Life Inc.

The tasks sent overseas are simply the ones whose greater costs—environmental damage and health risks—can be externalized to the natives of the country where they are being performed. Labor is treated as a commodity.

The brilliance of Reaganomics was to marry the antiauthoritarian urge of what had once been the counterculture with the antigovernment bias of free-market conservatives. In Reagan’s persona as well as his politics, the independent, shoot-from-the-hip individualism of the Marlboro Man became compatible—even synergistic—with the economics and culture

The Great Exhibition’s primary intent was to distract the domestic public from the dark underbelly of international industrial modernity.

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

The benefits to society are pure mythology. Whether it’s Brooklynites convinced they are promoting multiculturalism or corporations intent on extending the benefits of the free market to all the world’s souls, neither activity leads to broader participation in the expansion of wealth—even when they’re working as they’re supposed to. Contrary to mos

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

While Godey’s Lady’s Book and the “domestic science” texts of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Catherine Beecher created the mythology of woman as queen of the house and competent homemaker, other writings depicted an equally compelling role for men to fill, utterly dependent on the attainment of a private home. Walt Whitman wrote, “A man is not a whole o

For the best descriptions of late Middle Ages and Renaissance life and commerce, see Fernand Braudel, The Wheels of Commerce: Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Century (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1992), and Carlo M. Cipolla, Before the Industrial Revolution: European Society and Economy, 1000-1700, 3rd ed. (New York: W. W. No

depends on a set of preconditions. The equations work out only if you’ve got full employment in both nations. It’s not more economically efficient to do international trade if it ends up decreasing employment in the more efficiently operating industrial economy. Furthermore, Ricardo himself argued that his theory works only if the trade between the