Supercapitalism by Robert Reich
Icon Books, £12.99

CAPITALISM, chameleon-like, has weaved its spell over us all and taken a vice like grip on the globe in its latest manifestation as supercapitalism. Well, that’s Robert Reich’s analysis, anyway, and as Bill Clinton’s former Secretary of Labor and now Professor of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, he knows a thing or two.

He argues, in what he calls the battle for democracy in the age of big business, that multi-national corporations dominate because we let them. We should offer a collective mea culpa because we have not reconciled the difference in ourselves between the responsible, ethically minded and environmentally aware citizen and the consumer and investor looking for the best prices and the best return. So we have allowed big business to dominate our economic and political systems, particularly in the USA, where this book was written. But it’s applicable elsewhere. Are you listening, Gordon?

We have, says Reich, allowed global corporations with their slavish worship of the bottom line to extend their grip over every aspect of our lives. In so doing we have let our democratic processes, structures and politicians be subverted by Mammon and the gods of greed. No surprise there, say the cynics.

As a society, on either side of the Atlantic, we have allowed ourselves to think that the lowest price is the best price. When asked, for example, about the exploitation of workers in companies such as WalMart, for instance, the citizen in us will usually condemn such social injustice. But when it comes to putting such principled objections into practice, it quickly becomes a case of “forward to the barricades, brothers, while I hold your coat”. Faced with the choice of lower prices or better employment practices, it’s “buy one get one free” all the way to the check out. We cede power and authority to the corrosive effects of capitalism and sell ourselves down the river.

Similarly, we have let the lobbying power of big business take over the political process. Calls for corporate social responsibility prompt the reaction “Am I bovvered?” from Lauren in the boardroom. No, of course capitalists aren’t bothered about the social consequences of what they do, unless it affects their bottom line. Politicians, particularly the intellectually challenged like, well, George W Bush, are only too happy to allow the big corporations to dominate the political agenda.

So our lives are run or, at least, influenced enormously by the supercapitalists. We have allowed the right-wing Republican Party reptiles and their corporate vulture chums to run the show – and we don’t care as long we get our superstore discounts.

Robert Reich’s timely book should act as a wake-up call to the body politic – there is more to life than exploitation and the bottom line. Is anyone listening?

Andrew Dodgshon