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We live in an era where image is nearly everything, where the proliferation of brand-name culture has created, to take one hyperbolic example from Naomi Klein's No Logo, "walking, talking, life-sized Tommy [Hilfiger] dolls, mummified in fully branded Tommy worlds." Brand identities are even flourishing online, she notes--and for some retailers, perhaps best of all online: "Liberated from the real-world burdens of stores and product manufacturing, these brands are free to soar, less as the disseminators of goods or services than as collective hallucinations."
In No Logo, Klein patiently demonstrates, step by step, how brands have become ubiquitous, not just in media and on the street but increasingly in the schools as well. (The controversy over advertiser-sponsored Channel One may be old hat, but many readers will be surprised to learn about ads in school lavatories and exclusive concessions in school cafeterias.) The global companies claim to support diversity, but their version of "corporate multiculturalism" is merely intended to create more buying options for consumers. When Klein talks about how easy it is for retailers like Wal-Mart and Blockbuster to "censor" the contents of videotapes and albums, she also considers the role corporate conglomeration plays in the process. How much would one expect Paramount Pictures, for example, to protest against Blockbuster's policies, given that they're both divisions of Viacom?
Klein also looks at the workers who keep these companies running, most of whom never share in any of the great rewards. The president of Borders, when asked whether the bookstore chain could pay its clerks a "living wage," wrote that "while the concept is romantically appealing, it ignores the practicalities and realities of our business environment." Those clerks should probably just be grateful they're not stuck in an Asian sweatshop, making pennies an hour to produce Nike sneakers or other must-have fashion items. Klein also discusses at some length the tactic of hiring "permatemps" who can do most of the work and receive few, if any, benefits like health care, paid vacations, or stock options. While many workers are glad to be part of the "Free Agent Nation," observers note that, particularly in the high-tech industry, such policies make it increasingly difficult to organize workers and advocate for change.
But resistance is growing, and the backlash against the brands has set in. Street-level education programs have taught kids in the inner cities, for example, not only about Nike's abusive labor practices but about the astronomical markup in their prices. Boycotts have commenced: as one urban teen put it, "Nike, we made you. We can break you." But there's more to the revolution, as Klein optimistically recounts: "Ethical shareholders, culture jammers, street reclaimers, McUnion organizers, human-rights hacktivists, school-logo fighters and Internet corporate watchdogs are at the early stages of demanding a citizen-centered alternative to the international rule of the brands ... as global, and as capable of coordinated action, as the multinational corporations it seeks to subvert." No Logo is a comprehensive account of what the global economy has wrought and the actions taking place to thwart it. --Ron Hogan
Book Description
With a new Afterword to the 2002 edition. No Logo employs journalistic savvy and personal testament to detail the insidious practices and far-reaching effects of corporate marketing—and the powerful potential of a growing activist sect that will surely alter the course of the 21st century. First published before the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle, this is an infuriating, inspiring, and altogether pioneering work of cultural criticism that investigates money, marketing, and the anti-corporate movement.
As global corporations compete for the hearts and wallets of consumers who not only buy their products but willingly advertise them from head to toe—witness today’s schoolbooks, superstores, sporting arenas, and brand-name synergy—a new generation has begun to battle consumerism with its own best weapons. In this provocative, well-written study, a front-line report on that battle, we learn how the Nike swoosh has changed from an athletic status-symbol to a metaphor for sweatshop labor, how teenaged McDonald’s workers are risking their jobs to join the Teamsters, and how “culture jammers” utilize spray paint, computer-hacking acumen, and anti-propagandist wordplay to undercut the slogans and meanings of billboard ads (as in “Joe Chemo” for “Joe Camel”).
No Logo will challenge and enlighten students of sociology, economics, popular culture, international affairs, and marketing.
“This book is not another account of the power of the select group of corporate Goliaths that have gathered to form our de facto global government. Rather, it is an attempt to analyze and document the forces opposing corporate rule, and to lay out the particular set of cultural and economic conditions that made the emergence of that opposition inevitable.”—Naomi Klein, from her Introduction
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Once a poster boy for the new economy, Bill Gates has become a global whipping boy. The Nike swoosh is quickly losing its cachet, equated now with sweatshop labor. Teenage McDonald's workers are joining the Teamsters. What's going on? NO LOGO explains why some of the most revered brands in the world are finding themselves on the wrong end of a spray-can, a computer hack, or an international anti-corporate campaign. NO LOGO uncovers a betrayal of the central promises of the information age: choice, interactivity, and increased freedom. Instead, job security and consumer choice have been swallowed whole by companies who enlist us as their human billboards and spokesmen. Equal parts cultural analysis, political manifesto, mall-rat memoir, and journalistic expose, NO LOGO is the first book that both uncovers the sins of corporations run amok and explores and explains the new resistance that will change consumer culture in the 21st century.
