcity, says veteran journalist Greider, currently with the Nation. Most Americans live materially comfortable lives. The bad news: capitalism seems increasingly dysfunctional and alienating, and fundamentally conflicts with humanity's noneconomic values. Greider says we have the luxury and responsibility now to repair this, to transform the essential purpose of our economic system from the relentless pursuit of "more" to the fulfillment of "human needs." Greider (Secrets of the Temple) breaks from the standard left-wing critique in one critical respect: he believes the system will be changed not by activist government but by a variety of small-scale reformers working to transform the economic system from within. Greider reports on experiments in corporate governance, especially employee ownership and consultative decision making. He investigates initiatives in corporate financing, most significantly, the growing practice of socially responsible investing by union and pension funds. Toward ecological sustainability, Greider's proposals include industries' developing "closed-loop recycling that mimics nature." Arguing that current government policies amplify capitalism's distortions, Greider emphasizes redirecting government expenditures from corporate subsidies to long-term social investments. Greider is immoderately optimistic, but without illusions about the challenges these grassroots movements face. Wisely, he recommends local experiments before considering any grandiose plans. Greider concedes that people might perceive a "touchy-feely wishful thinking" in some of the reformers' projects, and that quality is not absent from the book, but his overall framework is fresh and valuable, and his reporting on specific efforts is resourceful and illuminating.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (September 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684862190
• ISBN-13: 978-0684862194
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,185,859 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

William Greider is the bestselling author of five previous books, including One World, Ready or Not (on the global economy), Who Will Tell the People (on American politics), and Secrets of the Temple (on the Federal Reserve). A reporter for forty years, he has written for The Washington Post and Rolling Stone and has been an on-air correspondent for six Frontline documentaries on PBS. Currently the national affairs correspondent for The Nation, he lives in Washington, D.C.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

63 of 68 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Parts the Seas, Restores Hope & Morality to the American Way September 13, 2003

By Robert David STEELE Vivas HALL OF FAMETOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Edit of 21 Dec 07 to add links.

The author has written a book that outlines an implementable vision worthy of the Nobel Prize.

If you buy just one book this year, if you read just one book prior to voting in the primary and general elections of any country, this is the book. It combines common sense, a deep understanding of the flaws of a capitalist system that has been hijacked by unethical elites, and an extraordinary diversity of interviews and sources that I found compellingly sensible and straight-forward.

Politically and economically, this book offers the citizen-voter-consumer-stockholder an objective and balanced account of exactly what is wrong with the existing American way of capitalism (both at home and abroad), and how we might, over time, fix it.

Most importantly, the author destroys all of the myths and lies about the rising American standard of living, and demonstates that when one revises the Gross Domestic Product calculations to substract rather than add the negative products such as prisons and health care stemming from unsafe products and practices, the over-all national economic indicators have been steadily declining for over thirty years.

The author is brilliant--truly brilliant--in studying the work of others and putting together a case for redefining capitalism and the financial accounting for capitalism to include social costs and benefits as part of the evaluative calculus. He excells at understanding and explaining the benefits to be had by introducing long-term sustainability, worker-friendly labor and management cultures, and balanced work force composition (save the middle class) and compensation (end the looting of America and its pension funds by an out of control corporate elite).

In discussing the soul of capitalism, the author is in fact discussing America's soul. His book is not only a handbook for grassroots and collective bargaining actions by all communities and assocations, it is a reference point by which Americans specifically, but all national in all nations, should be judging their political and economic and social leaders. People *can* take back the power, but first they must understand that the existing economic situation is so unstable and unhealthy that it virtually guarantees life on Earth will end within the next 100 years.

Although the book clearly mandates a reordering of both the American economic and the American political systems, and the author addresses those, he placed the bulk of his emphasis at the grass-roots level, and discusses how specific organizations and communities across America are "by-passing Washington" and establishing revolutionary new covenants for community-based, labor-friendly, sustainable economics.

