Life Inc.

We built this economy from the ground up—at the expense of other social mechanisms—and then used its existence as evidence that this is the way things have always been. Even many of our market economy’s most formidable defenders are unaware of the underlying assumptions on which their theories are based. This is not a case of willful ignorance so m

Advertising doesn’t merely mean to suffuse the atmosphere; it means to become the atmosphere.

An ad ridicules a grandmother for daring to knit Christmas presents for her family and shows just how disappointed they will be by her pathetically homemade gifts. Is she that stupid—or just that cheap? Doesn’t she know there’s a dotcom merchant who lists the presents they already want? Ones labeled with real brand names that people know? Cagier ma

How does one grow in an ecology defined more by brands and corporations than by whatever it may have once meant to be human? Become a brand and a corporation oneself.

Where armies and navies had for most countries consisted of temporary forces raised to wage a specific conflict, the emergence of corporations with long-term agendas now necessitated full-time professional armed forces.

Instead of just giving existing fringe groups the imagery and anonymity they need to reinforce their secret cynicism, these networks can also connect those looking to reinforce their sense of hope and connection to others. We can share new models that work, collaborate with like-minded members of other communities, and build decentralized constitue

re-create some value ourselves. Instead of fixing the problem, and reclaiming our ability to generate wealth directly with one another, we seek to prop up institutions whose very purpose remains to usurp this ability from us. We try to repair our economy by bolstering the same institutions that sapped it. In the very best years, corporatism worked

A study by the Stern School of Business at New York University revealed that corporate executives often make large gifts of their company’s stock to their family foundations shortly before the stock drops. Exploiting a loophole that applies to charitable donations but not to regular stock sales, executives can backdate their donations to a moment i

Just as we once evolved from subjects into citizens, we have now devolved from citizens into consumers.