Customer Reviews:
Informatively frustrating.......2007-08-17
It was well written exploring many aspects of branding, culture jamming, and production.
This book will leave you with frustration and questioning how you change change something, and what CAN you buy that isn't made from Export Processing Zones.
It does give great information but yet leaves you frustrated and feeling helpless that you can't change the current conditions or avoid buying products made in places like china, el salvador, indonesia where they treat their workers worse than dirt.
Insight into an Ad-driven culture.......2007-07-14
This book offers a deep insight on how advertising are creeping into our lives, even conveyed to us in a subliminal way. If left unchecked, the corporations would be the authors our culture. It also showcases the exploits of major corporations in employment.
However, one must be critical when reading the book, as some of the things Naomi bashes on, such as the Starbucks expansion strategy, are genuine business strategies. In some cases, we have to be realistic and not blindly adopt and anti-corporation stance.
The first 3 chapters, No Space, No Choice, and No Jobs are exceptionally informative, but the last chapter, No Logo, falls short and descends into a boring rant on countermeasures that in my opinion, are far from effective and often, impractical.
Buy the book, read the first 2, skip the last.
Anti-Corporate Handbook.......2007-05-20
What are the effects of multinational corporations in the Branding Age? Naomi Klein tackles that in this seminal work on the subject. While somewhat dated (published in 2000), it gives the most comprehensive picture of the transition corporations have undergone from providing competent products and services to providing ubiquitous branding and advertising to produce loyalty and sell peripherals. This book gives the total picture of the devastation left in the wake of total corporate dominance in the U.S., Canada, and worldwide.
As she details, what has emerged in the last half of the 20th century is a new kind of totality - an economic imperialism spearheaded by Nike, The Gap, McDonalds, Shell, and Microsoft and their lawyers, contractors, and advertising agencies. As they break open markets, crush competition, and lower wages across the globe they've gotten so powerful as to dictate to scores of countries what their trade and economic policies are going to be. These policies are always anti-Union and terrible for workers, leaving nations worse off than before they were Industrialized and Advertised - creating massive wealth gaps and uneven distributions across the board.
The four major sections of the book: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs, and No Logo, each show in example after example, case study upon study that advertising is the product now and the more money spent in that avenue, the more profitable the corporation can be while taking every opportunity away from the poor and disenfranchised, forcing horrible conditions and worse jobs on them, and decreasing their access to health care and nutrition. This is not an accident. This is a concerted policy foisted upon the world through the corporate enforcement arm of the WTO, World Bank, and U.S. Military.
Is it hopeless? Well, civil disobedience is one way to combat the trends and takeover and Klein offers many suggestions and examples in this book. However even she admits that the situation is bleak.
Good luck . . . and good read.
- CV Rick
NO LOGO will fundementally alter the way you think about the world........2006-11-04
Naomi Klien's treatise on the anti-corporate movement of the last decade provides tremendous insight into the philosophies behind today's anti-corporate culture, and more importantly, the "branded" society that has spawned it. Well written and intelligent on every level, NO LOGO carefully tracks such disturbing phenomenons as the disappearance of public space, the rise of corporate censorship, and the transformation of living wage jobs for Americans into sweatshop labor in the third world. If you are completely unfamiliar with today's cultural rebellion against corporate control, NO LOGO serves as an excellent introduction, clearly outlining the dubious marketing trend of promoting "brands not products" such that you will never be able to watch commercials the same way again. If you are a seasoned WTO protester or billboard adbuster, NO LOGO will provide you with all the philosophical and factual ammo necessary to start converting your friends away from their unthinking materialistic lifestyle. This book is a must read for anyone who considers themselves and independently thinking consumer, as well as anyone who is interested in the latest cultural rebellion taking place among today's young and disenfranchised.
The Third World has always existed for the comfort of the First.......2006-11-03
Naomi Klein sketches perfectly the major shift in corporate strategy today: transnational companies are not interested in production anymore, only in branding: products are made in factories, brands in the mind. Branding creates big margins, production in home countries meager earnings.