The book as a whole draws a clear distinction between what one might call Bush Economics (loot the commonwealth, enrich a very tiny elite that already has most of the wealth) and Dean Economics (recover the $500 billion a year in unwarranted corporate subsidies and financial fraud, restore the social side of the capitalist value system, share the wealth, sustain the environment).

The author is a man of faith. Throughout the book, but especially when discussing the Social Gospel movement and reform theologians with close ties to extreme suffering in communities that have lost everything, he can inspire tears of both sadness at what we have done to ourselves, and joy at the possibilities for the future if we the people take back the power.

At every turn in the book one reads about the connection between capitalism and democracy--between corrupt capitalism and the falseness and injustice of American democracy and foreign policy (see our reviews of Paul Krugman's "The Great Unraveling", Jonathan Schell, "The Unconquerable World", and Mark Hertsgaard, "The Eagle's Shadow")--and between moral capitalism and democracy restored.

Drawing on the work of David Ellerman, William Greider discusses the master-servant relationship between corporate employers and human employees, and concludes, as does Ellerman, that all of the injustices of capitalism are based on a legalized fraud. "The 'fraud' is the economic pretense that people can be treated as things, as commodities or mahcines, as lifeless property that lacks the qualities inseparable from the human self, the person's active deliberation and choices, the personal accountability for one's actions."

Three additional notes (this review barely scratches the surface and cannot do justice to the wealth of knowledge the author is communicating in a very effective manner):

1) If the labor unions come together to use their pension funds as sledge hammers, they can do a great deal of good in both reforming Wall Street and nurturing labor-friendly and environmental-friendly corporate behavior.

2) The retired population in America represents an untapped national asset--a wise President would find ways to use this virtually unlimited pool of social and functional talent to revitalize communities, schools, families, businesses, and non-profit endeavors.

3) Both the corporate governance model and the enforcement model are so severely flawed that they must be over-turned. Corporations should not have legal personalities that eliminate accountability for the individuals managing them, and the enforcement process needs to be turned on its head, focusing on incentives for higher social performance rather than punishments for the occasionally prosecuted rogue corporation.

In relation to foreign economic relations, the author provides a superb complementary reading to Clyde Prestowitz's book, "Rogue Nation: American Unilateralism and the Failure of Good Intentions." As he puts it so nicely, in today's world walls do not work and there is no place for corporations to hide once the anger of the people is aroused. America must not only clean its own house, but in so doing, in restoring the morality of capitalism and the realiy of democracy, America will again be a land of ideals instead of hypocrisy, a land of liberty instead of looting, a land that inspires the world instead of corrupting it.

America, and the world, are at a turning point. I pray that no fewer than 50 million Americans will read this book, and I urge every faithful Amazon customer to buy 5 copies of this book and give them out as part of re-engaging every adult in the vital process of restoring democracy and restoring morality to capitalism.

High recommended books, with reviews:
The Battle for the Soul of Capitalism: How the Financial System Underminded Social Ideals, Damaged Trust in the Markets, Robbed Investors of Trillions - and What to Do About It
Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom
One from Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization
A Power Governments Cannot Suppress

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant discourse September 13, 2003

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

I'm sure many players in the marketplace are not ready to embrace what Greider is reporting, essentially the call in many quarters for a new economic paradigm that takes into account such off-the-book realities as environmental and technological sustainability and corporate accountability.

But it should be required reading. As he shows, the tide is turning, consciousness is building, and there are certainly a growing number of constituencies, from private and institutional investors, business owners, academics, and government officials, who recognize the need for deep rooted change and revisionist thinking when it comes to the basic precepts of capitalism, a 19th century system that no longer reflects the complexities of today's marketplace. Instead, this maze of antiquidated legal and financial rules continues to create winners and losers, though the victims are certainly becoming the greater,from the environment itself to employees, union workers, investors and retirees to the generations of the future. And the winner's circle keeps narrowing to those few in the academic legal and economic community who expouse shareholder primacy, that a corporation exists to serve its shareholders and shareholders well, and then within those confines, the very few in the ensuing debacles of this past bull market, who actually profited from the internet bubble, not to mention those scamming executives from the likes of World Com and Enron, who managed to escape with their stock options entact before all the cookies crumbled.

