People Get Ready: The Fight Against a Jobless Economy and a Citizenless Democracy
Author:
Genres: Business & Money, Reference, Politics & Social Sciences
Book Type: Hardcover
Author:
Genres: Business & Money, Reference, Politics & Social Sciences
Book Type: Hardcover
Leo T. reviewed on + 1775 more book reviews
Dr. McChesney is a well known academic and Nicols has published many articles in opinion periodicals; both reside in Madison, Wisconsin. They published Dollarocracy: How the Money and Media Election Complex Is Destroying America in 2013 as well as other considerations of journalism today.
Their reason for writing this book is their belief, after twenty years in this field, that the democratic infrastructure and economic understandings of the United States are...insufficient to res;pond to the overwhelming changes that are coming (288)." "Things will change in a revolutionary manner in a large and widespread reconsideration" of economic and social arrangements (288). It remains to be seen "whether the changes will be in the interest of a handful of billionaires or the great mass of Americans--and, indeed, the great mass of human beings around the world (288)."
The theme of the book is that with an outpouring of popular support, things can be changed as a vibrant democracy is born again. Chapter 3 discusses our "citizenless democracy" and chapters 4-6 lays out what can be done. This is briefly explained in the introduction and although I only glanced at these chapters, they are as well argued as the first two chapters on the jobless economy we have today.
My brief notes from the Introduction:
We citizens are not "in charge' of these inevitable technological changes that are unspooling, that are "every bit as disruptive as the Industrial Revolution (2)." As in the Gilded Age, there are large inequalities in power and income. The Digital Revolution will be ever more efficient and as it stands now, will be designed to deliver the profits the corporations desire, not increased employment; and there is no existing sector of the economy that needs these millions of surplus workers(3). The authors are not opposing technology but its management by bankers,
investors, and CEOs. "Seemingly endless stagnation, unemployment, inequality, and growing poverty are the result of contemporary capitalism (4)" and politics.
Kodak had 145,000 employees in 1983 Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2012, and in 2015 95% of the employees were gone(6). When Instagram was bought by Facebook in 2012 it has 13 employees. Facebook in March 2015 10,082 employees, 7% of Kodak's 1983 workforce. Kodak made physical goods and that requires many more employees than producing digital goods(7).
The authors say that Americans must "shape progress...as citizens engaged in a democratic process of organizing a new economy that reflects our values and our needs(8)."
As Americans seldom have a national dialogue about economics as during the New Deal, CR Movement, etc., it is overdue now and must be done pronto, before all we have is a jobless economy.
Fast food jobs are identified as "one of the few refuges for workers displaced by corporate downsizing" [but not so in Southern California as the Immigration Act of 1965 has brought a wave of folks who despise veterans and don't much like Black Americans either, who wish to work alongside 'their own kind' even for a bad employer. Immigration crowding the job market and the housing stock unfortunately are ignored in this book].
There needs to be a "wide-open national discourse" about what is important to Americans and it is certain that few of our office holders think of the future. "If we the people are going to make the future that is now our own, then we must begin a knowing, conscious fight for shared prosperity, genuine opportunity, and full realization of the promise of new technologies (11)."
Their reason for writing this book is their belief, after twenty years in this field, that the democratic infrastructure and economic understandings of the United States are...insufficient to res;pond to the overwhelming changes that are coming (288)." "Things will change in a revolutionary manner in a large and widespread reconsideration" of economic and social arrangements (288). It remains to be seen "whether the changes will be in the interest of a handful of billionaires or the great mass of Americans--and, indeed, the great mass of human beings around the world (288)."
The theme of the book is that with an outpouring of popular support, things can be changed as a vibrant democracy is born again. Chapter 3 discusses our "citizenless democracy" and chapters 4-6 lays out what can be done. This is briefly explained in the introduction and although I only glanced at these chapters, they are as well argued as the first two chapters on the jobless economy we have today.
My brief notes from the Introduction:
We citizens are not "in charge' of these inevitable technological changes that are unspooling, that are "every bit as disruptive as the Industrial Revolution (2)." As in the Gilded Age, there are large inequalities in power and income. The Digital Revolution will be ever more efficient and as it stands now, will be designed to deliver the profits the corporations desire, not increased employment; and there is no existing sector of the economy that needs these millions of surplus workers(3). The authors are not opposing technology but its management by bankers,
investors, and CEOs. "Seemingly endless stagnation, unemployment, inequality, and growing poverty are the result of contemporary capitalism (4)" and politics.
Kodak had 145,000 employees in 1983 Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2012, and in 2015 95% of the employees were gone(6). When Instagram was bought by Facebook in 2012 it has 13 employees. Facebook in March 2015 10,082 employees, 7% of Kodak's 1983 workforce. Kodak made physical goods and that requires many more employees than producing digital goods(7).
The authors say that Americans must "shape progress...as citizens engaged in a democratic process of organizing a new economy that reflects our values and our needs(8)."
As Americans seldom have a national dialogue about economics as during the New Deal, CR Movement, etc., it is overdue now and must be done pronto, before all we have is a jobless economy.
Fast food jobs are identified as "one of the few refuges for workers displaced by corporate downsizing" [but not so in Southern California as the Immigration Act of 1965 has brought a wave of folks who despise veterans and don't much like Black Americans either, who wish to work alongside 'their own kind' even for a bad employer. Immigration crowding the job market and the housing stock unfortunately are ignored in this book].
There needs to be a "wide-open national discourse" about what is important to Americans and it is certain that few of our office holders think of the future. "If we the people are going to make the future that is now our own, then we must begin a knowing, conscious fight for shared prosperity, genuine opportunity, and full realization of the promise of new technologies (11)."
