Cheaponomics : the high cost of low prices / Michael Carolan.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Carolan, Michael S., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Prices.

Value.

Physical Description:

215 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Abingdon, Oxon : Routledge, 2014.

Summary:

As Michael Carolan clearly shows in this compelling book, cheapness is an illusion. The real cost of low prices is alarmingly high. It is shown, for example, that citizens are frequently subsidizing low prices through welfare support to poorly-paid workers in their own country, or relying on the exploitation of workers in poor countries for cheap goods. Environmental pollution may not be costed into goods and services, but is paid for indirectly by people living away from its sources or by future generations. Even with private cars, when the total costs of this form of mobility are tallied it proves to be an astronomically expensive model of transportation. All of these costs need to be accounted for. The author captures these issues with the concept of "cheaponomics." The key point is that costs and risks are socialized: we all pay for cheapness, but not at the point of purchase. Drawing on a wide range of examples and issues from over-consumption and waste to over-work, unemployment, inequality, and the depersonalizing of communities, it is convincingly shown that cheapness can no longer be seen as such as bargain. Instead we need to refocus for a better sense of well-being, social justice, and a balanced approach to prosperity. Book jacket.

Contents:

Free enterprise, socialism, and cheaponomics

You bought that computer but someone else paid for it

Free plastic bags (and other costly ephemeral commodities)

The high cost of cheap foods

The real cost of automobiles and car-munities

Retail concentration and rock-bottom prices¿but at what cost?

Working less for more

Comforting the productivist zombie

Real prosperity is priceless

Ten recommendations for the good, affordable, and affording.

Notes:

"Earthscan from Routledge."

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780415735148

0415735149

9780415735155

0415735157

OCLC:

857370283