Bravo, William Greider, who marches on as both a keen observer and visionary who points out that people certainly aren't going to change, but the system had better do a better job in reflecting the reality of greed and imbalance that is taking a toll globally. This book is a decade ahead of its time and could help build a better future if many take it seriously. A reviewer for The Washington Post dubbed Greider an "optimist" because of his viewpoint that large scale change wasn't only possible, but was forthcoming. But true label is "realist" because the ground swell for many of the issues he tackles has already begun. Not that you'll read about it in Forbes, The Wall Street Journal or hear about it from the usual business talking heads on cable, where contributors aren't brainy or reflective enough to grasp the big picture, if not willingly blinded to it. But Greider offers up what's taking place and why, and the historical context that our marketplace is operating in, in effortless and eloquent prose. And what he's written is an accurate protrayal of change, not just some positive thinking of the possibilities. Within many academic circles, both here and abroad, mulitnationals, stock exchanges, investment funds and business concerns, both profit and non-profit, the pressures egging on the evolution of the capitalist system are already embraced and understood.

I suggest reading Greider's book to not only understand what's at stake, but as way to align your future investment portfolio, employment possiblities, even political beliefs, because the factions he reports on in this book will have increasing power in coming years to change the status-quo to benefit our society at large.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Provocative Investigation of Postmodern Capitalism January 7, 2004

By Barron Laycock HALL OF FAME

Format:Hardcover

No one writes with more verve, insight, and human compassion than long-time Rolling Stone contributor and Editor William Greider. His perspective always centers on the human cost of social phenomena, and is always heartfelt, compassionate, and extremely well focused. In this book he centers in brilliantly on the ways in which the so-called "Third Wave" of global trading and commerce has both complicated and corrupted the social, economic, and political landscape of the countries in which it has flourished. His writing skills are superb, and the ordinarily dry and stuffy stuff of economics come alive in this highly readable and quite entertaining work. Moreover, Greider demonstrates his understanding of the Marxian critique of postmodern capitalism as well as its relevance for what appears to be a critical point in capitalism's history.

This is a brilliant and perceptive book, one which both recognizes the dangers that confront us as well as the opportunities lingering beneath the surface of the sputtering global economy, which has seemingly turned inward and against itself, with some quite disturbing retrogressive long-term effects for both the workers and middle classes of the societies in which it is most advanced. Yet, Mr. Greider's perspective is more sanguine than one might expect, expressing both concern over the many ways in which this fundamentally anti-democratic strain of global commerce tends toward becoming a revolutionary & extraordinarily well-focused force literally power-hosing the new wealth generated by this commerce in the direction of the rich and well placed at the expense of almost everyone else, and yet at the same time giving signs of some irresistible movements toward greater responsiveness and attention to actual consumer needs, as opposed to those they manufacture and market so well today.

In summary, Greider argues that while the world is still likely to experience a period of difficult & chaotic social & economic circumstances; disastrous levels of industrial plant overcapacity, unmanageable surplus goods, unemployable labor pools, frantic & often irrational stock speculation, unserviceable debts, and chronic massive unemployment, there is also the opportunity for new directions from new sources as the sheer size and scale of global corporations make them seemingly more and more ossified and less and less able to serve the public from which it hopes to maintain its profit margins.

Thus, while all may seem to be wonderful to a casual observer watching along the surface, we are in fact skating bravely over the very thin ice of a totally new and revolutionary set of socioeconomic circumstances, and we should hardly be racing across this fragile and frozen expanse so quickly or so recklessly, trusting so blindly in so many anonymous corporate forces that historically have never bothered to concern themselves with the social, economic or political consequences following in the wake of their profit-oriented activities. We need to recognize the genius of capitalism, and refocus the forces of it toward more human and vital needs in order to build a more sustainable economy for the future.