Although citizens are protected by the Bill of Rights, corporations are allowed to make their own laws. Workers can be fired for saying the wrong things and doing things that should not reasonably be controlled by their employers. Why, for example, is it a problem if WalMart employees date each other? Clearly, the author states, constitutional protections must be extended into the workplace if citizens are to become free again.
For we are not truly free now. The market system has been allowed to grow to such proportions that it is now merely a method for a few people at the top to make money at the expense of others. We live in an economy that requires that some people be unemployed, then complain when it comes time to support these surplus people with welfare. We survive on myths, like the one that everyone who works hard enough will be rewarded.
The government is no longer in charge of the country, neither are the people. Instead, we have been tricked into turning the keys over to large corporations, which are given power whenever they promise economic growth and new jobs. This is all done at the expense of things which are important to human survival, but do not carry dollar amounts.
Family life, the environment and personal growth are sacrificed so that people can work long hours and be loyal to their employers. In exchange for this, long-time workers are laid off and it is called growth. The gross national product implies that things are healthy, but Reich calls for a change in this measurement.
Instead of just looking at money spent, he proposes that we look at costs, for example the building of a prison is counted as a positive thing currently. Reich feels that a system that promotes crime and spends billions on warehousing criminals, who are strongly represented by the lower class citizens, instead of providing jobs is a negative impact on the country.
Loosening rather than tightening environmental standards is presented as caving into market forces and the political parties are shown as really being more similar than different from each other. Reich also points out that things like radio and television stations, which are supposed to be publicly owned and representative of the diversity in the country, have come to be operated by major corporations.
The book comes down very hard on corporations, but the point isn't to bring down big business for its own sake. Reich is genuinely concerned with the American people, who he sees as being overwhelmed by the system. We are afraid of losing our jobs and not willing to take times for ourselves and our friends. Everything is geared towards money and this, Reich feels, is not good.
Published by Crown Publishers, the book is interesting reading for anyone interested in what life might be like in a better America and where a lot of the myths about the current system come from.
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