Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy, and Everyday Life
The author of Supercapitalism, Robert Reich, makes the argument that there is an increasing conflict between democracy and capitalism. This conflict has emerged a new form of capitalism that Reich calls supercapitalism. In the past 40 to 50 years capitalism grew and became strong while democracy fell by the wayside. There are many reasons as to why and how this happened. As consumers we are attracted to low prices, but at the same time we are against low wages and child labor. Companies are on the hunt to make the highest profits for investors and at the same time offering the lowest prices for consumers.
With the increase of technology companies became very competitive. Companies did a great deal of lobbying to have the government put laws into place that favor them or hurt their competition. The government was no longer focusing on the interests of citizens, but rather the large companies because of the money they were receiving. Companies are being treated as though they are people. If we continue to give these companies the same rights as people have, then we can expect supercapitalism to grow. Because companies are not people they should not be expected to want the common good for everyone. Reich states that, “Corporations should have no more legal rights to free speech, due process, or political representation in a democracy than do any other pieces of paper on which contracts are written” (p. 216).
The author wrote this piece because democracy in the United States has become very weak. As democracy has fallen by the wayside, the interests of citizens have gone right along with it. Reich makes the point that capitalism and democracy can both exist in the same society, but they cannot intermix. One of the two will fail if the line between capitalism and democracy gets crossed. There needs to be a clear division of business and politics. This will be difficult because...