This strategy causes monstrous layoffs in the First World and creates EPZ (Export Processing Zones) in the Third World.
In the First world, corporations transformed themselves in `engines of wealth growth' for their shareholders, instead of `engines of job growth'. `CEO's of the 30 companies with the largest announced layoffs saw their total compensation increase by 67%.'
The jobs they need are predominantly outsourced, or are McJobs (no `adult wages') and temporary stop-jobs.
The First World stirs fierce competition between Third World countries in order to get rock-bottom prices for their `branded' products, creating colossal margins in the home countries.
Wages in EPZs are so low that most of the money is spent on shared dorm rooms and basic food. Workers cannot afford the consumer goods they produce.
Another aspect of our branded world is the sheer size of the (trans)national corporations created by relentless mergers and acquisitions. Their size permits them to decide what items (also magazines, DVDs) should be stocked in a store, in other words, they create a new kind of censorship.
Big mergers in the media landscape allow conglomerates to produce their own news and in this sense jeopardize basic civil liberties.
While Naomi Klein's analysis of our consumer planet is very revealing, the remedies she proposes are rather innocent, epidermic, symptom healing or too general: ad and brand busting, radical ecology (Reclaim the Streets), anti-globalization and anti-corporate mass protests, boycott, building greater critical social consciousness. Individual actions like attacking in court (Shell in Nigeria), revealing Nike's sweatshops or denouncing McDonald's food are ultimately not more than temporary needle pricks in elephant skins.
What the world needs is a global vision, which we can find in the works of Joseph Stiglitz or (for a view from the South) Walden Bello.
Highly recommended.
Book Description
Discontent with public education has been on the rise in recent years, as parents complain that their children are not being taught the basics, that they are not pushed to excel, and that their classrooms are too chaotic to encourage any real learning. The public has begun to reject school bond levies with regularity, frustrated by mounting education costs that are coupled with stagnation or decline in student achievement. ---
In Market Education: The Unknown History, Andrew J. Coulson explores the educational problems facing parents and shows how these problems can best be addressed. He begins with a discussion of what people want from their school systems, tracing their views of the kinds of knowledge, skills, and values education should impart, and their concerns about discipline, drugs, and violence in schools. Using this survey of goals and attitudes as a guide, Coulson sets out to compare the school systems of civilizations both ancient and modern, seeking to determine which systems achieved the aims of parents and the public at large and which did not. His historical study ranges from classical Athens and ancient Rome, through the Islamic world of the Middle Ages, to nineteenth-century England and contemporary America. ---
Drawing on the historical evidence of how these various systems operated, Coulson concludes that free educational markets have consistently done a better job of serving the public's needs than state-run school systems have. He sets out a blueprint for competitive, free-market education reform that would make schools more flexible, more innovative, and more responsive to the needs of parents and students. He describes how education for low-income children might be funded under a market system, and how the transition from monopolistic public education to market education might be achieved. ---
Coulson's Market Education touches on a wide range of issues, including minority education, corruption in high-stakes standardized testing, the role of public school teachers, and mismanagement in educational bureaucracies. It examines alternative reform proposals from vouchers and charter schools to national standards for school curricula. This timely and engaging book will appeal to parents, educators, and others concerned with the quality and cost of schooling.
Customer Reviews:
History and Statistics In Support of School Choice.......2001-03-08
Many people have proposals for what should be done about education today. Few have looked into history to see what has been successful in the past. This book does that. Few have hard data to back up their theories. This book does. It cites more than one thousand authentic historical and statistical sources. Half of these are original documents (or translations thereof).
The bibliography alone is worth the price of this book. I had been searching for statistics on literacy, and I found so much more here! This book is not only an excellent survey of educational methods throughout history, but also a comprehensive list of sources for future research.
The author is biased toward completely privatized education, and in this book he explains why. He starts where democracy started, in Ancient Greece. Most of us have heard of Athens and Sparta. We know Spartans were dedicated warriors. We know they had to come home from war "with their shield or on it." We know the city state of Sparta was everything, and each individual citizen was dispensable.
