The Raging 2020s: Companies, Countries, People - and the Fight for Our Future

Description

Huge corporations are acting like nations, global wealth is going to billionaires and ordinary people are suffering. It's set to be a rocky decade - but we can fix it. As the market consolidates under fewer and larger companies, it's increasingly in the interest of private companies to behave like nations. And when the government is bogged down in bureaucratic negotiations and culture wars, people begin to look to nimble, powerful companies to solve society's problems - and to be our moral standard-bearers. It shouldn't be like this. Ross weaves interviews with the world's most influential thinkers with fascinating stories of corporate activism and malfeasance, government failure and renewal, and innovative economic and political models being implemented around the world, to propose a new social contract - one that benefits workers and everyday citizens in the face of unprecedented global change.

Alec Ross is the New York Times bestselling author of The Industries of the Future and one of the world's leading experts on innovation. Now Distinguished Visiting Professor at Bologna Business School of l'Universita di Bologna, he served in the Presidential Administration of Barack Obama for four years as Senior Advisor for Innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He is also Board Partner at Amplo, a global venture capital firm and has been named a Top 100 Global Thinker by Foreign Policy magazine.

In The Raging 2020s, Alec Ross... argues that our social contract is broken, that the roles of business, labor, government and foreign countries need to be rethought... An immensely (and unusually) readable account... Like watching a master jewel thief at work, except that this is not the movies, where the transfer is often from rich to poor. Quite the opposite. * New York Times * Government has ceded authority to corporations, which naturally act in their own interest rather than for the common good... A provocative, well-made case. * Kirkus * Alec Ross fearlessly confronts one of the fundamental concerns of our time: fixing the broken social contract between people, business, and government. His book will challenge you to rethink some of your assumptions about democracy, capitalism, and globalization. -- Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of THINK AGAIN and host of the TED podcast WorkLife Alec Ross is a keen analyst and brilliant storyteller. The Raging 2020s introduces us to the people whose lives are blighted by unconscionable policies and concentrations of power, helping us understand and indeed share the rage that fuels many 21st century political movements. Best of all, Ross is willing to speak truth to power in recommending a set of bold but realistic solutions. -- Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO, New America, and Bert G. Kerstetter '66 University Professor Emerita of Politics and International Affairs, Princeton University A gripping, illuminating chronicle that provides a wonderful birds-eye view from the heights of government and international business, that solidifies Ross's position among the most visionary of global thinkers on the future of technology and its implications, and that also is an amazingly enjoyable, page-turning read! -- General David Petraeus, former Director of the CIA and former Commander of the Surge in Iraq, US Central Command, and Coalition Forces in Afghanistan