New Corporation

Description

From the author of The Corporation- The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power comes this deeply informed and unflinching look at the way corporations have slyly rebranded themselves as socially conscious entities ready to tackle society's problems, while CEO compensation soars, income inequality is at all-time highs, and democracy sits in a precarious situation. A VINTAGE ORIGINAL. Over the last decade and a half, business leaders, Silicon Valley executives, and the Davos elite have been calling for a new kind of capitalism. The writing was on the wall. With income inequality soaring, wages stagnating, and a climate crisis escalating, it was no longer viable to justify harming the environment and ducking taxes in the name of shareholder value. Business leaders realized that to get out in front of these problems, they had to make social and environmental values the very core of their messaging. Their essential pitch was- Who could be better suited to address major societal issues than efficiently run corporations? There is just one small problem with their doing well by doing good pitch. Corporations are still, ultimately, answerable to their shareholders, and doing well always comes first. This essential truth lies at the heart of Joel Bakan's argument. In lucid and engaging prose, Bakan lays bare a litany of immoral corporate actions and documents corporate power grabs dressed up as social initiatives. He makes clear the urgency of the problem of the corporatization of society itself and shows how people are fighting back and making gains on a grassroots level.

Joel Bakan is a professor of law at the University of British Columbia. A Rhodes Scholar and former law clerk to Chief Justice Brian Dickson of the Supreme Court of Canada, he holds law degrees from Oxford, Harvard, and Dalhousie Universities. An internationally renowned legal authority, Bakan has written widely on law and its social and economic impact. He is the cocreator and writer of a documentary film and television miniseries called The Corporation, which is based on the book.

"A rigorously argued manifesto against corporate capitalism. . . . Writing clearly and with minimal pleading to economic authority, the author closes by invoking the lessons of the pandemic, which tells us that corporate values are not those of ordinary people." -Kirkus Reviews "Joel Bakan's The Corporation woke up the world to how the construction of the corporation led to a pathological economy that destroyed nature and society. In The New Corporation, Bakan shows how the billionaires are using the rhetoric of serving society and nature to enclose the remaining commons, privatize public goods, and colonize our bodies and minds. The New Corporation is vital reading for all who are concerned to protect the public good, life, and freedom." -Dr. Vandana Shiva author of Earth Democracy and Oneness vs the 1% "Impeccably researched and beautifully written, The New Corporation reveals the pillage of the planet, plunder of the poor, love of tax-cutting despots, throttling of democracy and raw crimes of today's economic behemoths. It makes clear why a new economic order is essential, and heralds the grassroots organizing that will bring it about." -Wendy Brown, Professor of Political Science at University of California, Berkeley, and author of In the Ruins of Neoliberalism: The Rise of Antidemocratic Politics in the West