We know that Athens, not Sparta, became the capitol in Greece's Golden Age. What I did not know before reading about it in this book was that Athens had no official school system, no regulation of teachers, and no required curriculum. Athenian teachers simply charged parents directly for educating their children. Each teacher specialized in a subject, and the parents simply chose teachers with good reputations who taught the subjects they wanted their children to know. Competition for students kept prices down. Some excellent teachers were wealthy and did not charge, notably Plato and Aristotle. The result of this free market education method was a city that became its country's leader in art, philosophy, and science.
This is but the first exploration in this timely book that examines what has worked in education. My BellaOnline School Reform Forum will be full of references to this book. So far it is the only one of its kind!
In depth analysis.......2000-05-05
I also recomend Murray Rothbard's "Education: Free and Compulsory" for in depth historical analysis of government involvement with education. Any politicians that truly give a darn should be reading these books. Democrats rhetoric about "helping the poor" is sickening when you realize how much government involvement in education has specifically hurt the poor.
Excellent history, analysis, and presentation.......1999-08-13
I have been doing research on what can be done about the sad state of public education. I read this 391 page book gripped by fascination. Any lover of history, ideas, civilization, or America should read this book. Why are our schools in serious decline? For some of the same reasons the Soviet Union collapsed. Andrew Coulson examines our current system of public education, and argues for revitalization through direct parental control. He looks at times in history when education has been free from state control, and shows that those have been some of the times of greatest cultural flourishing, such as Periclean Athens. He also looks at education in other countries, historically and currently. Public vs. private education in England, and Japan and the Netherlands are particularly of interest. He examines the history of American education, and dispells myths like the idea that people were illiterate until publicly funded education came along. The truth is that the literacy rate was much higher BEFORE Horace Mann first started promoting the idea of state schooling based on the Prussian military model of that time. Coulson also looks at constitutional questions, and deals with the legitimacy of government compelling belief. Anyone who supports the ailing status quo of public education is going to have to come to terms with the formidable research and persuasive arguments presented by Senior Research Associate and former softwear engineer, Andrew Coulson, who devoted four years to producing this book. They will also have to answer the other growing advocates of education liberation, among whom are Thomas Sowell (Inside American Education: The Decline, The Deception, The Dogmas) Stephen Arons (Compelling Belief: The Culture of American Schooling) and Sheldon Richman (The Separation of School and State). I salute Andrew Coulson as having done a magnificent job in writing this well documented and thoughtful study.
Excellent work that deserves thoughtful consideration........1999-05-08
We know that our public schools are not providing the quality of education that they should. Market Education does an excellent job of analyzing what the problems with public education are and making thoughtful recommendations for how to improve it. The book should be required reading for anyone interested in improving our children's education.
Fascinating account of why government schools fail........1999-03-13
An intriguing, highly original account of how government-funded schools have driven out superior private schooling, going back to the ancients and concluding with our failed U.S. schools of today. I haven't seen any other book that presents the history of this takeover of the educational market, and how harmful it has been to students in virtually every country and era in which it has occurred. Anyone interested in improving the education of children really needs to read this book. It's a compelling argument for school choice, and it's written in an appealing style by an author who is obviously passionate about his subject. My guess is that public school teachers will find this book particularly enlightening, since it explains a great deal of their frustration with bureaucracy getting in the way of educating kids. Coulson presents many suggestions for moving our educational system towards greater freedom for students, parents, and teachers.
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- short stories about tough issuses
- Great stories...there's at least one for everyone
- An excellent discussion tool for character education . . .
- A Wonderful and deeply thought provoking collection.
- A great catch
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No Easy Answers: Short Stories About Teenagers Making Tough Choices
Donald R. Gallo
Manufacturer: Laurel Leaf
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ASIN: 0440413052
Release Date: 1999-01-12 |
Book Description
This anthology features stories about individuals who find themselves in situations that test their strength of character. They are called upon to make moral choices, face the consequences of their actions, and consider what it means to "do the right thing. " From computer blackmail, peer pressure, and gang violence to drug use, unwanted pregnancy, guilt and atonement, these characters face decisions that may affect the rest of their lives. There are many tough choices; there are no easy answers.
From the Hardcover edition.
Customer Reviews:
short stories about tough issuses.......2002-07-24
This book is a great book about teens dealing with tough issues. It touches on many issuse that teens deal with every day, such as teen pregnancy, drug use and abuse, not knowing how to handle. The fact that it is written as a group of short stories makes it that much more appealing to a younger audience.
If you are looking for a book that deals with tough issues in an appealing manner than I would highly recommmend this book to you.
