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Date Posted: 03:03:00 05/28/02 Tue
Author: Weird_Enigma
Author Host/IP: 209.252.119.10
Subject: Extreme Capitalism

Posted on Mon, May. 27, 2002
The triumph of free-market thinking
CHRIS O'BRIEN
Knight Ridder Newspapers

ONE MARKET UNDER GOD: Extreme Capitalism, Market Populism and the End of Economic Democracy

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By Thomas Frank. Doubleday. 436 pages. $14.95 paperback..

The 1990s are congealing in our collective memories as the "Dot-Com Decade." It's a simple and amusing concept, but one that also misses a far more profound cultural shift that occurred during the Clinton years.

In reality, the 1990s were the decade that marked the triumph of free-market thinking. Thanks to executives, management gurus, public relations people and yes, the media, a grand consensus was formed around the idea that free markets are the solution to all of our ills and that anything -- or anyone -- that stands in their way is the enemy of the people.

With only a few Ralph Nader followers dissenting from the fringe, we find ourselves living in a bizarre world where billionaire executives are seen to be leading a populist revolution. Who needs unions when we have stock options?

And just who do these free-market radicals aim to liberate us from? Why, it's those dastardly environmentalists, labor unions and government bureaucrats who are squeezing us in their powerful clutches so we can't enjoy the prosperity and freedom that markets inevitably bring!

The absurdity of this thinking and the degree to which we've all bought into it is the subject of "One Market Under God: Extreme Capitalism, Market Populism, and the End of Economic Democracy," by Thomas Frank. Originally published in late 2000, a paperback version is now available with a new afterword. It's a humorous and much-needed reality check that maps out just how our culture arrived at a powerful consensus that's managed to drown out almost all opposition.

Given how unthinking our allegiance to free markets has become, it's almost impossible to remember that things were any other way. But early last century, as Frank points out, Americans were far more ambivalent about capitalism.

As the first modern corporations consolidated their grip on the economy in the 1910s and '20s, many Americans felt that more had to be done to rein in their power. Even some business people felt capitalism had to be saved from itself because it was prone to excess. There was a surge in unionism to fight for more democracy in the workplace, and progressive governments passed regulations that would eventually culminate with the New Deal.

"There was a time -- and not all that long ago -- when the suggestion that business was merely a more perfect version of democracy would have been greeted with a national horselaugh," Frank writes.

But in the 1980s and 1990s, the rise of conservative politics, the fall of the Soviet Union and the decline of unions helped turn the tide back in favor of these long-suffering CEOs. Frank traces the roots of this change and skewers many of those he deems responsible for a movement he dubs "market populism": The idea that free markets and corporations were the ultimate expression of the people's will and far more legitimate than big, bad government with its silly elections.

Thus, we must turn to revolutionaries like Bill Gates and Charles Schwab to rescue us from the evil bureaucrats. Our saviors are those hip, blue-haired software engineers who will start companies that destroy big corporations and liberate all that wealth which trickles down to all of us via IPOs on the stock market.

Frank critiques this nonsense through a series of essays that discuss the roles of the media, advertising, academics, executives, financiers and politicians.

In one of the more entertaining chapters, Frank examines the vast library of management theory books. If ever there was a genre deserving to be lampooned, it's this one, with titles like "Rules for Revolutionaries," "Redefining Corporate Soul," "Who Moved My Cheese?" and "Liberation Management." The messages are always the same: Either you learn to change and adapt to free market thinking or you get splattered like a bug on a windshield.

The market populist movement arrived full of obvious contradictions: "It hails the empowerment of the individual and yet regards those who use that power to challenge markets as robotic stooges," Frank writes. "It salutes choices and yet tells us that the triumph of markets is inevitable."

As the decade wore on, Clinton declared that the era of "big government" was over. Newt Gingrich rolled into office promising ever more deregulation to allow businesses the flexibility to compete. And for proof that the public was down with deregulation and globalization, all one needed to do was look at the booming stock market -- or "The People's Market" as it came to be known in business magazines.

Of course, much of this flexibility granted to corporations simply made it easier for them to fire employees. We might have less job security, but at least we can take our pets to work and wear jeans on casual day. We in the media helped make this all less painful by substituting euphemisms like "layoff" and "involuntary separation" for nasty old words like "fired."

Now that the latest bubble has run its course, it remains to be seen whether it will lead to a more fundamental rethinking of our fetish for free markets. Nobody is advocating Soviet-style central planning, but there seems to be growing evidence that free markets are far from perfect.

The past year has brought an endless string of stories detailing the worst excesses of capitalism: companies manipulating earnings, analysts who pumped up worthless stocks, energy companies gaming the California energy markets, a telecom deregulation plan that's ended with a huge bust.

The solution offered by the market populists is for more deregulation because only the markets can save us. Will we keep listening?

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Chris O'Brien wrote this review for the San Jose Mercury News.

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