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Audiobook16 hours
When Corporations Rule the World
Written by David C. Korten
Narrated by Kevin Pierce
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
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About this audiobook
Our Choice: Democracy or Corporate Rule
A handful of corporations and financial institutions command an ever-greater concentration of economic and political power in an assault against markets, democracy, and life. It's a “suicide economy,” says David Korten, that destroys the very foundations of its own existence.
The bestselling 1995 edition of When Corporations Rule the World helped launch a global resistance against corporate domination. In this twentieth-anniversary edition, Korten shares insights from his personal experience as a participant in the growing movement for a New Economy. A new introduction documents the further concentration of wealth and corporate power since 1995 and explores why our institutions resolutely resist even modest reform. A new conclusion chapter outlines high-leverage opportunities for breakthrough change.
A handful of corporations and financial institutions command an ever-greater concentration of economic and political power in an assault against markets, democracy, and life. It's a “suicide economy,” says David Korten, that destroys the very foundations of its own existence.
The bestselling 1995 edition of When Corporations Rule the World helped launch a global resistance against corporate domination. In this twentieth-anniversary edition, Korten shares insights from his personal experience as a participant in the growing movement for a New Economy. A new introduction documents the further concentration of wealth and corporate power since 1995 and explores why our institutions resolutely resist even modest reform. A new conclusion chapter outlines high-leverage opportunities for breakthrough change.
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Reviews for When Corporations Rule the World
Rating: 3.9051724137931036 out of 5 stars
4/5
58 ratings7 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5For anyone who has doubts about how pervasive corporations are in global politics, this is a book you need to read. Korten published the original edition, which is the bulk of this 20 year anniversary edition, in 1995, but it is as fresh as it was then in unveiling the make-believe world of phantom wealth--money that is not based on any useful product or service. The mantra of continuous growth that, according to libertarian economic theory, will eventually lead to the end of poverty is a myth, and instead is more of a suicide economy which does not recognize the limitations that nature puts on us.
After fully outlining the death spiral we are inexorably heading toward as caused by the transnational corporations, which feel no responsibility to any community or person, Korten outlines what he calls a living economy. Such an economy is locally based, locally owned and responsive to community needs. It does not exploit nature beyond its limits, It is not based on growth of money, but rather on meeting the needs of society and respecting humans and nature. I am convinced, as is Korten, if we do not move more in the direction of market based living economies, instead of capital based exploitative practices, we may do irreparable harm to the earth and the people that inhabit it. It is easy to feel depressed about where we are and how far we have to go to even bring about modest change, but I think it is worth striving for. We do not have to let corporations rule the world, and if we band together and develop alternative market based, local systems, we might just have a chance. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Big business, Business and politics, Corporations, Political aspects, Industrialization, Social aspects, Industries, Environmental aspects, International business enterprises, International economic relations, Power (Social sciences), Sustainable development
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Korten does an excellent job explaining the problems caused by our modern global corporate capitalist economic system, the causes of that system, and some methods by which we can change the system. Good use of examples and comparison to Adam Smith's theories.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This is a long, but fairly easy to understand book about how the state and the corporation act in tandem to expropriate wealth from society via taxation and the ability of a corporation to act as a living being with more rights than a human being. It also delves into the disconnection of people from the living earth. By perpetuating the myth that the accumulation of money is happiness the bankers and economists are setting up the earth to be rapidly depleted of resources in exchange for short term gain. The concepts in the book are revolutionary and really make sense, but my attention flagged at times due to the extraordinary length of the book. When a chapter runs longer than an hour perhaps the writer could have broken things down to fewer more concise words. Nevertheless, there is a good portion of this book that provides a view of the future that could be either very prosperous or disastrous depending on what narrative the world adopts. It could be a perpetuation of the fiction that man is better than the environment or that man and the environment can live together in harmony in perpetuity.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Dated now ( 1996 ) but, all on the money ( ha ) ~ I never fully considered what would happen when a corporation owns 100 % of it's own stock ...
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The book starts by providing a history of the rise of corporations, essentially from the founding of the US. Touching on the charters given to corporations by the British crown on to the civil war and the increased role of a central government in the affairs of the states. Then the author goes on to describe the corporate state of the world now(start of 21st century), and the institutions accompanying this status(IMF, World Bank), and through this it is clear what the author thinks about this, he is by all means opposed to the status quo, attributing what he sees as a grim reality, practically, as the fault of corporations. The author admittedly anthropomorphizing corporations(which I think is misleading), and soon develops conspiracy-like arguments demonising corporations. Another topic under attack is globalization, which is mainly argued against on both an economical and cultural ground, economically it creates inequality, and it represses cultural diversity. In this part, it appears that the author holds the typical (quote) liberal approach, calling those that own the majority of the wealth Stratos dwellers(and derisively using that notation throughout).In the final part of the book, the author adumbrates his vision for what can be done. In this the author outlines his vision for economic equality, environmental improvement, all through structural changes in existing institutions; economic and societal. This seems to be a very incomplete antidote to the status quo, and although it may be claimed that the status quo is in need of serious improvement, the mechanism by which to do this, unfortunately, is not truly present in this book.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Big business, Business and politics, Corporations, Political aspects, Industrialization, Social aspects, Industries, Environmental aspects, International business enterprises, International economic relations, Power (Social sciences), Sustainable development