Great stories...there's at least one for everyone.......2001-07-01
I read this book in less than a day. The stories were really realistic, and they're things that real teenagers face in everyday life. All the stories are by different authors, and I liked how they put a mini-bio after each of the stories to tell about that author's most famous books that had won the most prizes, etc. It helped, because if there was a story I really liked, then I could get the book with the longer version (most of the stories came from a book the author had written). It was an awesome book.
An excellent discussion tool for character education . . ........1999-07-24
Given the recent trend toward violence with teenagers, this book provides a powerful discussion piece in the middle school classroom. The stories in this collection all have characters who face difficult moral delimmas. This can spark many classroom activities where students determine the best course of action. This gets young adults talking about character, taking responsiblity, and choosing the right path. Furthermore, the high interest level of the stories hook even the most reluctant of readers! It was hard for anyone in the room to put down.
A Wonderful and deeply thought provoking collection........1999-07-10
As an eighth grade teacher I am always interested in good short stories that are appropriate for young adults. I enjoy reading to my students and No Easy Answers proved to be one of the most powerful collections of short stories that I have ever read. My students loved it, and many of them chose to read it on their own. These stories are not only well written and representative of the diveristy of our country, but also pertinent to the tough issues--teenage pregnancy, first love, lonliness, parent-child relationships and homosexuality--that are confronting our children today. If you are a parent, teen, or teacher who is looking for a book that makes you think and confront these types of issues then this is definately the book for you. I highly recommend it.
A great catch.......1999-04-20
This book is fantastic. OUr school library got it and I thought that I would give it a try. It was amazing. The stories are great and you just don't want to put it down. You have to read this!
Book Description
A woman's decision about what kind of childbirth experience she wants to have is central to her politics, identity, and personality. Today's moms and moms-to-be are better informed about their options than ever before, but, perhaps not surprisingly, they confront rigid judgment from women who choose a different path. Women who opt for home birth are criticized for being reckless—what if there's a medical emergency? Women who opt for elective C-sections are considered selfish—their life is so busy they have to schedule an appointment to give birth?
Deliver This! provides a thorough overview of today's options: home birth; birthing centers; vaginal birth in a hospital (with or without anesthetics); elective and medically necessary C-sections. Author Marisa Cohen, who delivered both her daughters in a high-tech hospital, is both engaging and curious in her quest to understand why women make alternative choices—and why they feel fiercely defensive about them. In interviews with over one hundred women, Cohen listened to the debates over the best birthing experience, and explored creative solutions that bridge seemingly conflicting goals.
Smart, appealing, and personable, Deliver This! is equally valuable for first-time moms and those who are pregnant with their second or third child.
Customer Reviews:
Great!.......2007-06-18
I bought this book when I was starting to think about and plan for labor. It does a great job reinforcing that a successful birth is one that results in a healthy baby. I had been reading books on natural child birth and so many of them seem to have the bias that a medicated birth or a C-section is a lesser experience.
Reading this book prepared me to expect the unexpected during labor and to not feel bad for asking for drugs or feel devastated in the event of a C-section.
The personal stories from women who have had babies all sorts of ways are a great resource when one is sorting through all the material out there.
Enjoy Your Baby's Birth and Do it YOUR Way........2007-05-01
Confused when friends tell you to "..just get the epidural as soon as you can.." while others are ecstatic over their "orgasmic" natural births? This book helps you sort out your options by using witty, judgement-free story telling as well as examining how and why women make the choices they make. Deliver This! is the perfect example of presuming that every woman is smart enough to follow her heart, gather the information or stories she needs to make her decision, and then decide what is best for her and her family. Marisa Cohen is an excellent writer and is able to take a values and judgement-laden topic and deliver her information without, well, values and judgement. Nice wit and humor as well. Fabulous!
Great, informative read.......2007-02-07
I'm not even expecting, but I thought this book was a great read. My husband and I are at the point of figuring out when to have a child, and a friend loaned us Marisa Cohen's book, "Deliver This." It sure opened my eyes to the world of birthing! I had no idea how many options were out there, and it was interesting to read from all different perspectives. I also enjoyed the writing of Marisa Cohen -- easy to read, easy to relate to. The closer we get to deciding when to have a child, I'm going to re-read this book.
