Extremist Capitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democr

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Extremist Capitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life ' by Robert B. Reich« Thread Started on Sept 28, 2007, 6:32pm » --------------------------------------------------------------------------------'Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life ' by Robert B. ReichBy Terry Burnham, Special to The Times read at source> http://www.latimes.com/features/books/l ... tSeptember 28, 2007This spring, a Polish railway worker, Jan Grzebski, awoke from a 19-year coma. He was amazed to find himself in a democracy with a capitalist economy and high-quality consumer goods widely available. After reading "Supercapitalism" by Robert B. Reich, one suspects that had the author similarly awakened from a 19-year coma he would have looked past the positives and remarked in horror, "I see rich people . . . everywhere."In Reich's view, capitalism has triumphed in the form of hyper-competitive markets, and the transformation merits adding his new word, supercapitalism, to our lexicon. This virulent strain of capitalism, he contends, produces better products and higher stock market returns but comes at the cost of inequality, uncertainty and a decline in democracy. This economic pressure cooker squeezes companies toward ruthless penny-pinching, decimates unions, degrades the environment and pushes government further into the pockets of lobbyists.