Corporateering : how corporate power steals your personal freedom-- and what you can do about it / Jamie Court.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Court, Jamie, 1967-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Corporations--Corrupt practices--United States.

Corporations.

Corporations--Corrupt practices.

United States.

Consumer protection--United States.

Consumer protection.

Freedom of information--United States.

Freedom of information.

Privacy, Right of--United States.

Privacy, Right of.

Social responsibility of business--United States.

Social responsibility of business.

Physical Description:

xii, 322 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam, [2003]

Summary:

Enron. Tyco. Arthur Andersen. These companies have turned "corporate" into a four-letter word as headline after headline reveals shocking stories of executives stealing money from investors. But money isn't all that corporations steal. In Corporateering, Jamie Court -- "notorious for his dramatic, sharp-tongued attacks on the health-care and auto-insurance industries, and on any politician who takes their campaign cash" (The Wall Street Journal) -- shows how corporations routinely and quietly rob us of our personal freedoms, including privacy, security, the right to legal recourse, and more. In fact, "corporateering" -- the act of prioritizing commercial gain over individual, social, or cultural gain -- exists everywhere in our lives, whether we know it or not. Sure, McDonald's loves to see you smile, GE brings good things to life, and like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. But in this brave new world of "corporate transcendence," in which corporations seek to transcend their roles as impersonal bureaucratic institutions and present themselves as human faces with hearts of gold, it can be difficult for the individual consumer to see when he or she is being had.

Contents:

Part 1 Meet the Invisible Hand

1. Seeing Corporateering 7

2. Removing Accountability to the Individual 25

3. The Logic of Making Corporations Count More Than Individuals 52

Part 2 The Means of Control

4. Capturing Justice, Education, and Community 89

5. Workers of the World Incorporate 116

6. Indebted to the Corporation 143

7. Selling the Free Press and the Public Interest 174

8. Global Corporateering 209

Part 3 Counter-Corporateering

9. Countering Corporateering 233

Appendix I Speaking About Corporateering 260

Appendix II 10 Laws to Counter Corporateering 266

Appendix III Better Business Heroes 275

Appendix IV Many Brands, One Corporation: The Tobacco Company Behind the Curtain 278

Appendix V Government Agencies That Can Help Counter Corporateering 281

Appendix VI What Is Your Time Worth? 288.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [289]-313) and index.

ISBN:

1585422282

OCLC:

51093093