Funny and reassuring.......2007-01-14
Since I am expecting, I figured I should figure out how I want labor to go. As far as I could find, this was the only book out there on childbirth options. The book was funny, I esp. enjoyed when the author told us she hissed like a demon at her husband before she got the epidural. She educates you about the options - the arguments for and against the options and reasures you that all will be ok. She also gives helpful tips about how and what to discuss with your Doctor, midwife, doula, etc.
Very informative - covers ALL the options without judgement.......2007-01-12
My wife and I are expecting twins this spring so we both read Marisa Cohen's book and found it extremely informative and engagingly written. There's really nothing else like it out there. And now I even know what a post-partum doula is! I will be miles ahead of all the other fathers-to-be at child birth class. Whatever decision my wife makes for her delivery, Ms. Cohen has given us the real scoop on all the available options, from all-natural home birth to elective C-section, and everything in between.
Book Description
In the past decade, China was able to carry out economic reform without political reform, while the Soviet Union attempted the opposite strategy. How did China succeed at economic market reform without changing communist rule? Susan Shirk shows that Chinese communist political institutions are more flexible and less centralized than their Soviet counterparts were.
Shirk pioneers a rational choice institutional approach to analyze policy-making in a non-democratic authoritarian country and to explain the history of Chinese market reforms from 1979 to the present. Drawing on extensive interviews with high-level Chinese officials, she pieces together detailed histories of economic reform policy decisions and shows how the political logic of Chinese communist institutions shaped those decisions.
Combining theoretical ambition with the flavor of on-the-ground policy-making in Beijing, this book is a major contribution to the study of reform in China and other communist countries.
Book Description
In the shadows of post 9-11 world-one in which the words terror, war, and calamity are a part of our daily vocabulary-one question looms larger than life: Is peace possible? "Yes!" insists spiritual visionary and humanitarian Dada J. P. Vaswani in Peace or Perish: There is No Other Choice, an optimistic manifesto for building a more harmonious and peaceful world amidst unpredictable times. "Peace may be fragile and vulnerable-but peace is possible, and peace is attainable, even in a turbulent world like ours." Here is a practical blueprint for an authentic peace, a long-lasting peace, a worldwide peace-and, it begins with you, the individual! Leaning on the world's great religious, literary, and spiritual traditions for inspiration, Dada J. P. Vaswani's Peace or Perish makes the compelling argument that the building blocks of global peace are rooted in three dimensions of peace-peace within, peace between nations, and peace with nature. "Peace is your birthright," declares one of India's leading spiritual luminaries in this seminal work. Through thoughtful anecdotes and an encouraging voice, a contemporary beacon of universal brotherhood offers practical stepping stones to help you attain peace-and challenges you to walk the path. It's an irresistible invitation; one that you won't want to pass up.
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Choice of Forum and Laws in International Commercial Arbitration (Forum Internationale, No. 24.)
Peter Nygh
Manufacturer: Kluwer Law International
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Book Description
International commercial arbitration raises issues other than the choice of the law applicable to the principal contract. Autonomy may have a wider meaning, extending beyond the choice of applicable law to the choice of arbitration itself, and of the place or places where it is to be conducted. Nor is it altogether clear what the forum is, if any. This paper raises the fundamental question of what gives the arbitrator his or her competence; the will of the parties or the law of the seat of arbitration which the parties may, or may not, have chosen. The paper also suggests an answer to the questions of which choice of law rules, if any, should be applied by the arbitrators, to what extent arbitrators will apply mandatory rules (regles d'application immediate), as well as which law governs the procedural aspects and whether it has to be the procedural law of a national system. The new English Arbitration Act 1996 has also been taken into account.
Book Description
We live in a culture of choice. But, in an age of corporate dominance, our freedom to choose has taken on new meaning. Upset with your local big box store? Object to unfair hiring practices at your neighbourhood fast food restaurant? Want to protest the opening of that new multinational coffeeshop? Vote with your feet! What if it's not that simple? In No One Makes You Shop at Wal-Mart, Tom Slee unpacks the implications of our fervent belief in the power of choice. Pointing out that individual choice has become the lynchpin of a neoconservative corporate ideology he calls MarketThink, he urges us to re-examine our assumptions . Slee makes use of game theory to argue that individual choice is not inherently bad. Nor is it the societal fix-all that our corporations and governments claim it is. A spirited treatise, this book will make you think about choice in a whole new way.
