Manufacturing Discontent: The Trap of Individualism in Corporate Society
by Michael Perelman
Pluto Press, 2005 Cloth: 978-0-7453-2407-4 | Paper: 978-0-7453-2406-7 Library of Congress Classification HD60.5.U5P39 2005 Dewey Decimal Classification 306.34
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Corporate power has a huge impact on the rights and privileges of individuals—as workers, consumers, and citizens. This book explores the myth of individualism, which makes 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.
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 Railroading Economics (Routledge, 2006); Class Warfare in the Information Age (Palgrave Macmillan, 2000); The Invention of Capitalism (Duke University Press, 2000) and The Perverse Economy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Sinisa Malesevic is lecturer in the Department of Political Science and Sociology, NUI, Galway. He is author of Ideology, Legitimacy and the New State (Frank Cass, 2002), editor of Culture in Central and Eastern Europe: Institutional and Value Changes (IMO, 1997) and co-editor of Ideology after Poststructuralism (Pluto 2002)._x000B_Iain MacKenzie is a Lecturer in Politics at The Queen's University of Belfast. He is author of articles on Deleuze and Guattari and co-author of Contemporary Social and Political Theory: An Introduction (OUP, 1999).
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents
Dead End: The Trap of Individualism in a Corporate Society
Introductory
In the Beginning
Attacking the Myth of Individualism
There Is No Alternative
Chapter 1. The Individual Subsumed in the Corporate Economy
The Myth of Individualism
The Real Meaning of Individualism
Back to Adam Smith
Markets Uber Alles
Freedom of Speech -- for Whom?
The Perverse Consequences of the Corporate Abuse of Power
Pensions and Individualism
Chapter 2. People as Consumers
People as Consumers
The Futility of Excessive Consumption
The Democratization of the Potlatch
Planned Obsolescence
Prosperity and Happiness
Markets and Happiness
Sabotaging Happiness
Consuming Culture
Chapter 3. What Corporate Society Does to Workers
Individual Freedom and Authority in the Workplace
Flexibility for Whom?
Unemployment as a Disciplinary Device
Costs of Job Loss
Manipulation of Labor Markets
Monetary Policy to Maintain Unemployment
The Wages of Fear
Risks of Working
The Pain of Servitude
The Lethal Economy of Time
Sovereignty in the Workplace
The Retreat to Consumption
Imagine
Chapter 4. Corporate Accountability
Corporations as Individuals
Corporate Crime and Punishment
The Corporate Obligation to Commit Crime
Responsibility and Tort Reform
Subcontracting
Chapter 5. Accountability vs. Responsibility
Introductory
The Virtual Impossibility of Accountability
Cleaning Up the Mess
Globalization and Corporate Accountability
Chapter 6. The Role of Risk
Introductory
Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit
Knight: On Closer Examination
Protection Against Business Risk
Other Protections Against Business Risk
The Absence of Protections for Ordinary People
Knight on Turnover and Job Security
Risk and "Sound Science"
Downplaying Risk for the Corporations
Devaluing Life
The Madness of Risk Assessment
The Politics of Risk
The Precautionary Principle
Broader Considerations of Risk and Individualism
Risk and the Individual in a Market Society
Chapter 7. Food, Fear, and Terrorism
The Political Economy of Fear
Asbestos and The World Trade Center Disaster
Amazing Grace
Controlling the Message
The Precautionary Principle Again
The War on Terror
Fear of Irrationality or Irrationality of Fear
The War on Terror and Statistical Murder
Food, Terrorism, and the Individual's Right to Know
Chapter 8. Individuals as Citizens
Mesmerizing Society
A Fully Informed Public
Keeping the Public in the Dark
Keeping the Congress in the Dark
Elections
A Hint of a Good Society
Concluding Remark
Corporate power has a huge impact on the rights and privileges of individuals—as workers, consumers, and citizens. This book explores the myth of individualism, which makes 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.
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 Railroading Economics (Routledge, 2006); Class Warfare in the Information Age (Palgrave Macmillan, 2000); The Invention of Capitalism (Duke University Press, 2000) and The Perverse Economy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Sinisa Malesevic is lecturer in the Department of Political Science and Sociology, NUI, Galway. He is author of Ideology, Legitimacy and the New State (Frank Cass, 2002), editor of Culture in Central and Eastern Europe: Institutional and Value Changes (IMO, 1997) and co-editor of Ideology after Poststructuralism (Pluto 2002)._x000B_Iain MacKenzie is a Lecturer in Politics at The Queen's University of Belfast. He is author of articles on Deleuze and Guattari and co-author of Contemporary Social and Political Theory: An Introduction (OUP, 1999).
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents
Dead End: The Trap of Individualism in a Corporate Society
Introductory
In the Beginning
Attacking the Myth of Individualism
There Is No Alternative
Chapter 1. The Individual Subsumed in the Corporate Economy
The Myth of Individualism
The Real Meaning of Individualism
Back to Adam Smith
Markets Uber Alles
Freedom of Speech -- for Whom?
The Perverse Consequences of the Corporate Abuse of Power
Pensions and Individualism
Chapter 2. People as Consumers
People as Consumers
The Futility of Excessive Consumption
The Democratization of the Potlatch
Planned Obsolescence
Prosperity and Happiness
Markets and Happiness
Sabotaging Happiness
Consuming Culture
Chapter 3. What Corporate Society Does to Workers
Individual Freedom and Authority in the Workplace
Flexibility for Whom?
Unemployment as a Disciplinary Device
Costs of Job Loss
Manipulation of Labor Markets
Monetary Policy to Maintain Unemployment
The Wages of Fear
Risks of Working
The Pain of Servitude
The Lethal Economy of Time
Sovereignty in the Workplace
The Retreat to Consumption
Imagine
Chapter 4. Corporate Accountability
Corporations as Individuals
Corporate Crime and Punishment
The Corporate Obligation to Commit Crime
Responsibility and Tort Reform
Subcontracting
Chapter 5. Accountability vs. Responsibility
Introductory
The Virtual Impossibility of Accountability
Cleaning Up the Mess
Globalization and Corporate Accountability
Chapter 6. The Role of Risk
Introductory
Risk, Uncertainty, and Profit
Knight: On Closer Examination
Protection Against Business Risk
Other Protections Against Business Risk
The Absence of Protections for Ordinary People
Knight on Turnover and Job Security
Risk and "Sound Science"
Downplaying Risk for the Corporations
Devaluing Life
The Madness of Risk Assessment
The Politics of Risk
The Precautionary Principle
Broader Considerations of Risk and Individualism
Risk and the Individual in a Market Society
Chapter 7. Food, Fear, and Terrorism
The Political Economy of Fear
Asbestos and The World Trade Center Disaster
Amazing Grace
Controlling the Message
The Precautionary Principle Again
The War on Terror
Fear of Irrationality or Irrationality of Fear
The War on Terror and Statistical Murder
Food, Terrorism, and the Individual's Right to Know
Chapter 8. Individuals as Citizens
Mesmerizing Society
A Fully Informed Public
Keeping the Public in the Dark
Keeping the Congress in the Dark
Elections
A Hint of a Good Society
Concluding Remark