Consumed

I usually take sunday's off but I started reading an article by this author in the American Conservative and I think I will buy the book.

Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole byBenjamin R. Barber

As a conservative with libertarian tendencies, its almost blasphemy to criticize capitalism, a but capitalism is just a force and if it attaches itself to vice as it is doing now - dumbing down adults and stealing childhood innocence (as anecdotes - the author points to police officers passing out lolipops to adults at airports to placate nerves, and a clothing company marketing thongs for 7 year olds).

here is an outtake from a recent op-ed by Barber:

Overselling Capitalism

Why today's markets are headed for disaster unless there is a shift in focus.

Los Angeles Times

April 4, 2007

THE CRISIS IN subprime mortgages betrays a deeper predicament facing consumer capitalism triumphant: The "Protestant ethos" of hard work and deferred gratification has been replaced by an infantilist ethos of easy credit and impulsive consumption that puts democracy and the market system at risk.

Capitalism's core virtue is that it marries altruism and self-interest. In producing goods and services that answer real consumer needs, it secures a profit for producers. Doing good for others turns out to entail doing well for yourself.

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There is a growing consensus against rampant, unchecked, ammoral globalization - and it comes from both the left and the right. But needless to say, a civilization where adults act like immature children and children never experience being children won't last much longer