Customer Reviews:
An orthodox economic rebuttal to the naive idea of consumer choice.......2007-10-02
The title of this book is actually ironic: Slee's claim is that the choices of other consumers often force you to do things you don't want to do. A "choice" shouldn't be viewed as an atomic economic act; real choices are entangled with what everyone else chooses to do. You choose to buy Us Weekly at the grocery store, and so do a million of your compatriots, and pretty soon that's all that's available for *me* in the checkout aisle. No one "chose" for that to happen, but that's how it worked out. Choices are constrained by other choices.
Slee wraps this all up beautifully: you should think of "best response" rather than "preference": what you choose to do is not a direct expression of what you prefer, as naïve choice theory would have it; rather, what you choose is the best response to everyone else's choices -- and theirs are best responses to yours.
The classic example of a best response that leads to a disappointing outcome is the prisoner's dilemma: each prisoner, when deciding how to act, realizes that no matter what the other prisoner does, it would be in his best interest to rat his partner out. If my partner rats me out, then I'm better off ratting him out than staying quiet. Likewise, if my partner stays quiet, I'm better off ratting him out. So no matter what my partner does, I should pick the outcome that makes life worse for both of us.
Slee's book is the best use of economics in a mass-audience context that I've yet seen. And it's entirely rigorous. The argument is perfectly simple and correct. It should be valuable to anyone who believes that the free market will apply a balm to all woes.
This Book is a Keeper.......2007-08-03
I read a copy of this book from the public library, but now I'm buying a copy to keep, which lets you know how much I enjoyed it. It makes an excellent companion to a book like Dixit and Nabebuff's Thinking Strategically: The Competitive Edge in Business, Politics, and Everyday Life. Both of them are friendly introductions to game theory, but Slee's book is uniquely valuable for two reasons.
First, Dixit and Nalebuff want to teach you about game theory itself, and so are concerned that you learn the right terminology, know how to step backwards through a game tree, get a little sense of the historical development of the theory, and various other things that are mostly important if you want to pass a test on game theory at some point, or intend to read more advanced books later. Slee, on the other hand, wants to attack a political position and uses game theory to do it. Because he wants to use the theory rather than provide a formal introduction, his presentation eliminates jargon, technicalities, and anything else he can throw overboard to lighten the ship. The end result, for me, is a clear, unobstructed view of the raw power of the fundamental ideas of game theory as Slee puts them to work.
Secondly, Slee shows game theory in a different context than usual. Most presentations of game theory, like Dixit and Nalebuff's, primarily use examples that concern rivals and competitors. Even when discussing co-operation, the emphasis is often on the possibility of betrayal and defection. Slee goes in the other direction. Because he wants to talk about how consumer choices in the marketplace impact communities, his examples tend towards situations where people are not consciously competing with each other or even thinking about each other. This change in emphasis highlights a different side of game theory, its exploration of interdependence rather than its exploration of competition. I found that to be refreshing and useful as well.
I don't mean to criticize the Dixit-Nalebuff book; it's very good. But Slee's unusual approach makes his book a welcome and valuable addition, no matter what your politics are.
It should have been called "Introduction to market failure".......2007-07-16
First of all, I'm a libertarian, which makes me the type of person most likely to disagree with Mr. Slee.
I'll start with what this book is not. This book is not a critique of capitalism in general or of the market system. This book is a polemic on what Mr. Slee calls MarketThink, the belief that markets free from government intervention will *always* achieve the public good; as Slee puts it "The subtext for this book is a call for the reinstatement of collective action into politics." This book also serves as a relatively good introduction to the many ways that markets can fail.
On to the content. I really don't know where Slee sees all this MarketThink. Certainly many libertarians are guilty of MarketThink, but I don't know of *any* politician who advocates anything close to free-markets and very few who actively advocate freer markets. Even many educated libertarians say that the government has some role in regulating and correcting markets.
This book covers a wide range of market failures, regular externalities, herd choices, asymmetric information and a few others. Slee also does a good job explaining most of them. He is clear, especially if you have a science background, and he usually uses very good examples, though, once or twice I thought the examples he used were misleading as to the real world applicability of his discussion topic.
A few of the topics discussed in the book are not market failures at all. For example, Slee tries to describe lack of self control (having a large discount rate) as a market failure, which is not even slightly correct. I also though chapter six, "Divide and Conquer," on corporations, was not well thought out because it was not consistent with some of the ideas Slee had discussed earlier in the book.
