Author(s): Bob Ellis

Business & Economics

With our economy based upon money as illusory as God's love, Bob Ellis calls time on free market fundamentalism. We put our faith in a system that awards do-nothing CEOs with millions as their companies collapse and provoke a global crisis. We judge corporate success on the number of sackings, fund the privatisation of essential services with public money and favour cheap goods discounted by the loss of our jobs. We sign up for wars in which capitalism makes a killing. Continuing from his classic dissection of economic rationalism, First Abolish the Customer, Ellis presents 345 arguments challenging the free market orthodoxy with ferocious intelligence and wit. His free-flowing meditation on the gross inequalities in our society contends that we are irresponsibly fixated on the sale of goods, instead of on delivering jobs that put money into people's hands. Skewering the legacies of Thatcherism, he proposes some radically simple remedies, including restoring tariffs, investing in country towns and restricting corporate salaries. The Capitalism Delusion is vintage Ellis: exasperated, impolite and inspiring.