Slee makes very few policy recommendations, and with good reason, for many of the market failures Slee discusses are essentially impossible for the government to fix without doing things like banning all fancy cars, and some have no readily conceivable government solution. Also, Slee's language gives me the feeling that he does not have a good understanding or awareness of Public Choice economics, which dissects all the ways in which *government* can fail.
On the whole, Slee writes well, his prose is easy to understand and he is quite engaging. He also has a good sense of humor; I laughed out loud several times reading this book.
I would never recommend this book to anyone who has not had at least introductory micro-economics, first, just to be able to understand what Slee is discussing and second, to avoid getting the impression that markets are completely hopeless without government intervention. If you've had at least basic micro-economics, and especially if you have a heavy free-market slant, then I would recommend this book as a fun introduction to market failure, but as with most things, remaining a little skeptical is a good idea.
The more interesting side of economics.......2007-05-20
There is a theory (quite an elegant one, actually) that says that because we live in a marketplace of free choices we end up getting basically what we want -- our dollars are like votes for the society we wish to live in. Many have challenged this view, from a variety of perspectives, but Tom Slee (who calls this notion MarketThink) has chosen to focus on just one: the economic subfield of "game theory".
Slee walks through the major discoveries of game theory, explains them in simple language with reference to a fictional town of Whimsley, and discusses how they refute standard economic conclusions while still playing by basic economic assumptions with effects that appear to show up in the real world.
The book is full of dozens of examples, each with careful analysis and clear writing. Perhaps the most odd feature of the book is its politics. On the one hand, Slee is plainly a committed leftist, with positive references to Naomi Klein and other capitalist critics. But on the other hand, he never gives up on the rational actor and methodological individualist assumptions of modern economics, and shows little patience for those (typically his political allies) who have more thorough-going critiques. Nonetheless, the book is a recommended read for anyone interested in these questions.
Product Description
Describes the independent Native American nations that lived in the Bay Area, their reaction to Spanish influence, and their choices when confronted with the mission system. Studies the circumstances under which tribal members joined missions, and recounts their subsequent experiences. Appendices offer an encyclopedia of tribal groups, information on mission populations and baptisms, and translations of 24 documents written by Spanish military and church officials.
Customer Reviews:
Good book on a troubling question.......2003-12-11
The author Randall Milliken has done some excellent research to provide some answers to the question "Why did the San Francisco Bay Indians abandon their villages and join the missions?" Using the mission records along with historical diaries and reports, he documents the patterns of inter-marriage, languages, and histories of the tribes.
Thorough, interesting, and enjoyable.......2000-08-02
For anyone interested in Bay Area Indian history, this book is a must-read. It's the only book I've found on the subject that looks comprehensively at the various tribelets in the Bay Area at the time of contact through the middle of the Mission period - very satisfying in its completeness. The one drawback is that the author's argument is not used to analyze a lot of the evidence. Most of the book is simply presented as facts, with only a few passages of analysis at the end of the chapters that tell you what the author makes of all the evidence. Otherwise it is a great read. I wish there more books like this one!
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The Last Choice: Preemptive Suicide in Advanced Age, Second Edition (Contributions in Philosophy , No 63)
C. G. Prado
Manufacturer: Praeger Paperback
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The Last Choice establishes that preemptive suicide in advanced age can be rational: that it can make good sense to evade age-related personal diminishment even at the cost of good time left. Criteria are provided to help determine whether soundly reasoned, cogently motivated and prudently timed self-destruction can be in one's interests late in life. In our time suicide and assisted suicide are being increasingly tolerated as ways to escape unendurable mental or physical suffering, but it isn't widely accepted that suicide may be a rational choice before the onset of such suffering. This book's basic claim is that it can be rational to choose to die sooner as oneself than to survive as a lessened other: that judicious appropriation of one's own inevitable death can be an identity-affirming act and a fitting end to life. Discussion of preemptive suicide goes beyond contributing to current widespread debate about assisted suicide. It is a matter tightly interrelated with other "right to die" questions and one bound to become a national issue. If there are good arguments for escaping intolerable situations caused by age-related deteriorative conditions, most of those arguments will equally support avoidance of those conditions. If assisted suicide becomes more generally acknowledged and accepted, preemptive suicide will almost certainly follow. It is crucial, then, to examine whether preemptive suicide constitutes a rational option for reflective aging individuals.
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